Allow a workspace to show individual files from other folders

[Sneezry]

Update from @bpasero: this issue was renamed based on the discussion at the end (see #45177 (comment) and above)

Original below:

• VSCode Version: 1.20.1
• OS Version: Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.16299.248]

Steps to Reproduce:

N/A

Does this issue occur when all extensions are disabled?: Yes

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Currently, .code-workspace only contains folders field which allows to add folders into workspace. I prefer a way to add single files into workspace for the entire project, such as README or something else.

[TuxVinyards]

I seem to be able to add files to the 'workspace' by just using file > open. However, they don't show in the workspace side bar, so can't do things like rename when doing versioning numbers. Also 'gitlens' doesn't seem to track them either.

[TuxVinyards]

Or, to put this in different words:
I can create a workspace from a couple of folders. But if I want to add a couple of files as well, I can't get the same workability The .workspace file seems to record the files that I have open but as they don't show in the side bar ....

[OwenPattison]

I've had the same issue this week where I've altered the structure of my solution so that i only have single package.json and tsconfig.json in the root of my solution, where previously there were multiple of both package.json and tsconfig.json located inside of a corresponding 'App' folder, this meant in my workspace i could add each 'App' folder and vscode would be happy - no errors.

Now that I've changed the structure to have a single package.json and tsconfig.json which handles each app the workspace does not include the files due to them now being located in the root which leads to ts errors in my files.

The only workaround i have currently is to include my entire solution which isn't very desirable.

Having the ability to add individual files to the workspace means i could retain a workspace that only has my desired files in but means i could include the necessary files to not have errors.

[qiulang]

.gitignore, README and docker-compose.yml(my case) are the good examples to be in the root of my app folder.
Besides, I feel weird that although I can't add those files to my workspace I can just open a new window to open my app folder. All files inside my app folder will show but I can't debug my app (vscode shows 'no configuration') like when I use workspace.

[jalovatt]

Yes please.

Due to the setup of the repository I'm working in, a particular project might have its own subfolder but also has to have a package file at root-level. Would be great to have the package as part of the workspace.

[IvanG96]

And i would say even more. Due to the project specific that i'm working on, i have several c# projects in the several folders that included into one visual studio solution. And there are hundreds of xml files in this folders that can't be made as part of solution.
So it would be really great and convinient to include all of them into vs code workspace by simple pattern like \xmlfolder**.xml

[bpasero]

I am closing this "as designed". This is not a scenario we will support anytime soon. Please also see https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode/wiki/Issue-Grooming#out-of-scope-feature-requests