Detect and report the status bar in Visual Studio Code by codeofdusk · Pull Request #18724 · nvaccess/nvda

codeofdusk · 2025-08-17T00:07:21Z

Link to issue number:

Summary of the issue:

When invoking the standard "report status bar" gesture in Visual Studio Code, NVDA says "no status line found".

Description of how this pull request fixes the issue:

Adds logic to detect (by role or IAccessible2 ID) the status bar, caching it when found. Also added a custom text override to move the line and column to the start for speech-friendliness.

Testing strategy:

Tested in various document types (plain text, Python) in Visual Studio Code.

Known issues with pull request:

The status bar is not cached on app launch since the tree interceptor is disabled. If this override is removed, status bar accesses are always fast. With the override, the first access of the status bar takes about a second on my machine.

Code Review Checklist:

Documentation:
- Change log entry
- User Documentation
- Developer / Technical Documentation
- Context sensitive help for GUI changes
Testing:
- Unit tests
- System (end to end) tests
- Manual testing
UX of all users considered:
- Speech
- Braille
- Low Vision
- Different web browsers
- Localization in other languages / culture than English
API is compatible with existing add-ons.
Security precautions taken.

Copilot

Pull Request Overview

This PR adds support for reporting the Visual Studio Code status bar when using NVDA's standard status bar gesture (NVDA+End on desktop/NVDA+Shift+End on laptop), addressing the issue where NVDA previously reported "no status line found".

Implements status bar detection by role and IAccessible2 ID with caching functionality
Adds custom text processing to filter decorative elements and prioritize line/column information
Caches status bar objects for improved performance on subsequent accesses

Reviewed Changes

Copilot reviewed 2 out of 2 changed files in this pull request and generated 3 comments.

File	Description
user_docs/en/changes.md	Documents the new Visual Studio Code status bar reporting feature
source/appModules/code.py	Implements status bar detection, caching, and custom text formatting logic

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hwf1324 · 2025-08-17T01:48:24Z

Related: #11064, #17339

SaschaCowley · 2025-08-19T06:17:28Z

@codeofdusk have you looked at the discussion in these issues?

Related: #11064, #17339

codeofdusk · 2025-08-19T13:42:07Z

@SaschaCowley Yes, is there something I should look at specifically?

Also, I think the PR build failure is unrelated, as the last commit simply updated what's new per @seanbudd

seanbudd

Do you know if it's feasible to create a system test for this?

I think it should be possible to install VS code on Windows with GitHub actions fairly easily.

Now that we are able to run system tests in parallel, we are free to create a more thorough set of system tests for more applications.
I think it would be worth setting up system tests for VS code, as it's easy to install software.
In future, if we can install FOSS software, I think we should create system tests for it.

name: Install VS Code on Windows

on: [push]

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: windows-latest

    steps:
    - name: Download and Install VS Code
      if: matrix.testSuite == "codium"
      run: |
        # Download the VS Code User Setup installer
        Invoke-WebRequest -Uri "https://code.visualstudio.com/sha/download?build=stable&os=win32-x64-user" -OutFile "VSCodeSetup.exe"

        # Install VS Code silently
        .\VSCodeSetup.exe /VERYSILENT /SUPPRESSMSGBOXES /NORESTART
      shell: powershell

codeofdusk · 2025-08-20T03:00:12Z

@seanbudd Do we have system tests for other third-party software? If not, I imagine we wouldn't want to run those for local users (that feels like a larger discussion).

seanbudd · 2025-08-20T03:11:36Z

@codeofdusk - no, mostly due to issues I've outlined in #18762. I think it's fine for these to run locally. It's rare when someone needs to use runsystemtests.bat, and when they do, they should probably be filtering to specific tests anyway. I don't think we'd ever recommend running all system tests locally, it's what our CI is for. Especially, as we plan to expand them, running them locally might take up to an hour. Our system tests are very device dependent e.g. version and language of windows.

seanbudd · 2025-08-20T04:58:54Z

@codeofdusk - please add a system test as requested

codeofdusk · 2025-08-21T19:37:31Z

@seanbudd That fixed it! I'll go ahead and remove the logging.

