Class Snippet

Easily create classes with the shard_class snippet.

Snippets are a great way to speed up your development process by providing a template for common code structures.

This snippet provides a basic structure for creating a class in Shard, including the new, initialize, and start methods.

📄 Snippet

local ReplicatedStorage = game:GetService("ReplicatedStorage")

local Dispatcher = require(ReplicatedStorage.Packages.Dispatcher)
local GetModule = require(ReplicatedStorage.Packages.GetModule)

local ClassName = {}
ClassName.__index = ClassName

type self = {
    new: () -> ClassName,
    initialize: () -> (),
    start: () -> ()
}

export type ClassName = typeof(setmetatable({} :: self, ClassName))

function ClassName.new(): ClassName
    local self = setmetatable({} :: self, ClassName)

    return self
end

function ClassName:initialize()
    
end

function ClassName:start()
    
end

return ClassName

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🧩 Visual Studio Code Snippet

You can also bake this snippet into Visual Studio Code so whenever you type shard_class and click tab it will automatically fill out, and apply cursors where you would want to name the class.

We may add this into the Shard extension in the future but for now this is how you can add it:

(You can also follow the video demo below)

1. Open Visual Studio Code.
2. Go to File > Preferences > Configure Snippets.
3. Select New Global Snippets file ... from the list or an existing snippet file you have dedicated for Lua.
4. Name the snippet shard-snippets or any name you prefer.
5. Replace all the code and paste the following snippet:

{
    "ShardClassTemplate": {
        "prefix": [
            "shard_class"
        ],
        "body": [
            "local ReplicatedStorage = game:GetService(\"ReplicatedStorage\")\n",
            "local Dispatcher = require(ReplicatedStorage.Packages.Dispatcher)",
            "local GetModule = require(ReplicatedStorage.Packages.GetModule)\n",
            "local ${1:ClassName} = {}",
            "${1:ClassName}.__index = ${1:ClassName}\n",
            "type self = {",
            "\tnew: () -> ${1:ClassName},",
            "\tinitialize: () -> (),",
            "\tstart: () -> ()",
            "}\n",
            "export type ${1:ClassName} = typeof(setmetatable({} :: self, ${1:ClassName}))\n",
            "function ${1:ClassName}.new(): ${1:ClassName}",
            "\tlocal self = setmetatable({} :: self, ${1:ClassName})\n",
            "\treturn self",
            "end\n",
            "function ${1:ClassName}:initialize()",
            "\t",
            "end\n",
            "function ${1:ClassName}:start()",
            "\t",
            "end\n",
            "return ${1:ClassName}"
        ],
        "description": "Creates a new shard class template with initialize and start methods."
    }
}

6. Save the file.
7. Now, when you type shard_class in a Lua file, it will auto-complete to the class snippet.

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🎥 Snippet Video Demo

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Now you can easily create classes in Shard with the shard_class snippet!

Next: Learn how to install packages quickly with the Shard plugin →