Have IDEs that start DTD pass their identifier

[eliasyishak]

Currently, we don't know which IDE is launching devtools becuase it is not being shared with dds.

For example, we should know if devtools was being started with VS Code with dds. This will allow us to pass this value to the analytics instance from package:unified_analytics so that it can be recorded with each event sent.

[eliasyishak]

cc @kenzieschmoll , feel free to edit the issue to add any info that could be helpful

[kenzieschmoll]

When the IDEs (or DDS in the case of flutter tools and dart CLI entry points) start DevTools, they should pass in information about who started the devtools server. It would be pretty simple to add a flag for this.

CC @DanTup @helin24

[DanTup]

We currently set some env variables that other tools use for this:

https://github.com/Dart-Code/Dart-Code/blob/37ae5ace42c372c1c65ae7797d892cac21128ee2/src/extension/utils/processes.ts#L27-L28

Env variables have a slight benefit in that they're inherited by child processes automatically (so if DevTools spawned something else, it wouldn't need to also pass down flags).

We've talked about standardising in the past, maybe now is a good time to agree on a new generic variable ("DART_EDITOR" or something?). I'd also like to expand the string from VS Code to be a bit more specific (like "VSCode", "VSCode-wsl", "VSCode-server") so it's clearer in what different contexts the tools/extension are being used.

[kenzieschmoll]

With active work to create a unified analytics service in DTD (dart-lang/sdk#55280), I think it is more straight forward now to pass an identifier into the DTD startup code. (e.g. vs-code, intellij, devtools-server, or dds).

[DanTup]

@kenzieschmoll what's the status of this? Is there a defined way for us editors to pass a value here now or does it still require DTD/analytics changes?

[kenzieschmoll]

No work has happened here yet. This should be as simple as adding a flag to DTD (maybe --started-from or --source?): https://github.com/dart-lang/sdk/blob/master/pkg/dtd_impl/lib/src/dart_tooling_daemon.dart#L61.

and then passing that through to the UnifiedAnalyticsService object so it can be used here: https://github.com/dart-lang/sdk/blob/master/pkg/dtd_impl/lib/src/service/unified_analytics_service.dart/#L185

Whoever is starting DTD will need to pass that flag with an identifier (e.g. vs-code, intellij, devtools-server, or dds).

[DanTup]

and then passing that through to the UnifiedAnalyticsService object so it can be used here: https://github.com/dart-lang/sdk/blob/master/pkg/dtd_impl/lib/src/service/unified_analytics_service.dart/#L185

I was just looking at this code and noticed there are two arguments passed to Analytics() related to tools - one is String clientIde and the other is DashTool tool which is an enum that has a vscode-plugins value.

The analysis server is only sets tool and never clientIde. I wonder what the intention was with these two values - presumably it would be better for reviewing stats if the fields are used consistently between tools (like DTD + analysis server). I don't know which the "best" way is though (or if both should just set both, or just clientIde when the tool can't be mapped to the enum)? (cc @bwilkerson)

[bwilkerson]

The DashTool is what's used to determine the ability to send analytics. That is, analytics are enabled on a per-tool basis.

The server uses the clientId from the command-line to choose the DashTool.

If analytics are enabled for the IDE plugin, then the clientId is sent to analytics when the server is started as part of the client-version event.

I don't know what clientIde was intended for, but my guess is that it was replaced by the DashTool.

[DanTup]

I think with the IDEs setting the DASH__ env vars (I don't know if they've all landed in IntelliJ, but they have in Dart-Code) there's probably nothing to do on the IDE side now, just DTD using those values?

[bwilkerson]

That's my expectation, but I'm not very familiar with DTD, so there might be some work I'm not aware of.