graham.systems / vscode-cheer
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vscode-cheer / vsc-extension-quickstart.md
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Welcome to your VS Code Extension#

What's in the folder#

  • This folder contains all of the files necessary for your extension.
  • package.json - this is the manifest file in which you declare your extension and command.

The sample plugin registers a command and defines its title and command name. With this information VS Code can show the command in the command palette. It doesn’t yet need to load the plugin.

  • extension.js - this is the main file where you will provide the implementation of your command.

The file exports one function, activate, which is called the very first time your extension is activated (in this case by executing the command). Inside the activate function we call registerCommand. We pass the function containing the implementation of the command as the second parameter to registerCommand.

Get up and running straight away#

  • Press F5 to open a new window with your extension loaded.
  • Run your command from the command palette by pressing (Ctrl+Shift+P or Cmd+Shift+P on Mac) and typing Hello World.
  • Set breakpoints in your code inside extension.js to debug your extension.
  • Find output from your extension in the debug console.

Make changes#

  • You can relaunch the extension from the debug toolbar after changing code in extension.js.
  • You can also reload (Ctrl+R or Cmd+R on Mac) the VS Code window with your extension to load your changes.

Explore the API#

  • You can open the full set of our API when you open the file node_modules/vscode/vscode.d.ts.

Run tests#

  • Open the debug viewlet (Ctrl+Shift+D or Cmd+Shift+D on Mac) and from the launch configuration dropdown pick Extension Tests.
  • Press F5 to run the tests in a new window with your extension loaded.
  • See the output of the test result in the debug console.
  • Make changes to test/extension.test.js or create new test files inside the test folder.
    • By convention, the test runner will only consider files matching the name pattern **.test.js.
    • You can create folders inside the test folder to structure your tests any way you want.