The pcsync and pcwatch utilities allow editing copies of
JavaScript and other textual files of a PlayCanvas project
locally on your own computer, in a text editor of your choice.
pcsync also allows pushing and pulling of binary files, such as
images and models.
In addition, if your project has a file called pcignore.txt,
PlayCanvas merge will not affect the files listed in it,
and the operation of pcsync and pcwatch will be restricted only to those files.
pcsync is used to push or pull one or all files to or from PlayCanvas
(overwriting existing files with the same name/path)
and to compare one or all local files to their
remote (PlayCanvas) versions.
pcwatch detects changes to local files and folders (edits, removals and creation)
as they happen and applies them to PlayCanvas in real time.
If you do not need your local changes pushed to PlayCanvas "as you type",
you do not have to use pcwatch. Running pcsync pushAll periodically can be
sufficient.
Only the pcsync pull and pcsync pullAll commands can change
local files. Other pcsync commands and pcwatch
change only remote files. Thus your local
directory holds the authoritative version of your textual files.
The only scenario we do not support is when developer A uses pcwatch,
while developer B is editing files of the same PlayCanvas branch in the
browser code editor. B's work will be overwritten by A, if they edit
the same file. Either B should start using local files, or A should stop pcwatch and
switch to the browser code editor.
pcsync has the following commands:
diffAll compare all local and remote files and folders
diff <filePath> show line-by-line diff of the remote and local files at
filePath
pullAll download all remote files, overwriting their local
counterparts
pushAll upload all local files, overwriting their remote counterparts
pull <filePath> download remote file, creating local folders if needed
push <filePath> upload local file, creating remote folders if needed
rename <oldPath> <newPath> rename remote file or folder, change its parent folder if
needed
rm <filePath> remove remote file or folder
parseIgnore list assets matched by pcignore.txt
A local directory designated as PLAYCANVAS_TARGET_DIR
corresponds to the root of the PlayCanvas file and folder asset hierarchy.
All file and folder paths passed to pcsync as arguments
should be relative to this root and use forward slashes even on Windows, e.g.
pcsync rename dir1/file1.js file1.js
will move file1.js to the root asset directory.
pushAll and pullAll accept an optional -y or --yes flag to
automatically answer "yes" to confirmation prompts.
pcwatch does not need any options.
Moving or renaming a file or a folder
will appear to pcwatch as a remove + create. In such cases it may be better to
stop pcwatch, perform the operation locally, apply it to PlayCanvas with
pcsync rename, and start pcwatch again.
Assume file F was created locally
and pushed to PlayCanvas with pcsync or pcwatch, and
now you are adding F as a script component to an entity in PlayCanvas Editor.
Note that it will take a second or two for F to appear in the dropdown list, because F is parsed by the editor for the first time when that list is populated (we may add some progress indication for that).
If your project has a file called pcignore.txt in the root folder, any file
listed there will be the same before and after a PlayCanvas merge.
The operation of pcsync and pcwatch is restricted to the files listed in pcignore.txt,
if pcignore.txt exists. This ensures that the set of files managed locally
exactly matches the set ignored by PlayCanvas merge, which is appropriate
for most workflows.
To make pcsync and pcwatch work with more files than listed in pcignore.txt,
use the PLAYCANVAS_INCLUDE_REG config variable, which is a regular expression to
test each file's path from the root of the asset hierarchy.
Before a PlayCanvas merge, make sure that the latest checkpoint of the destination
branch is taken after pcignore.txt was added.
If you are using git for your textual files, you can perform a git merge before a PlayCanvas merge of the corresponding branches, push the result to the PlayCanvas destination branch, and then perform a PlayCanvas merge.
pcignore.txt consists of one or more lines, each of which is
either a path (with the same syntax as .gitignore), or one of the following:
ignore_all_textual_files
ignore_all_js_files
ignore_all_files_with_extension <extension1,extension2,...>
ignore_regexp <regexp string>
source_branch_wins
ignore_all_textual_files is the most common choice.
source_branch_wins (included once anywhere) changes the PlayCanvas merge behavior:
instead of keeping items matching pcignore.txt as is (in the destination branch),
the merge result will now include the versions of the corresponding
items (if present) from the source branch.
