Registering Tutorials

The Didact Tutorials view has been there since the beginning of Didact, offering a way for VS Code extension-creators to register tutorials for easy access. We have since added capabilities for registering tutorials with a menu click or a Didact link!

Registering a Didact Tutorial from a VS Code Extension

If you look at the Didact Tutorials view, you should be able to find the Didact category and beneath that find Creating a New Didact Tutorial Extension. That will step you through creating the new extension and your Didact tutorial file, then registering the new file with the view via extension code.

Note: If the Creating a New Didact Tutorial Extension tutorial has been removed, you can find the tutorial directly at our GitHub repository and follow the steps described in Registering the New Tutorial.

Adding via right-click Didact: Register Didact Tutorial menu in Explorer

With version 0.4.0, we have added a new menu option when right-clicking on a Didact file in the Explorer view.

The Didact: Register Didact Tutorial menu prompts you to enter the Tutorial Name and Tutorial Category values for your tutorial. When completed, the Didact Tutorials view refreshes and you should see your new tutorial appear in the list.

Adding a Didact link to register a tutorial

We can even register a tutorial directly via a link if we have access to the URI of the file.

For example, if you click here to create a new, simple Didact file called test.didact.md…

You can register it with the Didact Tutorials view with this link.

Setting to turn off adding default tutorials to Didact Tutorials view

To change the default Didact behavior that automatically adds the default tutorials, access the settings (File->Preferences->Settings), type Didact and uncheck the Didact: Auto Add Default Tutorials setting. This defaults to checked, automatically looking to see if the default tutorials exist on startup. If you remove them and don’t want them to be re-added on startup, make sure this setting is unchecked.

Removing tutorials via right-click Remove Didact Tutorial menu in Didact Tutorials view

In the Didact Tutorials view, right-click on a tutorial and select Remove Didact Tutorial to delete it. You can remove any of the registered tutorials.

Note that if the Auto Add Default Tutorials setting is checked, any default tutorials removed will be re-added to the tutorials list on startup.

Clearing the Didact Tutorial Registry and Rebuilding the Default Entries

In addition, you have the ability to clear the entire Didact Tutorial registry. This is a dangerous operation, as it will remove any tutorials you may have registered in your workspace. This capability is provided as a command in the command palette.

Note: THIS IS A NON-RECOVERABLE ACTION!

Use Ctrl+Shift+P (or F1 on some platforms), to bring up the Command Palette. Type Didact to bring up a list of Didact-related commands and find Didact: Clear Tutorial Registry.