Link browser plugin activity to a default branch?

[jvanveen]

Not sure if this makes sense, but would it be feasible to link the browser plugin activity to activity from the IDE, which contains the current branch? I'm doing a lot of frontend work where I would like to track time spend on http://localhost:3000
Having the right branch would make it possible to include time spend here in a more detailed report about worked hours.

[muety]

Hi @jvanveen, thanks for this thought sparker! The WakaTime browser plugin already includes functionality similar to what you're looking for. There is the <<LAST_PROJECT>> placeholder, which resolves to whatever your last project in an editor was. See wakatime/browser-wakatime#28 for a detailed discussion on that.

However, Wakapi intentionally ignores this at the moment and always falls back to unknown as a project for all browsing activity.

The reason is that it's currently either "all" or "nothing". Either all your browsing activity is attributed to the last coding project (which I think undesirable, see wakatime/browser-wakatime#225, wakatime/browser-wakatime#56) or all of it is unknown. A third option is to specify a mapping through using the @@ syntax in the whitelist , see wakatime/browser-wakatime#76 (comment). But then you'll only be able to track whitelisted sites, which is probably also not very desirable.

Best option would be to have functionality similar to what I proposed here in the plugin. Before that, I'm reluctant to implement support for <<LAST_PROJECT>> in Wakapi for the above reasons.

[muety]

However, the @@project syntax is already supported?

Yes, should be working. Let me know if not.

Isn't this the main usecase? Keeping track of whitelisted sites, and linking them to a project?

Yes, when using the whitelist, you'll be able to only track whitelisted sites, nothing else. So if you set up rules for http://localhost:3000, browsing to any other website on the internet won't be reflected in your stats. At least in my understanding.

[jvanveen]

Sorry, I'm confusing @@project with the current branch. Tracking time in "myproject" through http://localhost:3000@@myproject seems to work fine, but the time is added to the "unknown" branch. Would something like a <<LAST_BRANCH>> be an option to consider?

[muety]

Should be doable! That's something that would have to be supported upstream (in the CLI) first, though. Can you file an issue at https://github.com/wakatime/browser-wakatime?

[jvanveen]

Sure! I created one at wakatime/browser-wakatime#232

[jvanveen]

The author already added it to the browser plugin! Seems it's also already released (3.0.20). I guess the plugin now sends <<LAST_BRANCH>> then?

[jvanveen]

Seems to work :)

[muety]

Wow, that was quick! I added #538 to implement support for this and will hopefully get to it soon.

[jvanveen]

Thanks for creating a ticket for this. Would be great to be able to use more detailed browser activity using branches.

[jvanveen]

Nice, I see #538 is already done! I'll test the new version