How Notepad++ selects autocomplete?

[PeterJones]

@gusztavj ,

The auto-completion selected should be based on the active Language-menu selection (the syntax highlighter selected).

For getting it to work for you: First, the *.config.txt is adding complication. Get everything working without that weird naming convention first, before trying the complicated multi-level extensions.

Let’s start with the simpler situation, where I want a “weirdAl” filetype with the extension .wa. First, I created my UDL, and gave it three keywords: thisKeywordIsJustSixWordsLong and itsChristmasAtGroundZero in group 1, and grapefruitDiet in group 2

I did an Export of my UDL into the userDefineLangs folder (so it ends up in the folder, rather than the old-style userDefineLang.xml containing all of them), and then clicked Remove (so that there wouldn’t be conflicting versions in both the old file and the new subfolder). Exiting Notepad++ and restarting shows that the weirdAl UDL is still there. If I create a file, assign that Language>weirdAl, it properly syntax highlights. Save it as example.wa and close it.

Next step: creating the weirdAl.xml that goes in autoCompletion\ folder.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<NotepadPlus>
	<AutoComplete language="weirdAl">
		<Environment ignoreCase="no" startFunc="(" stopFunc=")" paramSeparator="," terminal=";" />
		<KeyWord name="thisKeywordIsJustSixWordsLong" />
		<KeyWord name="itsChristmasAtGroundZero" />
		<KeyWord name="grapefruitDiet" func="yes">
			<Overload retVal="" descr="eat only grapefruit">
				<Param name="Seedless" />
			</Overload>
			<Overload retVal="" descr="eat only grapefruit">
				<Param name="Shape" />
				<Param name="Season" />
			</Overload>
		</KeyWord>
	</AutoComplete>
</NotepadPlus>

Save that file. Exit Notepad++. Restart.

Open example.wa: it auto-recognizes as weirdAl filetype! Success #1.

Start typing one of the three keywords, and it starts normal autocompletion! Success #2.

Type grapefruit(, and it pops up the parameter auto-complete! Success #3. Here’s a screenshot.

<INSERT>

Now we know that the UDL is working correctly, as is the weirdAl auto-complete.

Create a new file, called example.notwa, so it doesn’t have the right extension, and manually choose Language>weirdAl. Type the grap and it asks for auto-complete; complete it, type the (, and it prompts for the parameters: so auto-complete is fully recognized no matter the file extension, as long as the right UDL is selected. Success #4.

At this point, if you open config.txt or *.config.txt and manually assign your UDL, you should be confident that it will auto-complete correctly.

So now it’s a matter of auto-recongizing your weird *.config.txt.

In my example, I will use wa.txt and *.wa.txt. In the UDL extension field, I added wa.txt so its value is wa wa.txt … Create a new file, and save as wa.txt. To my surprise, it successfully immediately applied weirdAl as the Language, and auto-completed. Nearly done!

File > New, and save as blah.wa.txt. It considers it a normal text file rather than a weirdAl file. Failure #1.

I don’t think you’re going to be able to auto-recognize *.config.txt – at least, I couldn’t, with *.wa.txt .

If you are willing to install the PythonScript plugin, you can have it check the active filename whenever you activate a buffer, and have it change the language to the right UDL if the name ends in .config.txt … If you are willing to do that, and need help, let us know.

[PeterJones]

@PeterJones said in How Notepad++ selects autocomplete?:

<INSERT>

Sorry, I meant to paste my image there:

[gusztavj]

Peter, I can’t tell what grateful I am for your extensive and clear reply!

So, everything works fine, but the autocomplete fails… :) I’m just showing you a few screens, probably you can spot some error I did not manage to recognize.

To check if folder locations are fine, here’s the UDL folder:

I don’t have userDefineLanguage.xml at all (deleted it beforehand).

And the autocomplete folder:

This one is my UDL file with the relevant parts:

And the autocomplete:

And this shows the example file with syntax recognized, but autocomplete not working (although it’s turned on and works for other langs):

Can you find any discrepancies here? I’ve exited and restarted Notepad++ after every operation as you also suggested.

Stay safe,
Gus

[PeterJones]

@gusztavj said in How Notepad++ selects autocomplete?:

Can you find any discrepancies here?

Sorry, everything looks right.

Did you re-start Notepad++ after putting the UDL and autoCompletion XML files in the right folders?

Could you screenshot your Settings > Preferences > Auto-completion settings?

Could you copy/paste your ?-menu’s Debug Info?

[PeterJones]

@PeterJones said in How Notepad++ selects autocomplete?:

Did you re-start Notepad++ after putting the UDL and autoCompletion XML files in the right folders?

Sorry, I re-read and saw you’d already answered that one.

The more I thought about this not working for you, the more confused I got. I don’t see why it wouldn’t be working… if you’re in a version of Notepad++ new enough that it comes with the autoCompletion\ folder (it used to be named something else), then all the syntax shown should work.

