TODO.md

TODO

The following feature are not yet implemented. Please contact Mikayla if you are interested in helping out.

Features

• simple project system. go to definition should open target file in the context of the original root.
• toolbar for picking root evaluation context to use for current file
• tool window that shows import hierarchy
• switch between related files command
• snippets
• feature usage and performance metrics in telemetry
• Load actual MSBuild engine and use to to evaluate imports and show evaluated property values

Xml

• XML file formatter, extensible for MSBuild formatter
• Outlining tagger that's better than the one from textmate, extensible for MSBuild
• Document outline tool window
• Breadcrumb bar at top of file, extensible for msbuild expressions
• Editorconfig support for formatting, extensible for MSBuild formatter

Parsing

• improve the background parser scheduling
• keep parsed expressions in the AST instead of reparsing as needed
• switch the XDom to use a red-green tree like Roslyn
• implement some incremental parsing. it should be fairly straightforward to do it for a subset of insertions, especially without < chars
• add an import cache model that allows sharing/reuse of parsed imported files between multiple root documents

Completion

• Improve implicit and explicit triggering for file path segments
• trigger intellisense on |, indexed against | separated comparands
• use RID graph for RID completion
• context based filtering of disallowed/existing attributes and elements
• operators e.g. And/Or/-> and other non-memorable syntax e.g. static property function
• auto insert matching quotes and parens in expressions
• automatically update closing tag when editing opening tag name
• make metadata completion more context-specific
• make completion in conditions more robust
• add parameter completion for item/property/condition functions
• file extension filters on path completion

Validation

• Check for invalid chars in paths
• Warn on assigning wrongly typed expression to property or task arg
• condition comparand validation, including |-separated properties
• validate condition functions e.g. Exists
• RID validation
• NuGet package ID validation
• error when assigning values to reserved properties and metadata
• check type of expressions assigned to properties/metadata/task params
• item and property function names and arguments
• check metadata refs have sufficient context

Type resolution

• Compute type of expression/subexpression when possible
• Some basic coercion e.g. string+path = path
• Add logic to figure out context of unqualified metadata

Analyzers

• DefaultItemExcludes assignment that doesn't include previous value
• Unnecessary package references
• Use property before it's assigned
• remove empty propertygroup/itemgroup
• move conditioned property identical under all conditions to unconditioned propertygroup
• defining a target that's subsequently redefined (e.g. BeforeBuild in sdk style project)
• NuGet PackageReference has unknown ID or version
• Warn when appending trailing slash to path that has one already (or to propert with type that indicates it has trailing slash)
• Warn when assigning path without trailing slash to property of type that indicates it has trailing slash
• Error on properties/items/metadata with disallowed names such as ItemGroup
• Error when assigning value to reserved property/metadata
• NuGet package reference has newer version available
• NuGet package reference has (transitive) security update available
• File referenced in property/item is missing (this may require basePath metadata of some kind)
• Path is not absolute when type metadata indicates it is
• Unconditional reassignment of property assigned in same file

Fixes & refactorings

• convert SDK import into props/targets imports (and reverse)
• create non-existent target
• move property to directory props
• move property/item to new conditioned propertygroup/itemgroup
• group items by type (preserving dependencies)
• sort items/properties in group by identity (preserving dependencies)
• merge adjacent itemgroups/propertygroups
• convert BeforeFoo target override to -> BeforeTargets=Foo
• Upgrade/downgrade NuGet package to latest stable or latest preview
• Extract PackageReference version to Directory.Packages.props
• Remove redundant PackageReference

Schema & type system

• Publish json schema schema
• Classname type with metadata for which msbuild metadata/property points to the assembly
• Metadata for filename type with expected extensions, and filter/validate filenames based on this
• Metadata for filename type with property to use as base directory
• Infer default values from <foo condition="$(foo)==''">default</foo>
• Infer type from assignment from known type and comparison to known type
• Infer bool type from bool literal assigment
• API to dump barebones schema from inferred symbols
• pull task definitions from current roslyn workspace, if any
• arbitrary metadata on properties/items/types that analyzers/fixes can use
• Add a oneOf type system that allows a value to have multiple types (see e.g. file or url for nuget feeds)
• Allow specialized error code types that derive form base error code type
• Define error code types for C#/NuGet/MSBuild schemas
• Allow custom types to define a validation regex
• Property/item functions should support return value docs
• Allow custom type to add values to existing custom type in another schema
• For custom types that don't disallow unknown values, harvest all known values and add to completion
• Support marking properties/items with schemas with categories/keywords for filtering in completion

Tests

Although there are hundred of unit tests covering the lower level details, there are few/no tests in the following areas:

• validation
• schema based completion
• completion for various value types
• function completion & resolution
• schema inference
• schema composition
• targets imported from NuGet packages

Misc

• Completion of inline C#
• parameter info tooltip when completing values
• properly handle MSBuild escaping and XML entities
• better highlighting colors
• add documentation for task parameters
• fix some of the FIXMEs
• Fix MSBuildProjectExtensionsPath eval with nonstandard intermediate dir
• Go to definition on tasks
• Rename command
• Do some perf work, cache inferred schemas?
• Show package version of PackageReference in tooltip when using centralized package maangement
• CLI tool for running analyzers
• UI to trace target dependency graph
• When root file is a project file, limit imports to only those for the project's language
• Debugger based on a custom build logger that blocks MSBuild engine when on breakpoints and stepping