Is there a way to update the user input UI in action handler???

[wisonye]

I was trying to update the user input when user press <Tab> (auto set the user input to the current selected item, then user can modify on top of it and insert the modified user input to the list content).

I thought the opts.last_query = "xxx" should do the job, but it doesn't work as expected, any idea or that's totally impossible?:)

I tried the solution from here: https://github.com/ibhagwan/fzf-lua/wiki/Advanced#action-resume , but it doesn't work:(

require('fzf-lua').fzf_exec(CMD_LIST, {
    prompt = " Project commands ('ctrl+d' to delete item) ",
    winopts = {
        width = 0.50,
        height = 0.40,
    },
    actions = {
        --
        -- `tab` to use selected item as user intput
        --
        ["tab"] = {
            fn = function(selected, opts)
                print(string.format(
                    ">>> user input: %s, type: %s",
                    vim.inspect(opts.last_query),
                    type(opts.last_query)
                ))

                if #selected == 0 then return end

                opts.last_query = selected[1]

                -- Confirmed it has been updated!!!
                print(string.format(
                    ">>> user input: %s, type: %s",
                    vim.inspect(opts.last_query),
                    type(opts.last_query)
                ))
            end,
            reload = true

            -- But the user input UI doesn't get updated

        },

        -- ["tab"] = {
        --     function(selected, opts)
        --         print(string.format(
        --             ">>> user input: %s, type: %s",
        --             vim.inspect(opts.last_query),
        --             type(opts.last_query)
        --         ))
        --
        --         if #selected == 0 then return end
        --
        --         opts.last_query = selected[1]
        --
        --         -- Confirmed it has been updated!!!
        --         print(string.format(
        --             ">>> user input: %s, type: %s",
        --             vim.inspect(opts.last_query),
        --             type(opts.last_query)
        --         ))
        --     end,
        --     require'fzf-lua'.actions.resume
        --
        --     -- But the user input UI doesn't get updated
        -- }
    },
})

[ibhagwan]

The answer is simple but requires a bit of know how of fzf and fzf-lua, the last arg of stringify_data is the fzf field index expression, {q} for query, etc, man fzf to understand more how this works and what is an fzf transform action, fzf-lua’s stringify_data makes the whole thing accessible via lua:

If you also need the query change the last arg from {} to {q} and the query will be found in args[2], if you need all selected items (multi) use {+}, see man fzf for more options.

require 'fzf-lua'.fzf_exec("ls", {
  keymap = {
    fzf = {
      tab = "transform:" .. FzfLua.shell.stringify_data(function(args)
        local q = args[1]
        return string.format("change-query(%s)", q)
      end, {}, "{}")
    }
  }
})

[wisonye]

Ok, I've arleady read the man fzf help and I know how transform action works:

* {q} is replaced to the current query string


AVAILABLE ACTIONS:

transform-query(...)         (transform query string using an external command)

That means this command fzf --bind 'tab:transform-query(echo {})' allows me to change the query string (user input) to the current item by pressing the tab key, and it works as expected.

But I don't understand how your code works (even it works), could you show me a little bit more explanation if possible?:)

[ibhagwan]

That means this command fzf --bind 'tab:transform-query(echo {})' allows me to change the query string (user input) to the current item by pressing the tab key, and it works as expected.

While I could’ve offered to you this rather simple solution I preferred to show you what’s possible in case you’d decide on a more complex transformation which required lua code.

But I don't understand how your code works (even it works), could you show me a little bit more explanation if possible?:)

Your understanding is accurate, the code is simpler than you think, add debug=true and you’ll see the fzf command line arguments generated by fzf-lua, stringify_data returns a shell command with the field indexes as arguments which runs a separate neovim process with -l to run lua files as a script, this in turn connects to the main neovim instance via names pipe and runs the lua code, the return value from the function is then returned to fzf via the pipe/stdout.

At the end of it, it’s a fancy shell transform which runs lua code.

For example, see the command output of debug=true from the code I pasted above, I highlighted the shell command returned from stringify_data: