Directly edit file on device

[sam57719]

Currently it appears that all files on the device are opened as read-only. It would be good to be able to directly edit files on the device. I often have a config file that has specific things that need changing, but don't want to store this file in GIT, and rather store the template.

This plugin is awesome though!

[lukaskremla]

Hello,

You are correct, the plugin currently only opens files as read-only. I have been considering adding the option to edit on-device files, but there are several considerations that have stopped me from moving forward.

The changes you make to the on-device files would have to propagate to the project source code files, otherwise you'd overwrite them the next time you run an upload configuration that either tries to upload a file with the same target path or that has the synchronization feature enabled. At that point it makes little sense to support more than read-only viewing of such files.

Adding an option to edit on-device files would be a very complicated task on it's own given all the possible scenarios and edge-cases that editing a file on a remote device has. But the problems like the one I mentioned above and the way PyCharm is structured in general make it not-viable.

Editing on-device files can work with simpler IDEs like thonny that don't really have the concept of a project like PyCharm does. It can also be a way to avoid re-uploading all of the source code for every little change, but this plugin implements file hashing and synchronization features to solve such problems.

For your use case I'd recommend adding the file you want excluded to .gitignore and then storing it's template somewhere else in your project. It will require a shift in how your git repositories are structured, but it's better in the long run.

[sam57719]

Thank you for the fast and detailed response! That all makes sense 🙂

What about having an option to exclude certain paths/files from the project upload? Or even specifually specifing paths/files to include?

I don't have control over the structure of the codebase I am using, and the root has an assets folder and a README.md (which is not needed) along with the main.py file (which is needed).

[lukaskremla]

This is a very complicated topic and the implementation is not finished.

You currently have three ways a file can be uploaded:

1. Drag and Drop
2. Run configuration
3. Right-click context menu action

Drag and Drop

Drag and drop is self explanatory, what you drag gets uploaded to where you drag it.

Run configurations

There are currently three types of upload run configurations.

Project

Right now it requires at least one folder to be marked as a MicroPython Sources Root. Contents of all folders marked as a MicroPython Sources root get uploaded. The on-device target paths are the relative paths of the uploaded file to its top-most parent MicroPython Sources Root.

In previous versions normal Sources Roots were used instead of MicroPython Sources Roots and there was a second acceptable state - No folders marked as Sources Roots.

In such case all contents of the project root itself would get uploaded while skipping ignored files (excluded directories, leading dot files, test sources).

If you had at least one Sources Root it would work the way it does now with MicroPython Sources Roots.

I plan on bringing back the option to run the Upload Project run configuration with no MicroPython Sources Roots as many users have very simple projects and requiring a folder marked as a MicroPython Sources Root can be an unnecessary complication.

Selected

This just allows you to select certain MicroPython Sources Roots to upload instead of uploading all of them like the project run configuration does. The use cases for this can be if you set-up some complicated chain of build scripts, for example compiling to bytecode and then you have two MicroPython Sources Roots one containing .py files, the other .mpy files, and you want to be able to alternate between uploading each one.

Custom path

This allows you to specify a single file or folder to be uploaded directly to the root of the device's file system. It allows you to also upload folders marked as a test source (which the other upload run configurations skip, note that this only works for the folder you select, children of the selected folder will still be skipped the way they are in the other upload configuration types).

Future updates will add an option to configure what target path the uploaded item should have.

Context menu

Finally you have the context menu action. This is an extension of the original project upload run configuration. Meaning that the files you select get uploaded with paths relative to either the project root or top most parent MicroPython Sources Root if applicable. If your selection explicitly contains an item that would otherwise get ignored (Test Source Root or leading dot) it will get uploaded.

I'm considering whether this can improved - for example one idea was to add sub-options (Upload to root "/" upload relative to ...). But you can have a selection which contains several items where some of them do have a parent MicroPython Sources Root, but some don't. This means you no longer have one common "relative to" folder to display in the action.

Conclusion

All of this is unfinished and bound to change so there's no official documentation yet. But I'm finding that the current upload algorithm, understandably so, confuses new users. Thus finalizing the upload algorithm and writing some documentation for it is high priority right now.

If you really can't restructure the repository then using the custom path run configuration for the main.py and manually uploading the sensitive data-containing file via drag and drop or the context menu action might be your best bet.

In general, marking a folder as excluded will make all forms of uploads ignore it. For the synchronization option - it allows you to configure excluded target paths.

Sorry for throwing so much text your way. I deemed it the best way to give you all of the important context given there's no documentation. Feel free to raise any questions or suggestions should you have them

[lukaskremla]

Direct editing of on-device files is currently not planned. Uploads are now in their almost final state, the last missing setting is the "Upload to" dialog #39 for the context menu actions. All available upload options are now documented here

[lukaskremla]

Editing of on-device files is planned for version 0.6.0 - #57