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VS Code Snippets

Being able to quickly create services, controllers, or other Crystal-related items is very useful when using Crystal as a framework. To keep Crystal lightweight, there are no required extensions or plugins. Instead, below are some VS Code snippets that can be used to speed up development.

Snippets

Using Snippets​

Snippets are a Visual Studio Code feature. Check out the Snippets documentation for more info. Adding Snippets for Lua is very easy.

  1. Within Visual Studio, navigate from the toolbar: File -> Preferences -> User Snippets
  2. Type in and select lua.json
  3. Within the {} braces, include any or all of the snippets below
  4. Save the file
  5. Within your actual source files, start typing a prefix (e.g. "Crystal") and select the autocompleted snippet to paste it in
  6. Depending on the snippet, parts of the pasted code will be selected and can be typed over (e.g. setting the name of a service)

Crystal Snippets​

Below are useful VS Code snippets for Crystal. The snippets assume that the Crystal module has been placed within ReplicatedStorage.

Crystal​

Include a require statement for Crystal.

Snippet
"Crystal": {
    "prefix": ["Crystal"],
    "body": ["local Crystal = require(ReplicatedStorage.Packages.Crystal)"],
    "description": "Require the Crystal module"
}
Code Result
local Crystal = require(ReplicatedStorage.Packages.Crystal)

Service​

Reference a Roblox service.

Snippet
"Service": {
    "prefix": ["service"],
    "body": ["local ${0:Name}Service = game:GetService(\"${0:Name}Service\")"],
    "description": "Roblox Service"
}
Code Result
local HttpService = game:GetService("HttpService")

Crystal Service​

Reference Crystal, create a service, and return the service.

Snippet
"Crystal Service": {
    "prefix": ["Crystalservice"],
    "body": [
        "local Crystal = require(ReplicatedStorage.Packages.Crystal)",
        "",
        "local ${0:$TM_FILENAME_BASE} = Crystal.CreateService {",
        "\tName = \"${0:$TM_FILENAME_BASE}\",",
        "\tClient = {},",
        "}",
        "",
        "",
        "function ${0:$TM_FILENAME_BASE}:CrystalStart()",
        "\t",
        "end",
        "",
        "",
        "function ${0:$TM_FILENAME_BASE}:CrystalInit()",
        "\t",
        "end",
        "",
        "",
        "return ${0:$TM_FILENAME_BASE}",
        ""
    ],
    "description": "Crystal Service template"
}
Code Result
local Crystal = require(ReplicatedStorage.Packages.Crystal)

local MyService = Crystal.CreateService {
    Name = "MyService",
    Client = {},
}

function MyService:CrystalStart()
end

function MyService:CrystalInit()
end

return MyService

Crystal Controller​

Reference Crystal, create a controller, and return the controller.

Snippet
"Crystal Controller": {
    "prefix": ["Crystalcontroller"],
    "body": [
        "local Crystal = require(ReplicatedStorage.Packages.Crystal)",
        "",
        "local ${0:$TM_FILENAME_BASE} = Crystal.CreateController { Name = \"${0:$TM_FILENAME_BASE}\" }",
        "",
        "",
        "function ${0:$TM_FILENAME_BASE}:CrystalStart()",
        "\t",
        "end",
        "",
        "",
        "function ${0:$TM_FILENAME_BASE}:CrystalInit()",
        "\t",
        "end",
        "",
        "",
        "return ${0:$TM_FILENAME_BASE}",
        ""
    ],
    "description": "Crystal Controller template"
}
Code Result
local Crystal = require(ReplicatedStorage.Packages.Crystal)

local MyController = Crystal.CreateController {
    Name = "MyController",
}

function MyController:CrystalStart()
end

function MyController:CrystalInit()
end

return MyController

Crystal Require​

Require a module within Crystal.

