Make auto-complete and yasnippet modes work together to edit a specific file in GNU/Emacs

Question

I use Emacs 24 from scratch with the latest yasnippet and auto-complete installed and nominally working. Now, as a emacs user and an android developer, I'd like to use my favorite editor and automate some tasks fr android development. I know almost nothing about elisp.

My first task is to use custom snippets to add the uses-sdk tag in AndroidManifest.xml. That's ok with yasnippet but I'd like to use auto-complete to interactively propose and auto-complete android specific tags. The problem is that the major mode for AndroidManifest.xml is nxml and I don't want to propose android specifics to all nxml-mode related buffers. As a consequence, I use a condition on the buffer name in the snippet definition. Now, I'd like to add a custom hook to nxml-mode-hook but I failed to enable the auto-complete mode.

My snippet:

#contributor : Me, Myself and I
#name : <uses-sdk ... />
#condition : (string= (buffer-name) "AndroidManifest.xml")
# --
<uses-sdk android:minSdkVersion="$0" />

The .emacs part that miserably failed:

;; yasnippet
(add-to-list 'load-path "~/.emacs.d/yasnippet")
(require 'yasnippet)
(setq yas/trigger-key (kbd "C-c <kp-multiply>"))
(yas/initialize)
;; Develop in ~/emacs.d/mysnippets, but also
;; try out snippets in ~/Downloads/interesting-snippets
(setq yas/root-directory '("~/.emacs.d/snippets"
                           "~/.emacs.d/external-snippets"))
;; Map `yas/load-directory' to every element
(mapc 'yas/load-directory yas/root-directory)

;; auto-complete
(add-to-list 'load-path "~/.emacs.d/auto-complete")
(require 'auto-complete-config)
(add-to-list 'ac-dictionary-directories "~/.emacs.d/auto-complete/ac-dict")

(setq-default ac-sources '(ac-source-yasnippet ac-source-abbrev ac-source-dictionary ac-source-words-in-same-mode-buffers))
(add-hook 'emacs-lisp-mode-hook 'ac-emacs-lisp-mode-setup)
(add-hook 'c-mode-common-hook 'ac-cc-mode-setup)
(add-hook 'ruby-mode-hook 'ac-ruby-mode-setup)
(add-hook 'css-mode-hook 'ac-css-mode-setup)
(add-hook 'auto-complete-mode-hook 'ac-common-setup)
(global-auto-complete-mode t)

;; android specific settings
;; AndroidManifest.xml
(defun ac-android-manifest-nxml-setup()
  ""
  (when (string= (buffer-name) "AndroidManifest.xml")
    (setq ac-sources '(ac-source-yasnippet ac-source-abbrev ac-source-dictionary ac-source-words-in-same-mode-buffers))))
(add-hook 'nxml-mode-hook 'ac-android-manifest-nxml-setup)

The snippet works as intended but the completion don't though the auto-completion works if I enable auto-complete using M-x auto-complete-mode.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

can you clarify the problem you're trying to solve? Is the problem with the snippet? It seems not, because you said The snippet works as intended... . In that case, why do you even mention the snippet in this question? And what does it mean to say the completion don't though the auto-completion works.... Does completion work, or not? And you also sprinkled in your question this statement: I failed to enable the auto-complete mode. Is that the real problem? Maybe you could use a few more sentences. Clarify what you are asking. — Cheeso
Also, if you want to fill a file in with a given template, automatically based on its name, you can try emacswiki.org/emacs/DefaultContent — Cheeso
I mention yasnippet since I want to auto complete yasnippet keys. My meaning is that the auto completion works well when I enable manualy the auto-complete mode. The issue is that I failed to auto enable auto-complete with a hook on nxml-mode. I confirm that I don't need a file template (that's off topic but android project does init the AndroidManifest file, I bref templates for activity, permission, etc.) — Renaud
A part of the last sentence has been corrupted by my android phone (and native language completion): I need templates for activity, permission. — Renaud

Renaud Renaud · Accepted Answer · 2011-09-16T17:53:38

Works well with

;; auto-complete
(add-to-list 'load-path "~/.emacs.d/auto-complete")
(require 'auto-complete-config)
(add-to-list 'ac-dictionary-directories "~/.emacs.d/auto-complete/ac-dict")
(ac-config-default)

;; android specific settings
;; AndroidManifest.xml
(defun ac-android-manifest-nxml-setup()
  (when (string= (buffer-name) "AndroidManifest.xml")
    (setq ac-sources '(ac-source-yasnippet
                       ac-source-abbrev
                       ac-source-dictionary
                       ac-source-words-in-same-mode-buffers))
    ((lambda () (auto-complete-mode 1)))))
(add-hook 'nxml-mode-hook 'ac-android-manifest-nxml-setup)

Make auto-complete and yasnippet modes work together to edit a specific file in GNU/Emacs

1 Answers