Using CodeSnip FAQ

This FAQ is about using version 4 of the DelphiDabbler CodeSnip Code Snippets Repository Application.

If you have questions about compiling CodeSnip or using its source code please see the Compiling & Source Code FAQ.

If you can't find an answer to your question below, and you've read the program's help file, create an issue on GitHub (GitHub account required).

Please note that CodeSnip version 3 and earlier are no longer supported, This FAQ covers version 4 only.

I'm test compiling code within CodeSnip and get compiler warnings I don't want. Can I switch them off?
Why can't I edit snippets from the on-line database?
What changes does CodeSnip make to my system?
What personal information is stored by CodeSnip?
How do I get CodeSnip to use a proxy server to access the internet?
How do I cross-reference my snippets using the "See also" field?
Delphi XE2 and later compilers generate a "F1026 File not Found ?????.dcu" error when test compiling snippets. What's going wrong?
Why can't my portable edition of CodeSnip see the snippets I created in the standard edition (and vice versa)?

FAQ 1

I'm test compiling code within CodeSnip and get compiler warnings I don't want. Can I switch them off?

If you're using CodeSnip with Delphi 6 or later the answer is "Yes".

Use the Tools | Preferences menu option to display the Preferences dialogue box and select the Code Generation tab. Check the Emit $WARN directives check box. This will cause compiler directives to be emitted to switch on and off certain warnings. To switch a given warning off, find it in the list box, select it and set it's Warning State radio button to off.

If the symbol you require is not listed you can add it. If you do this make sure you select the correct version of the compiler where the directives were introduced to hide them from earlier compilers, otherwise compilation with the earlier compilers will fail.

Click the dialogue box's Help button to get more detailed information on how to do this.

FAQ 2

Why can't I edit snippets from the on-line database?

Snippets downloaded from the on-line database are read-only. If you could edit them any changes would be lost the next time you updated the database. This is because the updater overwrites all local copies of snippets with those it downloads.

However, you can create a user defined snippet with the same name as one from the on-line database and copy the source code of the read only snippet into it.

The easiest way to do this is to select the read-only snippet then choose the Snippets | Duplicate Snippet menu option (or press Shift+Ctrl+D). This creates a duplicate snippet that can be edited.

FAQ 3

What changes does CodeSnip make to my system?

Full details of changes are given in the program's ReadMe file, ReadMe.txt. Any changes will be recorded there first, but here's a summary.

There are two editions of CodeSnip 4: standard and portable. You can tell the difference by looking at the main window caption. The caption of the portable edition includes the word "Portable"!

The portable edition makes no changes to the host operating system - it writes all its configuration data into the folder from which it is run.

The standard edition makes the following changes to the host system:

The main program's executable file and documentation are installed into the chosen install folder (the %ProgramFiles%\DelphiDabbler\CodeSnip-4 folder by default).
Files required by the uninstaller are stored in the main installation's Uninst sub-folder.
The program's uninstall information is registered with the Add / Remove Programs (a.k.a Programs and Features) control panel applet (information is stored in the registry).
A program group may be created in the start menu (optional).
A %ProgramData%\DelphiDabbler\CodeSnip.4 folder is created. A configuration file is stored in the folder. Once the database is downloaded, its files will be stored in a Database sub-folder (see below).
A %AppData%\DelphiDabbler\CodeSnip.4 folder is also created. This is used to hold a file that stores per-user configuration data. A UserDatabase sub-folder is used to store any user defined snippets. Note: From CodeSnip 4.3.0 the user can change the directory containing the user-defined snippets.

FAQ 4

What personal information is stored by CodeSnip?

This depends on the version of CodeSnip being used.

CodeSnip version 4.16.0 and later

No personal data is stored.

Earlier versions

See the program's privacy statement for details. This can be displayed by starting CodeSnip and selecting the Help | Privacy Statement menu option. There's also a file named Privacy.txt installed with CodeSnip that provides the same information.

Different versions of the programs may have different privacy statements.

FAQ 5

How do I get CodeSnip to use a proxy server to access the internet?

This answer depends on which version of the program is being used.

