Elastic Ruby Server

A Ruby language server with persistent storage backed by Elasticsearch. The goal of this language server is to provide reasonably accurate static analysis while staying performant for large projects.  

Features
Definitions	Jump to definitions for methods, variables, etc.
Definition Search	Search definitions in all files
Diagnostics	Indicates issues generated with Rubocop
Formatting	Supports formatting only modified lines
Highlights	Highlight all occurrences in a document
References	Show where a method/variable/symbol is being used
Rename	Update all references to a method/variable/symbol

 

Definitions

Peek or go to the definition of a method/variable/symbol

• Command: Go to Definition
• Keybinds:
  • f12
  • cmd + click

 

• Supported framework definitions:
  • Rails:
    • belongs_to
    • has_one
    • has_many
    • has_and_belongs_to_many
  • RSpec:
    • let!
    • let

 

Definition Search

Quickly navigate to definitions anywhere in a project.

• Command: Go to Symbol in Workspace...
• Keybind: cmd + t

 

Diagnostics

Enable and configure Rubocop to highlight issues by adding .rubocop.yml to the root of a project.

 

Formatting

Formats modified lines using a light Rubocop configuration. Duplicate changes are ignored so formatting will not be applied when undoing the automatic formatting then re-saving.

• Trigger: on save
• Command: Format Selection
• Keybind: cmd+k cmd+f

 

Highlights

See all occurrences of a method/variable/symbol in the current editor.

 

References

See all the locations where a method/variable/symbol is being used. Only locations in the the file being edited are shown currently.

• Command: Go to References
• Keybind: shift + f12

 

Rename

Change the name of a method/variable/symbol.

• Command: Rename Symbol
• Keybind: f2

 

Installation

1. Install the Elastic Ruby Language Server extension and Docker if needed.

2. Configure elasticRubyServer.projectPaths. Important: A project must be a sub-directory of one of these paths to be readable by the langue server.

• Configure in VSCode's JSON settings (cmd + shift + p and search for Preferences: Open Settings (JSON)).
• Don't use your home directory as a project path or docker will use a large amount of CPU %.

"elasticRubyServer.projectPaths": [
	"/Users/<name>/projects",
	"/Users/<name>/a_folder/more_projects"
]

3. Install dependencies needed for the extension to interact with docker:

> cd ~/.vscode/extensions/blinknlights.elastic-ruby-client-0.5.1/
> npm install

5. Reload VSCode

6. Navigate to any .rb file to activate the extension. The extension will automatically download the language server's docker image and start indexing a workspace. Indexing may take a few minutes for large projects.

 

Configuration

• elasticRubyServer.port. The default is 8341.

 

Custom Commands

Run commands with cmd + shift + p.

• Reindex Workspace deletes all current data for the project and starts reindexing all files.
• Stop Server to shutdown the Docker container.

 

How does it work?

The server runs inside a docker container and has its own instance of Elasticsearch. Clients connect through TCP allowing multiple clients to connect to a single instance of the server.

Ruby files are converted to an AST with Parser which is serialized by the language server and indexed into Elasticsearch. Data is persisted in a named Docker volume.

Definitions are searched by storing a scope which is built for a given location using rules mimicking Ruby's variable scope. When searching with Go To the correct definitions are chosen largely based on this scope. Multiple definitions will be shown if more than one match the search criteria.

 

Troubleshooting

• Check that the container is running. The image name is blinknlights/elastic_ruby_server which is ran with the name elastic-ruby-server. You could check with docker ps or in the Docker app:

  

 

todo:

Got this after doing the npm install for your extension: found 2 moderate severity vulnerabilities run npm audit fix to fix them, or npm audit for details

 

License

MIT