I decided to bundle up a zipfile of my working portable version. So for the next week or so, the URL URL REDACTED will download a zipfile with a complete portable, including my autoCompletion\weirdAl.xml and userDefineLangs\weirdAl-udl.xml. When I unzip these to a known writeable location, then run the portable notepad++.exe from the unzipped folder, if I use Ctrl+Shift+Space inside the grapefruitDiet() parentheses, it pops up the parameter-hint auto-completion, and if I start typing the t, i, or g that start the three function keywords, the function-name auto-completion pops up. Since the portable zip contains all the config files including sessions, etc, you should be in a state to immediately test this working copy after unzipping.

caveat

It’s always dangerous to download files from unknown sources. I am claiming that I haven’t done anything malicious in this zipfile, but you need to use download wisdom. It is my recommendation to at the very least run a virus checker on the zipfile and the unzipped contents.

Future Readers: The download will go away in the near future, so you will likely get 404-not-found.

[gusztavj]

Thanks for the response again. I have NP++ 7.9.5, and here are my autocomplete settings, seemingly the same as yours:

The portable version just works fine. I’ll try to add my files to the portable instance and see if it works, and let you know about it.

Cheers,
Gus

[gusztavj]

@PeterJones, this is what I found: autocomplete does not work if the language, as defined in the UDL file, contains keywords with a hyphen in it. The actually weird language for what I wanted to create an autocomplete file includes lot of keywords of this kind, such as “category-keyword”. For these, no autocomplete tip will pop up. Even worse, the values of these so-called tags are followed by a space, so a line of the file looks like this:

category-keyword “value”
or
position 0, 1, 0

Now it would be okay to type a ( character after a tag name to display the hint, but the hyphen makes this language incompatible with the auto-complete logic. :(

Anyway, thanks a lot for your efforts in explaining this whole situation.

[Michael Vincent]

@gusztavj said in How Notepad++ selects autocomplete?:

autocomplete does not work if the language, as defined in the UDL file, contains keywords with a hyphen in it.

That should be an easy fix. In the autoCompletion\weirdAl.xml file, add the additionalWordChars="-" parameter like so:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<NotepadPlus>
        <AutoComplete language="weirdAl">
                <Environment ignoreCase="no" .....   additionalWordChars="-"/>
                <KeyWord name=" ...

I have an autoCompletion file for Powerwhell and most Powershell commands are Verb-Thing (e.g., Write-Host, Get-Item) so I include the additionalWordChars="-" and it works for me.

Cheers.

[gusztavj]

@Michael-Vincent said in How Notepad++ selects autocomplete?:

That should be an easy fix.

I wish it were! :) First, thanks for mentioning this attribute. I took a look at the source code, but did not recognized it. But unfortunately it still does not work for me. Here is my piece of code, the AC file:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<NotepadPlus>
    <AutoComplete language="weirdAl">
        <Environment ignoreCase="yes" startFunc="(" stopFunc=")" paramSeparator="," terminal=";" additionalWordChars="-"/>
	<KeyWord name="grapefruit-diet" func="yes">
          <Overload retVal="" descr="drink grapefruit juice only">
            <Param name="SeedlessStuff" />
          </Overload>
          <Overload retVal="" descr="drink grapefruit only">
	    <Param name="Shapes" />
	    <Param name="Seasons" />
          </Overload>
	</KeyWord>
	<KeyWord name="position" func="yes">
          <Overload retVal="" descr="elements's position">
            <Param name="on x axis" />
            <Param name="on y axis" />
            <Param name="on z axis" />
          </Overload>
	</KeyWord>		
	<KeyWord name="grapefruitDiet" func="yes">
	  <Overload retVal="" descr="eat grapefruit only">
	    <Param name="Seedless" />
	  </Overload>
	  <Overload retVal="" descr="eat grapefruit only">
	    <Param name="Shape" />
	    <Param name="Season" />
	  </Overload>
	</KeyWord>
    </AutoComplete>
</NotepadPlus>

It works for grapefruitDiet and position, but doesn’t offer anything for grapefruit-diet.

Am I overlooking something?

Cheers.
Gus

[gusztavj]

A small clarification: it offers the name grapefruit-diet, but does not show the overloads, so nothing appears after typing the bracket, pressing CTRL+SPACE or CTRL+SHIFT+SPACE.

[Michael Vincent]

@gusztavj said in How Notepad++ selects autocomplete?:

Am I overlooking something?

Looks good, but I thought keywords needed to be in alphabetical order?

Cheers.

[gusztavj]

@Michael-Vincent , tried to move them around, to place grapefruitDiet before grapefruit-diet and the other way around, but with no effect. grapefruitDiet is always recognized, the other is never recognized. :( Became clueless again. Yet, thanks for your help and tips.

[gusztavj]

And finally… I did not find the documentation page at https://npp-user-manual.org/docs/auto-completion/ , only a link to a non-existing page. Now that I know the AC file needs to be named after the language name, life is much happier… :D

Thanks for all your great help!

[PeterJones]

@gusztavj said in How Notepad++ selects autocomplete?:

And finally… I did not find the documentation page at https://npp-user-manual.org/docs/auto-completion/ , only a link to a non-existing page.

That page exists (I even just checked using your exact link). Maybe you encountered a brief time when there was a server problem…

[gusztavj]

@PeterJones Yes, it works, but beforehand I found a different link that was not working. :)

[gusztavj]

@PeterJones and @Michael-Vincent, would you mind if I summon you to see a new post of mine to see if you have an idea for another autocomplete issue? It’s different from this one and I did not want to mess up this thread with a different issue.