Hop 2.17 Explorer direction: keep it simple or move toward a more IDE-like experience (line numbers, themes, icons, markdown, syntax highlighting)

[CarlosJuncher03]

In Apache Hop 2.17, the UI improvements—especially the updated Explorer / file search & navigation experience—are a big step forward. My team loved it: organizing pipelines using folders/subfolders (mappings, subpipelines, etc.) feels much more natural now and has noticeably improved our daily workflow.

My question is about the intended direction for this area:

Is the goal to keep the Explorer simple, focused on browsing and basic file opening (Explorer-like), or

Is there an intention to evolve it into a more complete experience, closer to an editor/IDE (VS Code-like) for auxiliary files?

Context
In many projects, besides Hop files, we need to work with other artifacts that are part of the pipeline, such as .sql, .py, .json, .md, config files, etc. Today we typically have to open a separate IDE (we use VS Code) to edit those.

Optional enhancement ideas
These are not critical features, but they could add real value and be a nice differentiator—if aligned with the roadmap:

Show line numbers

Support themes (light/dark) and UI consistency

Improve/extend icons per file type

Syntax highlighting for common types (SQL, Python, JSON, Java, etc.)

Markdown preview/rendering

Detect file types by extension and open with the appropriate editor

Question
Is there an official direction (or ongoing discussion) regarding how far the Hop Explorer/Editor should go?
If the vision is to keep it simple, that’s totally fine—but if there’s room to evolve it, I’d be happy to open separate issues for incremental improvements (line numbers, themes, markdown, highlighting, etc.) based on what makes sense for the project.

Note
Congrats to the team—this area is genuinely better. We’ve seen clear productivity gains, especially because we apply a software-engineering style organization to our pipelines (folders/subfolders by domain and responsibility).

Just to recall, the screen is very good, this would be like a small interface adjustment that would make it easier to adopt a single tool for minor edits in other files

[bamaer]

I agree this would be helpful. The idea is to let Hop Gui evolve more and more into an IDE.
However, there's a lot of work to do in Hop, and even though all of the changes you suggest are manageable in themselves, it all requires work and time that can't be spent on other tasks.
So, in short, this would definitely be useful and add value. Some of these things will probably start to appear, but will gradually trickle in rather than all at once in a single release.

[hansva]

Converted this to a discussion.
I'm in the camp that thinks that it should move towards a full IDE like experience, you should be able to do all the things needed for pipeline/workflow development from inside the our UI. And this includes being able to view/edit filetypes that are common inside the application.

I think we should also dedicate a documentation page somewhere on which file types we currently support and what you can already do with them. I did a quick lookup in the code, and these are our current handlers:

Being in the list doesn't mean they can be opened or edited yet, but they are the types that will appear in the explorer.

[CarlosJuncher03]

I’d like to propose a set of usability and productivity improvements to the Hop file editor, inspired by what VS Code offers while keeping the editor lightweight and focused.

1. Line numbers (optional, quick toggle)

Add line numbers with a preference to enable/disable.

Ideally provide a fast toggle via right-click context menu inside the editor and/or a global setting.

2. File-type detection and language mode

Automatically detect file type by extension and apply an appropriate editing mode:

.sql, .yml/.yaml, .md, .py, .js, .java, .bat, .sh (and other pipeline-relevant types).

Also provide a simple “language mode” selector to override detection when needed.

3. Themes and syntax highlighting

Add theme support (at least light/dark) and syntax highlighting.

Visually distinguish:

comments

keywords

strings

numbers

variables/parameters and their values

Even basic highlighting significantly improves readability.

4. File path / breadcrumbs in the editor header

Show the full path (or breadcrumbs) at the top, similar to VS Code.

This reduces mistakes (editing the wrong file) and improves navigation in larger projects.

5. Extensions marketplace (long-term direction)

A marketplace for extensions would be great.

I understand it’s a larger initiative and likely incremental, but it’s worth considering as a strategic direction.

Additional improvements with high impact / low friction
6) Find & replace

Ctrl+F / Ctrl+H with options:

regex (optional), case sensitivity, whole word

Critical for scripts and configuration files.

7. Go to line / status bar

With line numbers, add “Go to line” and a lightweight status bar showing:

line/column, encoding, line endings (LF/CRLF)

8. Code folding for large files

Folding by indentation/markers helps a lot for .yaml, .sql, .py, .java.

9. Tabs and unsaved changes indicator

Support tabs for multiple open files and a clear unsaved changes marker.

10. External file change detection / reload prompt

If a file changes outside Hop, prompt the user to reload to avoid conflicts.

[hansva]

As creating a full blown text/code editor is quite a lot of work I would like to take a look if we can integrate an external project for this. for example RsyntaxTextArea looks like a good candidate

[dmainou]

Perhaps having the ability to fire a text editor from the ui to edit a file is the way to go.
e.g. if you want to edit not hpl/hpw then your choice of editor is fired.
fix your thing save and back to the ui.

[CarlosJuncher03]

One idea would be a possible integration with VS Code. I don't know if it's possible to have an integration with it. The problem would be Apache HopWeb, I believe.