Multiple ignore_regexp lines can be provided. Any textual asset whose
path from the root of the asset hierarchy
matches an ignore_regexp expression will be ignored.
To check your pcignore.txt syntax, you can run pcsync parseIgnore.
It will list all existing files that match your current pcignore.txt.
Use a space and not * or ? to match a space in a file or folder name in gitignore lines.
Binary files include assets such as textures (JPG and PNG) and models (GLB).
push, pull (single file) and rm work with binary file arguments without any special options.
pushAll, pullAll and diffAll have two options that make them work with matching
files only, including binary (without one of these options pcsync only works with textual files):
-e, --ext <extensions> handle files with provided extensions
-r, --regexp <regexp> handle files matching the provided regular expression
For instance:
pcsync diffAll -e jpeg,png
pcsync pushAll -r "\\.(png|jpeg)"
The regular expression tests each file's path from the root.
Use a recent stable version of node. We recommend using nvm.
Download or clone https://github.com/playcanvas/playcanvas-sync
On a Mac, install Command Line Tools. On Catalina, you may also need:
sudo xcode-select -s /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer
From the playcanvas-sync folder run:
npm install
Now set your config variables and you can use the tool from this folder, e.g.
node pcwatch.js diffAll
or install it globally with:
npm install -g
To uninstall globally, run
npm uninstall -g
(all from the playcanvas-sync folder).
Config variables can be set
in a file called .pcconfig in your home directory,
in pcconfig.json in your target directory
(and your remote PlayCanvas branch),
or provided as environment variables (which would have the highest precedence).
Sample config file:
{
"PLAYCANVAS_BRANCH_ID": "abc",
"PLAYCANVAS_PROJECT_ID": 10,
"PLAYCANVAS_TARGET_DIR": "/Users/zpaul/proj1",
"PLAYCANVAS_API_KEY": "xyz",
"PLAYCANVAS_BAD_FILE_REG": "^\\.|~$",
"PLAYCANVAS_BAD_FOLDER_REG": "\\.",
"PLAYCANVAS_CONVERT_TO_POW2": 0
}
You can get your api key (token) from your PlayCanvas account page (playcanvas.com/<username>/account).
You can use
copy({
PLAYCANVAS_BRANCH_ID: config.self.branch.id,
PLAYCANVAS_PROJECT_ID: config.project.id
})
from the Chrome Developer Tools console (on the PlayCanvas Editor page) to copy your branch and project id to the clipboard.
Alternatively, you can get your branch id from the
Version Control Panel of the PlayCanvas Editor, and
your project id from its home page url, e.g.
for playcanvas.com/project/10/overview/test_proj the id is 10.
All listed key-value pairs are necessary. You can split them between
.pcconfig (in your home directory), pcconfig.json (in your project target directory),
and environment variables.
PLAYCANVAS_TARGET_DIR can only be set in .pcconfig or an environment variable. You
can also set PLAYCANVAS_USE_CWD_AS_TARGET to 1 in .pcconfig to use
your current working directory as your target.
For some workflows, it may be necessary to
keep the pcconfig.json file at the top level
in the target directory, but treat one of its subdirectories as
the root of the local file hierarchy. In such cases
PLAYCANVAS_TARGET_SUBDIR needs to be provided, e.g.
"PLAYCANVAS_TARGET_SUBDIR": "src"
Backslash characters should be written as \\ (escaped).
Many text editors and operating systems create local auxiliary files and directories, that do not need to be automatically pushed to PlayCanvas.
PLAYCANVAS_BAD_FILE_REG and PLAYCANVAS_BAD_FOLDER_REG contain RegExp strings (note the
escapes) that tell pcwatch which files and directories to
ignore. In our sample .pcconfig, a bad file has a name that starts
with a dot or ends with ~.
