109 lines
2.9 KiB
Markdown
109 lines
2.9 KiB
Markdown
---
|
|
title: So you want to write a neovim plugin with lua
|
|
date: 2024-04-06
|
|
tags:
|
|
- lua
|
|
- neovim
|
|
draft: false
|
|
---
|
|
I've recently been messing around with writing neovim plugins.
|
|
When I initially got going I found it a little tricky to know how to get started.
|
|
There's the [official neovim docs](https://neovim.io/doc) which are great; but in my beginner experience exhaustive to the point of slight impenetrability.
|
|
Beyond that, the thing I found most useful was simply reading the source of some popular plugins to get an idea of how things worked.
|
|
I would recommend sticking to plugins with a smaller scope though.
|
|
|
|
As a demostrative MVP (minimal viable plugin) jumping-off-point, I'm going to make a very simple note-taking plugin.
|
|
It will provide a command to neovim which when run opens a file titled with the date and time in a specific notes directory.
|
|
Vamos.
|
|
|
|
This is what you will want your directory structure to look like.
|
|
|
|
```bash
|
|
├── lua
|
|
│ └── note
|
|
│ └── init.lua
|
|
└── plugin
|
|
└── note.vim
|
|
```
|
|
|
|
The `plugin/note.vim` file will look like this.
|
|
|
|
```vim
|
|
command! Note lua require("note").main()
|
|
```
|
|
|
|
This creates a custom command `Note` which when run will call a lua function.
|
|
Now on to where that function and the meat of the plugin logic will live: the `lua/note/init.lua` file.
|
|
With more complex plugins this section will often be split into many files but we've just got one here as it's so simple.
|
|
|
|
First things first we create a plugin object.
|
|
|
|
```lua
|
|
local note = {}
|
|
```
|
|
|
|
Then we will define some default options for the plugin in a table.
|
|
These are variables you want the user to be able to change when they call the setup function.
|
|
|
|
```lua
|
|
local defaults = {
|
|
note_directory = "~/notes/",
|
|
date_format = "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M",
|
|
file_extension = ".md",
|
|
}
|
|
```
|
|
|
|
Next we need the setup function.
|
|
This takes the user's options and merges them with our default options.
|
|
|
|
```lua
|
|
function note.setup(user_options)
|
|
options = vim.tbl_deep_extend("force", defaults, user_options or {})
|
|
end
|
|
```
|
|
|
|
This is the main function where the magic happens.
|
|
|
|
```lua
|
|
function note.main()
|
|
local dir = options.note_directory
|
|
local name = os.date(options.date_format)
|
|
local ext = options.file_extension
|
|
local filename = string.format("%s%s%s", dir, name, ext)
|
|
local command = string.format("edit %s", filename)
|
|
vim.api.nvim_command(command)
|
|
end
|
|
```
|
|
|
|
Finally we return the plugin obect.
|
|
|
|
```lua
|
|
return note
|
|
```
|
|
|
|
At this point you should have a working plugin :)
|
|
As a little coda, this is how you can use your fancy new plugin using [lazy.nvim](https://github.com/folke/lazy.nvim/).
|
|
|
|
```lua
|
|
require("lazy").setup({
|
|
{
|
|
-- local
|
|
dir = "~/neovim-note-plugin",
|
|
|
|
-- github
|
|
-- "me/neovim-note-plugin",
|
|
|
|
-- alternative non github hosting
|
|
-- url = "https://git.example.com/me/neovim note-plugin",
|
|
|
|
config = fucntion()
|
|
require("note").setup({
|
|
file_extension = ".org",
|
|
})
|
|
end,
|
|
|
|
}
|
|
})
|
|
```
|
|
|
|
Hope you've enjoyed.
|