NTVS 1.1 RC2
Pre-release
We are pleased to announce the release of Node.js Tools 1.1 RC2 for Visual Studio.
Downloads
1. Download Visual Studio Community 2015
2. Download Node.js Tools 1.1 RC2
Looking for Visual Studio 2012 and 2013 support?
RELEASE NOTES
Node.js Tools for Visual Studio (NTVS) is a free, open-source plug-in that turns Visual Studio into a Node.js Integrated Development Environment (IDE). It supports a broad range of features including editing, IntelliSense, cross platform and remote debugging, edit and continue, npm integration, profiling, TypeScript, and an integrated REPL window. NTVS also includes a set of project templates that make it easy to quickly create and deploy websites to Microsoft Azure Websites or Cloud Services.
NTVS 1.1 RC2 is available for:
- Visual Studio Community 2015
- Visual Studio Community 2013
- Visual Studio 2015 Express for Web
- Visual Studio 2013 Express for Web (requires Update 2 or later)
- Visual Studio 2015 Professional or above
- Visual Studio 2013 Professional or above (requires Update 2 or later)
- Visual Studio 2012 Professional or above (requires Update 4)
Note that NTVS is not available for Visual Studio Express for Windows (or Windows Desktop)
Changes since 1.1 RC
ES6 IntelliSense Preview (new analysis engine)
You’ve been asking for ES6 support in Node.js tools for Visual Studio and we’re excited to give you a sneak peek in NTVS 1.1 RC2! Check out the new ES6 IntelliSense Preview mode available in Tools > Options > Node.js IntelliSense. This option will enable an experimental JavaScript editing experience, powered by TypeScript.
Head on over to our docs to learn more about this feature and some of it's limitations. We're constantly working to improve the IntelliSense experience, so please let us know what you think.
npm v3 Support
Look familiar? We thought it might... Luckily npm v3 is just around the corner, and one of the features we're most excited about is that dependencies are installed maximally flat, so you're less likely to run into MAX_PATH issues. NTVS 1.1 RC2 brings full support for this latest version in both solution explorer and the analysis engine.
Ready to give npm v3 beta a spin? Either follow the manual upgrade steps, or take advantage of the npm-windows-upgrade package from our friends at Microsoft DX.
Code Snippets
You've asked, and we listened! Thanks to our awesome intern, @avitalb, we finally have code snippet support in NTVS.
Simply press Ctrl+K +X to browse and select a snippet to insert, or type in the snippet name and press tab to complete it. Alternatively, highlight some existing code and press Ctrl+K+S to surround with. And of course, you can always modify or add your own snippets through the Snippet manager.
Write a great code snippet that you'd like to share? Let us know - we may be able to include it in the next update of NTVS.
Performance Improvements
Slow project load times are a drag, but not anymore. We have significantly improved our performance during project load when the dependency tree is large. In some cases we have seen over 80% gain in load times of large projects.
Debugging
We recently fixed an issue during debug-attach that was causing flakey debugging experiences for some users. So if breakpoints weren't working properly sometimes, or your app was having trouble running under the debugger, or things were generally inconsistent then hopefully this'll help 😃. Still running into issues with the latest release? Please let us know by filing an issue, and we'll try to get to it by 1.1 RTM.
Telemetry
We ❤️ Node.js, and strive to make NTVS to be the best Node.js development experience out there. So thank you so much to everyone who's already been active in the community here on GitHub. To help us further understand our user base, we will be collecting unidentifiable usage data to learn how we can make the experience even better.
We are extremely careful about instrumenting the code for telemetry for the following reasons.
- User Privacy - You can learn more about our privacy policy here.
- Performance - We ensure that the telemetry instrumentation does not negatively impact the performance of this product.
We have only added a couple of instrumentation points in this release, and we will be as transparent as possible with any future telemetry points we add to improve our learning on the usage of NTVS. And as always, please let us know if you have any questions or concerns.
Live Diagnostics Pane
There are some issues we just can't reproduce, so in order to help us track them down, we've added a new optional Live Diagnostics Pane, which you can enable by going to Tools > Node.js Tools > Diagnostic Info..., and check the Enable Node.js Tools Live Diagnostics output pane box. Then, during your debug sessions, output will be available in the Node.js Tools Live Diagnostics output pane
See #246 (comment) for more information, and thanks in advance for helping us track down these issues!
Numerous bug fixes
All across the product numerous issues have been fixed. We expect the RC release to provide both a much better user experience and improved stability. We would like to thank all of the people who took their time to report issues, send feedback for this release. We very much appreciate your help!
Known Issues
- #359 - Cloud deployment fails in certain scenarios. This issue will be fixed by in the next release, but in the meantime, you can work around the issue by unchecking the Show labels denoting browser and Node.js code in Solution Explorer option in Tools > Options > Node.js Tools
- ReSharper is known to cause code-completion, memory, and performance issues when enabled alongside NTVS. We recommend disabling at least ReSharper's JavaScript functionality if you are having problems.
- NTVS does not fully support build and test features of Visual Studio Online, but we are working to improve the experience. If you are having trouble, please file an issue so we can get to the bottom of it.
- We are constantly working to improve our code-completion and formatting to support the wide variety of modules and code styles. Please file an issue if you are running into unexpected behavior.
For a full list of issues, head on over to our issue tracker
Help make NTVS Better
NTVS is an open source project and we’re always willing to take high quality contributions. If you’d like to contribute, please check out our issue tracker for outstanding bugs and features which can be implemented. You can also help make NTVS better by reporting issues or helping out your fellow users on GitHub.
Miscellaneous thoughts on the release? Give us a shout-out on twitter!