Getting started building new addon

[Wolf-64]

Hi there, I'm rather new to Lua and it's ecosystem, so please bear with me.

I've read through the wiki about addons but I didn't seem to get it all set up quite right.
I've installed the Lua extension through VS Code and cloned the addon template. Without getting started on working, I wanted to try if and how it actually works, but I don't really find much information about it. The only thing that seemed relevant is the "Manually enabling" section, saying "If the addon contains a library/ directory, you will want to paste the full path to that directory in your workspace.library setting". So I've done just that.

Now, how is it supposed to work? I expect VS being able to find the template' http.lua file with it's definitions and give me auto-complete suggestions, but it doesn't. I've also tried copy-pasting the template to the addons folder of the Addon Manager, applying the folder structure seen there (info.json + module/library), but trying to enable it in the manager throws an error, since it's not up in the repository yet.
So what am I missing here? What's the general workflow of developing and testing new addons?

[carsakiller]

Hello 👋

Could you share your configuration file?

If you are just looking to use definition files, you can just specify the path to them using workspace.library. Addons are typically used for one or more of the below added functionality:

• Can be automatically installed and enabled by the addon manager (when published to LLS-Addons)
• Can be prompted to be enabled if the path to them is specified using workspace.userThirdParty and when the config.json is configured correctly
• Can include a plugin

[Wolf-64]

I do plan to release these definitions as addon for the addon manager in the future.
Which configuration file are you interested in?
VS Code settings:

{
"workbench.colorTheme": "Default Dark Modern",
"godot.csharp.executablePath": "/home/wolf/Engines/Godot4.0.2/godot",
"telemetry.telemetryLevel": "off",
"Lua.diagnostics.enable": false,
"Lua.workspace.library": [
"/home/wolf/Projects/Lua/UnboundAPI/library/"
]
}

Addon config:

{
"$schema": "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/LuaLS/LLS-Addons/main/schemas/addon_config.schema.json",
"name": "Unbound API addon",
"words": ["unbound", "%s+unbound%-addon"],
"files": ["PlayScript.lua"],
"settings": {
"Lua.workspace.preloadFileSize": 5000,
"Lua.workspace.ignoreDir": ["ignore-me"],
"Lua.workspace.library": "/home/wolf/Projects/Lua/UnboundAPI/library/",
"Lua.diagnostics.groupSeverity": {
"await": "Error"
}
}
}

[carsakiller]

Your settings look correct, so long as your definition files are at /home/wolf/Projects/Lua/UnboundAPI/library. Can you share your addon? Preferably a link to a repo.

There isn't anything immediately obvious here, it should pretty much be as simple as creating a Lua file and adding the path to it (or the parent directory) to workspace.library.

[Wolf-64]

Then maybe I didn’t understand the template correctly. Anyway, I haven’t built anything yet, it’s literally just the addon template with it’s http.lua in the library folder.

Or maybe I don’t yet understand how these definitions are supposed to work. I try typing “http.” in a different project and expect the functions defined there to be suggested while typing.

[carsakiller]

Ah, the http example is using Lua modules, so it creates http as a local table, inserts the functions into it, and returns http. In other words, the given example is not global and must be required:

local http = require("http")

http.get("https://github.com")

[Wolf-64]

Ah, I see. I think I'll need to learn a little more about Lua first, but at least with this I've seen some results already and know how to go on from here, thanks a lot for your help!

[carsakiller]

No problem, good luck!