Allow embedding the editor inside a WebView

[janekb04]

The Custom webview editor API #77131 issue lists “Embedding of VS Code's text editor in webviews” as a “Non-Goal”. This feature request asks for precisely that.

I know that we already have the Notebooks API, but it isn’t really general enough. For example, if I wanted to make a slide deck instead of a notebook, then I couldn’t do so using the existing API (as far as I can tell).

I believe that this would be a practical use case. There are already examples of good interactive web-based presentation software (like reveal.js). I can currently embed such a presentation inside a web view using an extension. It would be great if I could also embed an editor inside that presentation. This would be a step forward from displaying read-only color highlighted code or a plain Monaco editor as it would allow to take advantage of the power of the entire VS Code editor.

[janekb04]

To further support this feature request, there are already at least three questions about this on StackOverflow:

1. https://stackoverflow.com/questions/59192758/can-i-include-the-default-editor-inside-a-webview-in-vscode
2. https://stackoverflow.com/questions/62754418/custom-vscode-extension-embed-native-editor-in-webview
3. https://stackoverflow.com/questions/66748836/using-vscode-text-editor-within-webview

[vscodenpa]

We closed this issue because we don't plan to address it in the foreseeable future. If you disagree and feel that this issue is crucial: we are happy to listen and to reconsider.

If you wonder what we are up to, please see our roadmap and issue reporting guidelines.

Thanks for your understanding, and happy coding!

[janekb04]

@mjbvz Hi, you marked this issue as out-of-scope. That’s fine, as I understand that there are a lot of requests like this one, but I wanted to know, why was it closed? As per the mentioned Issue Grooming wiki page (emphasis mine):

Here are the criteria we use to make the decision about closing a feature request:

1. Does the functionality described in the feature request have any reasonable chance to be implemented in the next 24 months? 24 months is longer than our roadmap which outlines the next 6-12 months. Thus, there is some crystal ball reading on our part, and we'll most likely keep more feature requests open than what we can accomplish in 24 months.
2. Has the community at large expressed interest in this functionality? I.e. has it gathered more than 10 up-votes or more than 10 comments? This criterion alone covers more than 650 of the 2850 open feature requests as of right now, October 9th, 2019.
3. Do we think the feature request is bold and forward looking and would we like to see it be tackled at some point even if it's further out than 24 months? (Clearly, this one is the most subjective criterion.)

If the answer to any of the three questions is yes then we ask about affordability:

4. Can our team afford to implement the feature? I.e. are the costs to implement the functionality reasonable compared to the size of our team?

In summary, a feature needs to pass one of 1-3 and 4. Otherwise, we'll close it as out of scope. We'll unsubscribe from these issues to reduce the overall number of issue notifications we receive every day.

Regarding this criteria:

1. I am not a VS Code developer and I don’t know how complex it would be to implement this feature, but given that the Notebooks API already exists, it doesn’t seem to require more than two years of work. Correct me if I’m wrong.
2. I believe the community has expressed interest in this functionality. There are no upvotes or comments on this issue, as it has only just been opened, but if you count the upvotes on the relevant SO posts, there are 15 upvotes.
3. I cannot relate to this, as this is the development team’s subjective choice.
4. Like in 3.

As such, I would like to ask, which of these criteria, does this feature request fail?

I am asking because knowing that, would perhaps allow me to improve this request enough for it to be reopened.

Thanks.

[devilsnare007]

Adding my 2cents to support this endeavor

[arturbiko]

For anyone stumbling upon this issue, the extension supports using webviews as part of the custom editor API

• https://github.com/microsoft/vscode-extension-samples/tree/main/custom-editor-sample
• https://code.visualstudio.com/api/extension-guides/custom-editors

[acorduan]

Supporting this too