Preferences Overview

This is an overview of all Brackets preference, state, and caching management as of January 2015.

Persistence

This section describes where Brackets stores data.

Client

Brackets Client is the code in brackets repo. Data stored in client is classified as "preferences" and "states" where preferences are settings user would explicity specify such as Tab Size, and state information is settings implicitly set by app such as last file edited.

Client information is stored in JSON files:

Type	Location
Global user preferences	user-dir/brackets.json
Project preferences	project-dir/.brackets.json
State information	user-dir/state.json

Where:

• user-dir is the operating system specific user folder. See this article.
• project-dir is the folder currently opened in Brackets using File > Open Folder..., or by dragging a folder and dropping it on Brackets.

Native

Brackets Native code is in the [brackets-shell](https://github.com/brackets-cont/brackets-shell repo). On Windows, brackets-shell stores data such as app window size and position in the Windows Registry at HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Brackets. This is automatically handled by Mac OS and not yet implemented on Linux.

CEF cache

Chromium Embedded Framework caches data in user-dir/cef_data/. Files in this folder should never be edited manually. Folder can be deleted to clear cache.

Live Preview

Live Preview uses a custom Chrome browser profile which caches data in user-dir/live-dev-profile/. Files in this folder should never be edited manually. Folder can be deleted to clear cache.

Extension Manager

The Extension Manager currently adds files to and removes files from the user-dir/extensions/user folder. An extensions/disabled folder is also provided so users can manually move extensions from user folder for disabling, but this is not yet supported in Extension Manager.

Preferences GUI

Currently, there is no global GUI for where every preference can be accessed. On Mac, App > Preferences menu item is disabled. But there are some places in UI where prefs can be set:

• Status bar
  • Tabs vs Spaces, spaceUnits
  • Show/hide lint errors
  • File type
  • Insert vs Overwrite mode
  • Error Indicator
    • Enabled with Debug > Show Errors in Status Bar
• Menu
  • File
    • Live Preview
    • Enable Experimental Live Preview
    • Project Settings... dialog
  • Edit
    • Auto Close Braces
  • View
    • almost everything...
  • Debug
    • Show Errors in Status Bar

State

State info is stored for things such as:

• Previously opened projects
• Current project
• Working Set files
• MRU file list
• Project file tree folders: open/close state
• Scroll and cursor positions for previously edited files

Updating Other Preferences

Preferences that cannot be set via GUI have to be set manually. See Preferences section of How To Use Brackets wiki page for more info on editing brackets.json file and a list of preferences defined in Brackets.

Saving preference file to disk automatically updates in Brackets, even when edited with external editor.

For quick access to brackets.json use: Debug > Open Preferences File

Extensions

Extensions have full access to Preference System so can get or set Brackets preferences/states and define their own preferences/states.

Preference System Code

For detailed info see Preference System documentation in wiki. Also see PreferencesBase module in API Docs.