Snippet
"Crystal Require": {
    "prefix": ["Crystalrequire"],
    "body": ["local ${1:Name} = require(Crystal.${2:Util}.${1:Name})"],
    "description": "Crystal Require template"
}
Code Result
local Signal = require(Crystal.Util.Signal)

Lua Class​

A standard Lua class.

Snippet
"Class": {
    "prefix": ["class"],
    "body": [
        "local ${0:$TM_FILENAME_BASE} = {}",
        "${0:$TM_FILENAME_BASE}.__index = ${0:$TM_FILENAME_BASE}",
        "",
        "",
        "function ${0:$TM_FILENAME_BASE}.new()",
        "\tlocal self = setmetatable({}, ${0:$TM_FILENAME_BASE})",
        "\treturn self",
        "end",
        "",
        "",
        "function ${0:$TM_FILENAME_BASE}:Destroy()",
        "\t",
        "end",
        "",
        "",
        "return ${0:$TM_FILENAME_BASE}",
        ""
    ],
    "description": "Lua Class"
}
Code Result
local MyClass = {}
MyClass.__index = MyClass

function MyClass.new()
    local self = setmetatable({}, MyClass)
    return self
end

function MyClass:Destroy()

end

return MyClass

All​

All the above snippets together.

All Snippets
{

    "Service": {
        "prefix": ["service"],
        "body": ["local ${0:Name}Service = game:GetService(\"${0:Name}Service\")"],
        "description": "Roblox Service"
    },

    "Class": {
        "prefix": ["class"],
        "body": [
            "local ${0:$TM_FILENAME_BASE} = {}",
            "${0:$TM_FILENAME_BASE}.__index = ${0:$TM_FILENAME_BASE}",
            "",
            "",
            "function ${0:$TM_FILENAME_BASE}.new()",
            "\tlocal self = setmetatable({}, ${0:$TM_FILENAME_BASE})",
            "\treturn self",
            "end",
            "",
            "",
            "function ${0:$TM_FILENAME_BASE}:Destroy()",
            "\t",
            "end",
            "",
            "",
            "return ${0:$TM_FILENAME_BASE}",
            ""
        ],
        "description": "Lua Class"
    },

    "Crystal": {
        "prefix": ["Crystal"],
        "body": ["local Crystal = require(ReplicatedStorage.Packages.Crystal)"],
        "description": "Require the Crystal module"
    },

    "Crystal Service": {
        "prefix": ["Crystalservice"],
        "body": [
            "local Crystal = require(ReplicatedStorage.Packages.Crystal)",
            "",
            "local ${0:$TM_FILENAME_BASE} = Crystal.CreateService {",
            "\tName = \"${0:$TM_FILENAME_BASE}\",",
            "\tClient = {},",
            "}",
            "",
            "",
            "function ${0:$TM_FILENAME_BASE}:CrystalStart()",
            "\t",
            "end",
            "",
            "",
            "function ${0:$TM_FILENAME_BASE}:CrystalInit()",
            "\t",
            "end",
            "",
            "",
            "return ${0:$TM_FILENAME_BASE}",
            ""
        ],
        "description": "Crystal Service template"
    },

    "Crystal Controller": {
        "prefix": ["Crystalcontroller"],
        "body": [
            "local Crystal = require(ReplicatedStorage.Packages.Crystal)",
            "",
            "local ${0:$TM_FILENAME_BASE} = Crystal.CreateController { Name = \"${0:$TM_FILENAME_BASE}\" }",
            "",
            "",
            "function ${0:$TM_FILENAME_BASE}:CrystalStart()",
            "\t",
            "end",
            "",
            "",
            "function ${0:$TM_FILENAME_BASE}:CrystalInit()",
            "\t",
            "end",
            "",
            "",
            "return ${0:$TM_FILENAME_BASE}",
            ""
        ],
        "description": "Crystal Controller template"
    },

    "Crystal Require": {
        "prefix": ["Crystalrequire"],
        "body": ["local ${1:Name} = require(Crystal.${2:Util}.${1:Name})"],
        "description": "Crystal Require template"
    }

}