CodeSnip version 4.16.0 and later

CodeSnip does not access the internet directly so there is no need for a proxy server.

Note: The program does display some web links in your default web browser. In this case the browser's proxy server will be used.

Earlier versions

These versions of CodeSnip do access the internet directly and support the use of a proxy server. To configure the proxy server do the following:

Select the Tools | Proxy Server menu option to display the Proxy Server Configuration dialogue box.
Tick the Use proxy server check box.
Enter the proxy server's IP address and the port number you use to access it in the first two edit boxes. These entries are compulsory. If you use a user name and password to access the proxy server enter them in the next two edit boxes and confirm the password in the last edit box.
Click the OK button and you're done.

CodeSnip will now use the proxy server each time it accesses the internet directly. If there's problem check you have entered valid information in the dialogue box.

Note: The proxy information entered here is not used when CodeSnip displays a web page using the default web browser - the browser's own proxy setting will be used in this case.

You can temporarily disable proxy access by un-ticking the Use proxy server check box and clicking OK. Re-enable it when you like by ticking the check box again: CodeSnip will remember the previous data.

Your password is stored in CodeSnip's config file in encrypted form.

WARNING: You must remember your proxy password because CodeSnip is not able remind you of it.

FAQ 6

How do I cross-reference my snippets using the "See also" field?

You may have noticed that snippets downloaded from the online database display clickable cross references in the See also field in the main display. You can give your own snippets cross references. To do this:

Select the required snippet. This must be one of your own user-defined snippets.
Display the snippet in the Snippets Editor by choosing the Database | Edit Snippet menu option or by pressing Ctrl+F2.
Select the References tab in the Snippets Editor.
Choose the snippets you want to cross-reference from the Cross-references check list box. You can choose as many as you like.
Click OK.

The chosen snippets will now be displayed in the main window's See also section. Clicking any of the snippets listed there will cause that snippet to be displayed.

If you delete a user defined snippet that is cross referenced by one or more other snippets the deleted snippet will be removed from their See also fields.

Note that you can't edit the cross-references for snippets from the online database - FAQ 2 explains why not.

FAQ 7

Delphi XE2 and later compilers generate a "F1026 File not Found ?????.dcu" error when test compiling snippets. What's going wrong?

This error is caused when Delphi can't find one of the RTL or VCL units referenced by the snippet being compiled.

Delphi XE2 and later organise most of these units into "namespaces", meaning that the unit names must be qualified by prepending the name of the namespace. For example SysUtils belongs to the System namespace and its fully qualified name is System.SysUtils.

The problem arises because CodeSnip does not use fully qualified unit names when test compiling. This is for reasons of backward compatibility with older versions of Delphi.

However, Delphi provides a command line option that lets you specify a list of namespaces to be searched when it encounters unqualified unit names. This is the -NS option. You append a semi-colon separated list of namespaces to be searched to the command, for example: -NSSystem;Vcl;Vcl.Bind

You need to get CodeSnip to pass this parameter to the compiler. The method depends on the version of CodeSnip you are using.

CodeSnip v4.3 and later

Display the Configure Compilers dialogue box from the Tools | Configure Compilers menu option.
Select the required Delphi compiler from the scrolling list on the left hand side of the dialogue box.
Select the Namespaces tab. Note that this tab is present only when the selected compiler is Delphi XE2 or later.
Add each of the required namespaces in turn by entering them in the edit box and pressing the Add button. You can also press the Default button to provide a set of default namespaces that contain the most commonly used units. This list can be added to.
Click OK to update the compiler options.

The next time you test compile a snippet, CodeSnip will generate the required -NS option.

Earlier versions

Display the Configure Compilers dialogue box from the Tools | Configure Compilers menu option.
Select the required Delphi compiler from the scrolling list on the left hand side of the dialogue box.
Select the Switches tab (named Command Line on some versions of CodeSnip).
Check to see if a -NS command is already present in the Switches list. If so, select it.
In the Add or edit switch box enter the required -NS command (or modify any existing command you selected in step 3). For example if your snippet uses SysUtils and Windows enter -NSSystem;WinAPI.
If you are adding a new -NS command click the Add button to add the command to the Switches list. If you are editing an existing command click Replace instead.
Click OK to update the compiler options.

