How to control the behavior of the Tab key in the editor
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I am developing a plugin, and within the plugin, I need to implement a special code completion interaction effect (similar to the part outlined in the red box in the image). Now, I need to control the behavior of the Tab key. When I retrieve the code that needs to be completed, pressing the Tab key should trigger code completion by my plugin. This means I need to conditionally override the default Tab completion logic.
I have tried various approaches, but none of them have achieved the desired effect. Do you have any suggested methods? Thank you.
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Hi,
Thank you for your answer! Karol Lewandowski.
My functional requirement is that when users are editing code in the editor, even if the editor already suggests code, pressing the Tab key should still prioritize my code completion when it matches the code I want to autocomplete. However, if the user selects a different suggestion from the default code completion list in the editor (other than the first suggestion) and then presses the Tab key, the editor's suggested completion code should take precedence.
I've tried several methods that I thought were most likely to work:
1. TypedAction.getInstance().setupRawHandler() can listen to key presses but cannot capture special keys such as the Tab key.
2. EditorActionManager.getInstance().setActionHandler("EditorTab") can capture Tab key presses, but it does not trigger if the editor has autocompletion suggestions.
3. Extending `CompletionContributor` to implement completion logic, but I found that it does not align well with my requirements.
4. editor.getContentComponent().addKeyListener() also fails to capture Tab key press events.
I suspect that certain special keys, such as Tab, Enter, and arrow keys, are being intercepted by the editor and not propagated, making them difficult to capture.
Do you have any suggestions, or is my approach incorrect? I look forward to your response.
Hi,
I suggest taking a look at the inline completion implementation in the platform:
https://github.com/JetBrains/intellij-community/tree/master/platform/platform-impl/src/com/intellij/codeInsight/inline/completion
Especially at https://github.com/JetBrains/intellij-community/blob/master/platform/platform-impl/src/com/intellij/codeInsight/inline/completion/InlineCompletionActionsPromoter.kt that promotes the InsertInlineCompletionAction, which is registered under Tab shortcut. This sounds like a similar case to yours.
Maybe you can even implement
com.intellij.codeInsight.inline.completion.InlineCompletionProvider(please note it is an experimental API).