A bad folder is one that has a dot anywhere in its path relative
to PLAYCANVAS_TARGET_DIR. The expressions provided are sufficient in most cases,
and you can simply copy them into your .pcconfig.
To determine which auxiliary files and folders your OS and text editor
create, run pcwatch with config/environment variables
PLAYCANVAS_DRY_RUN and PLAYCANVAS_VERBOSE set to 1, and create/edit some files.
pcwatch output will show all file system events as they happen,
and which of them will be filtered out by your current
PLAYCANVAS_BAD_FILE_REG and PLAYCANVAS_BAD_FOLDER_REG.
If in your case no bad files and folders exist, use a string like
"matchNothing" as the value of PLAYCANVAS_BAD_FILE_REG
and/or PLAYCANVAS_BAD_FOLDER_REG.
Problems are often caused by setting config variables incorrectly.
Execute your command with the config/environment variable PLAYCANVAS_VERBOSE set to 1
to print the current values of all config variables and other useful data.
- Run
pcsync pullAllto download existing textual files from PlayCanvas - Launch
pcwatch - Start editing/creating files locally in your own text editor
To merge changes from another PlayCanvas branch into your branch without git:
- Stop
pcwatch - Run
pcsync diffAll, and, if necessary,pcsync push/pushAllto make sure the PlayCanvas version is up-to-date. - Perform merge in PlayCanvas
- Use
pcsync pullAllto download the merge result
- Create your own PlayCanvas branch of your team's project
- Create a git branch for your work, and make it your local target directory
- Create a
pcignore.txtfile, listing all files you intend to keep in git, create a PlayCanvas checkpoint that includes yourpcignore.txt - Launch
pcwatch - Start editing/creating files locally in your own text editor
- When necessary, merge in
gitthe branch of another group member into your branch - Use
pcsync pushAllto update your remote branch after git merge - Merge the same branches in PlayCanvas
- Use
pcsync diffAllto verify that local and remote files are still in sync
Most items from Case 1 apply, also:
- Periodically run
pcsync diffAll. It is usually OK to see extra remote files (coming from other team members). If you notice that a remote file is different from your local file, consider agitmerge to include your team member's changes into yourgitbranch, resolve conflicts ingit, if any, as usual. - Avoid
pcsync pull/pullAll. To get others' files/changes into your branch, usegitmerge instead to maintain an accurategithistory of edits to each file (who added what).
You can build TypeScript Bindings from the PlayCanvas engine repo (branch stable)
as mentioned in the instructions here:
npm run build:types
This will generate the file build/output/playcanvas.d.ts in your engine folder.
TypeScript source files are usually compiled into a single JavaScript file, which is then used in a PlayCanvas project.
This JavaScript file can be added to your pcignore.txt
to prevent PlayCanvas merge from reporting conflicts in it.
If you are storing your TypeScript source files in git, there is no need to include them in your PlayCanvas project.
Copy the file playcanvas.d.ts with TypeScript bindings for the PlayCanvas engine to
a folder called typings in your target directory.
Create a jsconfig.json file in your target directory with the following content:
{
"compilerOptions": {
"target": "ES5",
"module": "commonjs",
"files": [
"typings/playcanvas.d.ts"
]
}
}
Your folder structure should look like this:
Add jsconfig.json and typings to PLAYCANVAS_BAD_FILE_REG and PLAYCANVAS_BAD_FOLDER_REG, e.g.
"PLAYCANVAS_BAD_FILE_REG": "^\\.|~$|jsconfig.json",
"PLAYCANVAS_BAD_FOLDER_REG": "^\\.|typings"
Now you are ready to start using pcsync and pcwatch
to sync your PlayCanvas project and edit with VS Code goodness 🚀
![dependabot[bot] avatar](https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/in/29110?v=4 "dependabot[bot]")
React
Typescript
Django
Laravel
Facebook
Microsoft
Google
Alibaba
D3
Tencent