From time to time you may need to add another namespace. Just repeat the appropriate process above and add the necessary namespace(s).

You can see a list of RTL and VCL namespaces, and the units they contain, in the Delphi help. The current list is in the Unit Scope Names topic of the RADStudio documentation.

At the time of writing, the following namespaces are required to compile all the code in the online Code Snippets Database:

System
Vcl
Winapi
Vcl.Imaging
System.Win

Thanks to geoffsmith82 for finding the cause of this problem.

FAQ 8

Why can't my portable edition of CodeSnip see the snippets I created in the standard edition (and vice versa)?

The standard edition of CodeSnip stores your snippets in the Windows user application directory, by default. To be precise the snippets are in %AppData%\DelphiDabbler\CodeSnip.4\UserDatabase. I said "by default" because CodeSnip lets you move it!

Now, for a portable program to be portable it can't store data in any of the normal Windows directories because if you move the program the data files will get left behind. So your snippets can't be stored in the same place the standard edition stores them. In fact the portable edition stores your snippets in the AppData\UserDB sub directory of wherever you placed the CodeSnip executable - and it won't let you move it. That means that if you move CodeSnip to another location your snippets move with it.

So now we see that the portable edition and standard edition expect to find your snippets database in different places by design!

Is there a way to copy the snippets over?

Yes. In fact there are two methods, But you must understand that any edits you make in the portable app won't be reflected in the standard edition and vice versa - and you now know why.

WARNING: Do not attempt to copy the files manually. Use one of the methods below. If you do try this and it goes wrong don't come asking for help!

Method 1: quick & dangerous!

WARNING: Use this method only if you are copying snippets to a CodeSnip installation that has no existing user defined snippets. If any exist they will be overwritten.

Follow these steps:

Run the edition of CodeSnip where you have stored your snippets.
Make a backup of your personal snippets. Use the Database | Backup database menu option and choose a directory and file name to save the backup in. The name can be anything. Make a note of where you saved this file.
Run the edition of CodeSnip where you want to copy the snippets to.
Select the Database | Restore user database menu option and navigate to the file you saved in in step 2. Select the file and click OK. After a wait you should see all your snippets appear.

Method 2: slower but safer

In this method we're going to merge snippets from one edition of CodeSnip with those in the other edition. I'll describe how to merge both ways, but you can choose to just do it in one direction by skipping a couple of steps.

Make sure you follow the instructions in order.

Start both editions of CodeSnip. We'll call them A and B. If only one edition has existing snippets, let that be CodeSnip A.
Important Just in case anything goes wrong take backups of both snippets databases. Use the Database | Backup database menu option to do this. If one of the databases is empty you can skip the backup for that one.
Switch to CodeSnip A and export your snippets to a single file by using the Snippets | Export Snippets menu option. In the resulting dialogue box select all your snippets. Specify a file name (say A.csexp) and click OK.
Switch to CodeSnip B. If it has snippets that you want to merge into CodeSnip A, then export those snippets using the same method as described for CodeSnip A in step 3. Name the file B.csexp.
While still in CodeSnip B, import the snippets from A.csexp that you exported from CodeSnip A. Do this using the Snippets | Import Snippets menu option. This displays the Import Wizard. Follow the instructions in the wizard to perform the import. It has a help topic if you get stuck. Importantly the wizard lets you resolve any name conflicts between imported and existing snippets. Note: This import can take a long time, especially if you have a lot of snippets. The GUI will flash horribly during the process.
Save the snippets by using the Database | Save User Database menu option.
If you exported snippets from CodeSnip B then switch back to CodeSnip A and import the snippets from B.csexp. Use the same method described in steps 5 & 6.
All done. If you close and reopen both editions you should see the merged databases.

If anything went wrong you can restore the database(s) from the backups you took at step 2. Use the Database | Restore user database menu option to do this.

If you need to clear a database then, if you have CodeSnip v4.20.0 or later, use the Database | Delete User Database option. If you have an earlier version you're out of luck and will have to delete the snippets one by one. Either way take a backup before deleting anything.

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