I code vscode extension and I use webview for presenting text. The text is stored in json file - this is huge file, and there is a lot of text. Some words from that text need present popup window when mouse hover them on the webview. The words and popup information are stored in json. For example:
{
wordA:{
popupText: "text"
//... and other properties
},
wordA:{
popupText: "another text"
//... and other properties
}
// .... and many many other data
}
I want to pass this json data from the webview to external js to be able to manage it. Due to security policy I cant just load json from javascript file - and I don't want to break the security policy.
HTML code for proper presenting the data is generated by other functions.
Files conneted to the problem:
- ActivationFile - which push activation method and pass reference of webview.ts to vscode.
- webview.ts file - which have all functionalities which are needed to proper display the content and text information which i want to present
- myScript.js file - loaded to the webview.ts
I want pass data from webview.ts to myScript.js
///WebView.ts file
private _getHtmlForWebview(webview: vscode.Webview) {
const scriptPathOnDisk = vscode.Uri.joinPath(this._extensionUri, 'myScript.js');
const scriptUri = (scriptPathOnDisk).with({ 'scheme': 'vscode-resource' });
const jsonPath = fs.readFileSync(path.join(__dirname, 'jsonFile.json'), 'utf8');
const data = JSON.parse(jsonPath);
return `<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<some html stuff>...
<meta http-equiv="Content-Security-Policy" content="default-src 'none'; style-src ${webview.cspSource}; img-src ${webview.cspSource} https:; script-src 'nonce-${nonce}';">
</head>
<body>
<some html stuff which is generated automatically by other functions of the program>
<for presenting text from json, put them into divs, spans and give them proper ids>
<which will let the javascript manage those divs and spans>...
<script nonce="${nonce}" src="${scriptUri}" type="text/javascript"></script>
</body>
</html>`;
}
nonce is generated by function in the webview.ts
I tried by adding script tag before myScript is loaded into html
<script nonce="${nonce}" type="text/javascript">
const jsonData = ${data};
</script>
<script nonce="${nonce}" src="${scriptUri}" type="text/javascript"></script>
but data is not reachable in myScript.
console.log(jsonData.wordA.popupText) show error, that jsonData doesn't exists in the scope
console.log(window.jsonData.wordA.popupText) shows undefined
I saw some solutions for React, Angular, Vue etc. but this is simple webview and I don't need any big framework here and from what i understand they will not work here.
I also saw something like acquireVsCodeApi() but I miss something and I don't have idea how set it in my case.
I resolved my specific situation. The point is about understand what i actually did by separating my files. ActivationFile has registered method for extension and passed reference to the function which is in the webview.ts file. In documentation there is no passing - all is done in one file - so in fact my name for 'webview.ts' is misleading because its still the extension, not the webview.
in my webview.ts file I post message (in the same function where webview is created)
currentPanel.webview.postMessage({command:"dajaJsonCommand", data:dataJson});In myScript.js I wrapped everything in DOMContentLoaded event and then follow documentation and set event listener for message from extension.:
And then json has been passed to the external script and could be reached by the program. End of the story. I hope its clear, if someone will need more details - let me know.