Is it safe to call httpclient from CodeRefactoringProvider?

[DmitryLukyanov]

Given that CodeRefactoringProvider is called from inside Visual Studio (via vsix), Is it safe to call 3rd party resources from CodeAction for example via HttpClient?

	public sealed override async Task ComputeRefactoringsAsync(CodeRefactoringContext context)
	{
		var root = await context.Document.GetSyntaxRootAsync(context.CancellationToken).ConfigureAwait(false);
		var node = root.FindNode(context.Span);
		switch (node)
		{
			case ClassDeclarationSyntax classDeclarationSyntax: 
				{
					var action = CodeAction.Create($"Create unit tests for '{classDeclarationSyntax?.Identifier.ValueText}'", c => SendRequestToUnitTestsAgentAsync(context.Document, classDeclarationSyntax, c));
					context.RegisterRefactoring(action);
				}
				break;
		}
	}


	private async Task<Solution> SendRequestToUnitTestsAgentAsync(Document document, ClassDeclarationSyntax methodDeclarationSyntax, CancellationToken cancellationToken)
	{
	    // HttpClient call...
	}

Any help would appreciated ?

[CyrusNajmabadi]

No. This is not ok. This now will place all refactorings behind an unbounded network IO call. Don't do this.

Alternative:

Have some BG, non-blocking, system that makes these calls, and populates some local cache. Then have your refactoring just lookup if the data it needs is in that cache and use it if so.

[CyrusNajmabadi]

You can do this in the fix-portion of a refactoring. Do not do it during the analysis portion. Also, ensure you pass along the cancellation tokrn you are passed. That way if the fix portion takes too long, then then user can cancel things with hte dialog that pops up.

[DmitryLukyanov]

@CyrusNajmabadi , by fix-portion of a refactoring - you mean codeAction? Like:

      var action = CodeAction.Create($"Create unit tests for '{methodDeclarationSyntax?.Identifier.ValueText}'", c => SendRequestToUnitTestsAgentAsync(context.Document, methodDeclarationSyntax, c));
      context.RegisterRefactoring(action);

?

[CyrusNajmabadi]

yes.

[CyrusNajmabadi]

Note: ensure you override the code action and provide an implementation that deos not do this in the preview-computation portion of execution. you only want to do this if the user actually invokes this code action.

[DmitryLukyanov]

thanks @CyrusNajmabadi , it's what I've done initially.