pick_win cannot open a file when on the dashboard

[mike-lloyd03]

I just switched over from neo-tree to snacks.explorer. I've got pick_win configured the way I like it I think, but when I first open nvim, I cannot open a file from the explorer while the initial dashboard is visible. Once I open a file using another method, I can use the explorer as expected. Does anyone have a workaround for this?

Folke mentioned a way to override the pick_win function as well. Can someone explain this? I can't find any documentation on the pick_win function.

[dpetka2001]

return {
	{
		"folke/snacks.nvim",
		opts = {
			picker = {
				actions = {
					pick_win = function(picker)
						if not picker.layout.split then
							picker.layout:hide()
						end
						local win = Snacks.picker.util.pick_win({
							main = picker.main,
							filter = function()
								return true
							end,
						})
						if not win then
							if not picker.layout.split then
								picker.layout:unhide()
							end
							return true
						end
						picker.main = win
						if not picker.layout.split then
							vim.defer_fn(function()
								if not picker.closed then
									picker.layout:unhide()
								end
							end, 100)
						end
					end,
				},
			},
		},
	},
}

I believe should do it. By default it ignores filetypes that start with snacks, so dashboard that has snacks_dashboard filetype will be ignored. You can look at the relevant part here

snacks.nvim/lua/snacks/picker/util/init.lua

Lines 384 to 386 in bc0630e

	filter = function(win, buf)
	return not vim.bo[buf].filetype:find("^snacks")
	end,

[drowning-cat]

Nice timings.

[dpetka2001]

hahaha

[drowning-cat]

opts = {
  picker = {
    actions = {
      pick_win = function(picker) --[[Override]]
        -- https://github.com/folke/snacks.nvim/blob/bc0630e43be5699bb94dadc302c0d21615421d93/lua/snacks/picker/actions.lua#L281-L300
        if not picker.layout.split then
          picker.layout:hide()
        end
        local win = Snacks.picker.util.pick_win {
          main = picker.main,
          float = false, -- vim.api.nvim_win_get_config(win).relative == ''
          filter = function(_, buf)
            local ft = vim.bo[buf].ft
            return ft == 'snacks_dashboard' or not ft:find '^snacks'
          end,
        }
        if not win then
          if not picker.layout.split then
            picker.layout:unhide()
          end
          return true
        end
        picker.main = win
        if not picker.layout.split then
          vim.defer_fn(function()
            if not picker.closed then
              picker.layout:unhide()
            end
          end, 100)
        end
      end,

[mike-lloyd03]

Thanks guys. Is this documented somewhere? I really like snacks.nvim but it seems like a lot of functionality is undocumented or I just can't find it.

[dpetka2001]

pick_win is mentioned in picker.md. It's one of the actions that the picker is able to execute.

Unfortunately, it's not well documented. You have to go into the file where the action is defined in picker/actions.lua and from there follow the code from

snacks.nvim/lua/snacks/picker/actions.lua

Line 285 in bc0630e

local win = Snacks.picker.util.pick_win({ main = picker.main })

where the window to be picked is calculated to

snacks.nvim/lua/snacks/picker/util/init.lua

Line 382 in bc0630e

function M.pick_win(opts)

where the function that filters out the windows and creates the layouts for the chars to press on which window you want the file to be opened actually is.

The majority of snacks.nvim documentation is based on Lua types annotations and looking through the code. So, you have to get familiar with these aspects.

There's also a FR for better documentation, but that's up to the maintainer or some other person who understands the majority of the code deeply to create a PR for it. I myself only understand parts of the codebase which I use in my daily workflow (haven't looked into snacks.image for instance because I don't use it yet and other parts as well). I'm mostly familiar with snacks.picker which I use most of the time.

[mike-lloyd03]

Yes, I'm sure Folke is eager to re-write all the documentation because someone yelled at him about it in all caps. 😄

Thank you for the help. I'm mostly struggling with snacks.nvim because it seems like I'm the only one having so much trouble following the docs. But I guess I'm not alone as it looks like others are too.

[mike-lloyd03]

Alright guys, one more request. Coming from neo-tree, hitting enter on a directory in the tree would expand that directory. Hitting enter on a file would present the window picker options.

I'm currently using this:

                    list = {
                        keys = {
                            ["<CR>"] = { { "pick_win", "confirm" } },
                            ...
                        },
                    },

This seems to work sometimes and not others. If I only have one pane open, hitting enter on a directory opens it but if I have more than one pane open, I am presented with the pick_win options. This is obviously because pick_win automatically returns the window ID of the only pane if there's only one open.

Is there a command I can add before pick_win that will open a directory if one is selected? And if a file is selected, it uses {"pick_win", "jump"} or similar?

[mike-lloyd03]

I've got this in my pick_win override. Is this the best approach?

pick_win = function(picker, item, action)
    if item.type == "directory" then
        return
    end

[drowning-cat]

Seems good to me:

pick_win = function(picker, item)
  if item.dir then
    return
  end
  -- ...

You can also create a separate action if you need pick_win to work with directories:

pick_win_file = function(picker, item)
  if item.dir then
  else
    picker:action 'pick_win'
  end
end,