Request for SPIFFS support for ESP8266

[judge2005]

Hi,

Would you consider adding support for the creation and upload of SPIFF bin files?

Thanks - Paul

[jantje]

I think this has been asked before but I can't recall where or by who.
I would consider it but it is not high on my agenda (actually at this time it is not)

[judge2005]

That's OK. Could you give me hints as to how I might add this myself? I am a professional Java developer and long time user of Eclipse, though I have never worked on plugins for Eclipse.

[jantje]

The best thing is look for java code that does it. Which in this case probably exists.
Then integrate this code into the plugin.
Then make a pull request so that later versions still contain the code

[jantje]

I can help with the integration where when how what

[wimjongman]

Hi Paul. Can You sketch out how you want to approach this? For example, what menu items go where, any mockup of screens, what is the output, etc..

…

On Jan 14, 2017 14:15, "Paul Andrews" ***@***.***> wrote: That's OK. Could you give me hints as to how I might add this myself? I am a professional Java developer and long time user of Eclipse, though I have never worked on plugins for Eclipse. — You are receiving this because you are subscribed to this thread. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#628 (comment)>, or mute the thread <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AALC6ZX5gE41BCprNXTBSfQ0FCVxU8v9ks5rSMpygaJpZM4LjfMd> .

[judge2005]

Hi,

I forked and cloned master, I have one compilation error in BoardSelectionPage line 306:

Description Resource Path Location Type
The method requestLayout() is undefined for the type Composite BoardSelectionPage.java /io.sloeber.ui/src/io/sloeber/ui/project/properties line 306 Java Problem

@wimjongman I am a long way from figuring that out. If I can get anything to work at all in a reasonable timeframe I will get back to you.

[judge2005]

I figure I will make this work like the equivalent process in the Arduino IDE. i.e. everything in a directory called 'data' will be packaged up by mkspiffs and then uploaded using esptool (or OTA).

I see that mkspiffs is defined in platform.txt, somewhat like the esptool and network upload tool is. I see that 'esptool' is defined in boards.txt as 'generic.upload.tool', but I don't see how the path to the executable is resolved at runtime. I see that network_cmd is referenced in pre_processing_platform_default.txt, but I don't see the key (tools.esp8266OTA) being referenced anywhere in the code. In short, I'm not sure how I am supposed to find the path to mkspiffs. When I figure this out (or you tell me) I will then also have to figure out:

1. where to put the code that invokes it.
2. What causes it to get invoked (say from the arduino menu).
3. Where the resulting package should go.
4. How to invoke esptool (or OTA) to upload it (by which I mean, what code do I invoke, rather than what arguments to provide).

So, any suggestions you have on any of this would be gratefully received.

[jantje]

Description Resource Path Location Type
The method requestLayout() is undefined for the type Composite BoardSelectionPage.java /io.sloeber.ui/src/io/sloeber/ui/project/properties line 306 Java Problem

requestLayout is from the class org.eclipse.swt.widgets control.
In my code composite extends Scrollable Scrollable extends Control

requestLayout is not so important. It makes the page to recalculate and adapt so it shows ok. resizing the page does the same thing.
But it is suspicious that you get this error. It looks like something is wrong which may cause other havoc.

but I don't see the key (tools.esp8266OTA) being referenced anywhere in the code.

That is absolutely normal. The only tool Sloeber knows (from the top of my head) is make and upload.
Sloeber works on what it finds in platform.txt files and boards.txt files. It knows the RECIPE(.OBJCOPY) keyword.
Sloeber converts the platform.txt and boards.txt into environment variables. you can see the output of this process in project properties->C/C++ build->Environment.

In short: to start mkspiffs the right command is ${A.TOOLS.MKSPIFSS.PATH}/${A.TOOLS.MKSPIFFS.CMD}
In code this would be

final private String  MKSPIFFS_PATH="mkspiffs.path";
final private String  MKSPIFFS_CMD="mkspiffs.cmd";
....
String runMkSpiffsCmd=makeEnvironmentVar(MKSPIFFS_PATH)+"/"+makeEnvironmentVar(MKSPIFFS_CMD)
;

To run this use the consoled commands
aConsole.RunConsoledCommand(this.myConsole, runMkSpiffsCmd, monitor);

Now some questions from me to you.
Ths mkspiffs command is this part of the upload? If so before or after the upload or don't care?
Is this a parameterless command? Can't be as it needs the port and the folder and probably more.
Do not hard code this info but put in in the prePlatform.txt file.
I would go for something like
recipe.uploadFiles="{mkspiffs.path}/{mkspiffs.cmd}" -p "{serial.port}" "{build.path}/../data"

PS We use slack now. I have send you an invite.

[judge2005]

Hi,

I will dig some more into the compilation error - I have commented it out for now. FYI I am using Mars, maybe that has some impact?

The info you provided is useful, I should be able to make some progress from that. BTW mkspiffs is a tool that builds the spiffs from one or more files on your computer. esptool is then used to upload the results, so mkspiffs is like the compilation/packaging phase and esptool is the upload phase. Both tools are part of the esp8266 boards package that can be installed in the Arduino IDE.

Both tools will require a lot of command line options. I am basing a lot of this on https://github.com/esp8266/arduino-esp8266fs-plugin.