Merge pull request #2660 from github/aeisenberg/qhelp-preview

Ensure the qhelp preview is refreshed after editing

Author: aeisenberg

extensions/ql-vscode/CHANGELOG.md

@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@
 - Remove "last updated" information and sorting from variant analysis results view. [#2637](https://github.com/github/vscode-codeql/pull/2637)
 - Links to code on GitHub now include column numbers as well as line numbers. [#2406](https://github.com/github/vscode-codeql/pull/2406)
 - No longer highlight trailing commas for jump to definition.  [#2615](https://github.com/github/vscode-codeql/pull/2615)
+- Fix a bug where the QHelp preview page was not being refreshed after changes to the underlying `.qhelp` file. [#2660](https://github.com/github/vscode-codeql/pull/2660)
 
 ## 1.8.8 - 17 July 2023
 

extensions/ql-vscode/src/common/commands.ts

@@ -59,6 +59,7 @@ type BuiltInVsCodeCommands = {
   // The codeQLDatabases.focus command is provided by VS Code because we've registered the custom view
   "codeQLDatabases.focus": () => Promise<void>;
   "markdown.showPreviewToSide": (uri: Uri) => Promise<void>;
+  "workbench.action.closeActiveEditor": () => Promise<void>;
   revealFileInOS: (uri: Uri) => Promise<void>;
   setContext: (
     key: `${"codeql" | "codeQL"}${string}`,

extensions/ql-vscode/src/language-support/query-editor.ts

@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-import { Uri, window } from "vscode";
+import { Uri, ViewColumn, window } from "vscode";
 import { CodeQLCliServer } from "../codeql-cli/cli";
 import { QueryRunner } from "../query-server";
 import { basename, join } from "path";
@@ -74,6 +74,16 @@ async function previewQueryHelp(
     const uri = Uri.file(absolutePathToMd);
     try {
       await cliServer.generateQueryHelp(pathToQhelp, absolutePathToMd);
+      // Open and then close the raw markdown file first. This ensures that the preview
+      // is refreshed when we open it in the next step.
+      // This will mean that the users will see a the raw markdown file for a brief moment,
+      // but this is the best we can do for now to ensure that the preview is refreshed.
+      await window.showTextDocument(uri, {
+        viewColumn: ViewColumn.Active,
+      });
+      await commandManager.execute("workbench.action.closeActiveEditor");
+
+      // Now open the preview
       await commandManager.execute("markdown.showPreviewToSide", uri);
     } catch (e) {
       const errorMessage = getErrorMessage(e).includes(