Co-authored-by: Sean Budd <seanbudd123@gmail.com>

seanbudd

Thanks @codeofdusk

stale

SaschaCowley · 2025-09-04T03:59:28Z

@codeofdusk it The code for moving the line/column number first in the status bar doesn't seem to be working for me. When I get the status bar in VS Code, I get:

nvda-pr (Git) - Push 1 commits to origin/moreWinBindings2 remote nvda-pr (Git) nvda-pr (Git) - moreWinBindings2, Checkout Branch/Tag... Infos: 5 git-pull-request Pull Request #18860 Notifications nvda (3.13.7), d:\projects\nvda-pr.venv\Scripts\python.exe Python Editor Language Status: $(warning) 5 Spell, next: Auto-Import Completions: true, next: Ruff (native), next: $(copilot) No inline suggestion available, Inline suggestions LF UTF-8 Tab Size: 4 Ln 2, Col 39 Screen Reader Optimized git-commit Michael Curran (3 days ago)

Copilot AI review requested due to automatic review settings August 17, 2025 00:07

codeofdusk requested a review from a team as a code owner August 17, 2025 00:07

codeofdusk requested a review from SaschaCowley August 17, 2025 00:07

Copilot AI reviewed Aug 17, 2025

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Comment thread source/appModules/code.py Outdated

Comment thread source/appModules/code.py Outdated

Comment thread source/appModules/code.py Outdated

codeofdusk force-pushed the code-statusbar branch 3 times, most recently from 836b0d6 to aa69ace Compare August 17, 2025 01:18

codeofdusk force-pushed the code-statusbar branch 9 times, most recently from 070e48c to 29eb24b Compare August 17, 2025 03:42

seanbudd reviewed Aug 18, 2025

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Comment thread user_docs/en/changes.md Outdated

seanbudd added the conceptApproved Similar 'triaged' for issues, PR accepted in theory, implementation needs review. label Aug 18, 2025

seanbudd reviewed Aug 20, 2025

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Comment thread source/appModules/code.py Outdated

Comment thread source/appModules/code.py Outdated

seanbudd reviewed Aug 20, 2025

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Comment thread source/appModules/code.py Outdated

seanbudd reviewed Aug 20, 2025

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Comment thread source/appModules/code.py Outdated

codeofdusk requested a review from seanbudd August 20, 2025 04:57

seanbudd marked this pull request as draft August 20, 2025 04:59

codeofdusk force-pushed the code-statusbar branch from 5de71a3 to 358b225 Compare August 20, 2025 19:16

codeofdusk force-pushed the code-statusbar branch 2 times, most recently from ceace8e to 810d064 Compare August 21, 2025 07:32

seanbudd reviewed Aug 21, 2025

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Comment thread tests/system/libraries/VSCodeLib.py

codeofdusk force-pushed the code-statusbar branch 6 times, most recently from 97abaea to 93ca8bd Compare August 21, 2025 20:01

Add system tests

105ca85

Co-authored-by: Sean Budd <seanbudd123@gmail.com>

codeofdusk force-pushed the code-statusbar branch from 93ca8bd to 105ca85 Compare August 21, 2025 20:39

codeofdusk requested a review from seanbudd August 21, 2025 21:14

seanbudd reviewed Aug 21, 2025

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Comment thread .github/workflows/testAndPublish.yml Outdated

Comment thread source/appModules/code.py Outdated

Comment thread source/appModules/code.py Outdated

Comment thread tests/system/robot/vscodeTests.robot

codeofdusk and others added 2 commits August 21, 2025 16:31

Apply suggestions from code review

8ae3169

Co-authored-by: Sean Budd <seanbudd123@gmail.com>

Update source/appModules/code.py

8444cb8

Co-authored-by: Sean Budd <seanbudd123@gmail.com>

seanbudd reviewed Aug 21, 2025

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Comment thread source/appModules/code.py

seanbudd previously approved these changes Aug 21, 2025

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Log exceptions

e1770dc

codeofdusk force-pushed the code-statusbar branch from bc76c79 to e1770dc Compare August 21, 2025 23:44

Rescope exception handling

00278ea

seanbudd approved these changes Aug 22, 2025

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seanbudd merged commit ecf99d9 into nvaccess:master Aug 22, 2025
27 checks passed

github-actions Bot added this to the 2026.1 milestone Aug 22, 2025

codeofdusk deleted the code-statusbar branch August 22, 2025 01:48

seanbudd mentioned this pull request Aug 22, 2025

Set up system tests for more applications #18762

Open

11 tasks

codeofdusk mentioned this pull request Sep 4, 2025

Improve line/column heuristics for Visual Studio Code #18863

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5 tasks

seanbudd mentioned this pull request Dec 1, 2025

Electron: Unable to report status bar #17339

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codeofdusk commented Aug 17, 2025 • edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

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