feat: add util function to load dev environment variables from .env

- Added `addDevEnvVariables` util function to allow the extension to load the local `.env` file from the project root if it exists, using Node's `loadEnvFile` API, and load the environment variables into `process.env`. The `.env` file will only exist on the development machine and is crucial to properly test the extension in vscode's extension testing environment.

This fixes the ability to mistakenly commit the dev testing path to git. As seen in commit be9d972 and removed in commit 9ff0857 of PR #20. With the .env file, this will never happen again.

- Added the `addDevEnvVariables` function call to the top of the `extension.ts` file so it is the first thing it does and the env variables will be available in all files in development.

- Added the usage of the `DEV_USER_EXTENSIONS_PATH` env variable to `ExtensionData::setExtensionDiscoveryPaths` method. So that when its available to use, it will override the `userExtensionsPath` variable with the path set in the env variable.

Author: yCodeTech

src/extension.ts

@@ -5,6 +5,9 @@ import * as vscode from "vscode";
 import {Configuration} from "./configuration";
 import {logger} from "./logger";
 import {ExtensionData} from "./extensionData";
+import {addDevEnvVariables} from "./utils";
+
+addDevEnvVariables();
 
 const extensionData = new ExtensionData();
 logger.setupOutputChannel();

src/extensionData.ts

@@ -94,11 +94,20 @@ export class ExtensionData {
 	 * Set the extension discovery paths into the extensionDiscoveryPaths Map.
 	 */
 	private setExtensionDiscoveryPaths() {
+		// Get the DEV_USER_EXTENSIONS_PATH env variable if it exists.
+		const devUserExtensionsPath = process.env.DEV_USER_EXTENSIONS_PATH;
+
 		// The path to the user extensions.
 		//
 		// On Windows/Linux/Mac: ~/.vscode[-server|remote]/extensions
 		// On WSL: ~/.vscode-[server|remote]/extensions
-		const userExtensionsPath = isWsl ? path.join(vscode.env.appRoot, "../../", "extensions") : path.join(this.extensionPath, "../");
+		//
+		// Because the extensionPath is created from __dirname and retrieves where this extension
+		// is located, in extension testing/development mode, this path will point to the local
+		// development path, not the actual user extensions path. So we use the custom
+		// DEV_USER_EXTENSIONS_PATH env variable to override it.
+		const userExtensionsPath =
+			devUserExtensionsPath || (isWsl ? path.join(vscode.env.appRoot, "../../", "extensions") : path.join(this.extensionPath, "../"));
 
 		this.extensionDiscoveryPaths.set("userExtensionsPath", userExtensionsPath);
 		// The path to the built-in extensions.

src/utils.ts

@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 import * as fs from "node:fs";
+import * as path from "node:path";
 import * as jsonc from "jsonc-parser";
 import {logger} from "./logger";
 import {window} from "vscode";
@@ -237,3 +238,15 @@ export function mergeArraysBy<T>(primaryArray: T[], secondaryArray: T[], key: ke
 
 	return merged;
 }
+
+/**
+ * Add development environment variables from a local .env file located in the project root.
+ */
+export function addDevEnvVariables() {
+	// Try to load the local .env file from the project root.
+	try {
+		process.loadEnvFile(path.join(__dirname, "../../.env"));
+	} catch (error) {
+		// Ignore errors if the .env file doesn't exist
+	}
+}