Remember Inputs

This extension is a based on very useful Memento Inputs extension by Joel Spadin. But the project seems to be dead, its author does not response to my pull requests for years so that I decided to create this project. It extends Memento Inputs commands by recallString. See below. All commands are prefixed by remember instead of the original memento but the usage is the same.

The extension lets you create task input variables which act like pickString and promptString but remember the value you previously entered and default to it the next time they are used. In addition the remembered string can be used as input without prompt or picking using recallString.

Usage

In your tasks.json, create an input variable with type command and set the command and args as follows:

promptString:

• command: remember.promptString
• args:
  • id: Name to use for storing the last-used value.
  • description: Shown in the quick input to provide context for the input.
  • default: Default value that will be used if no last-used value has been set.
  • placeholder: Optional text to display if the input box is empty.

pickString:

• command: remember.pickString
• args:
  • id: Name to use for storing the last-used value.
  • description: Shown in the quick input to provide context for the input.
  • options: An array of options for the user to pick from.
  • default: Default value that will be used if no last-used value has been set.

recallString:

• command: remember.recallString
• args:
  • id: Id of input to remember.
  • default: Default value that will be used if no last-used value has been set.

Below is an example of a tasks.json that defines tasks to build an application and deploy it to some other device.

When starting a build, it will prompt for the build mode. Where the regular pickString would always default to production, this will default to whichever mode you last picked.

The Deploy task depends on MySSHTask. Both requires the IP address of the target device. To supress the input prompt to be shown twice the MySSHTask reads input:address that uses remember.promptString while Deploy reads input:storedAddress that uses remember.recallString which takes the string from input:adress entered by user in MySSHTask. The benefit is that user will be prompted only once to enter the IP address.

{
    "version": "2.0.0",
    "tasks": [
        {
            "label": "Build",
            "group": { "kind": "build", "isDefault": true },
            "type": "shell",
            "command": "npm",
            "args": ["run", "build", "--mode", "${input:buildMode}"]
        },
        {
            "label": "Deploy",
            "type": "shell",
            "command": "npm",
            "args": ["run", "deploy", "--address", "${input:storedAddress}"],
			"depependsOn" : ["MySSHTask"]
        },
		{
			"label": "MySSHTask",
			"type": "shell",
			"command": "ssh",
			"args": [
				"root@${input:address}",
				"<ie. some shell commands before Deploy is executed...>"
			]
		}
    ],
    "inputs": [
        {
            "id": "buildMode",
            "type": "command",
            "command": "remember.pickString",
            "args": {
                "id": "buildMode",
                "description": "Build mode",
                "options": ["production", "dev"],
                "default": "production"
            }
        },
        {
            "id": "address",
            "type": "command",
            "command": "remember.promptString",
            "args": {
                "id": "address",
                "description": "Target IP address",
                "default": "192.168.1.42",
                "placeholder": "IP address"
            }
        },
		{
            "id": "storedAddress",
            "type": "command",
            "command": "remember.recallString",
            "args": {
                "id": "address",
                "default": "192.168.1.42"
            }
        }
    ]
}