Software development or web development is an area in which every developer is looking for some tools or innovations that can be useful in growing their efficiency. Different developers have multiple possibilities and different methods are used by them. It often becomes very challenging for developers to write the same code at different places, refresh the page, or format the code too many times.
Microsoft Visual Studio Code (VS Code) is one of the leading code editors for software developers. Ever since its launch, its prominence has plummeted not only because of the strong base it offers but also for the extensible nature that Microsoft built into it. The extensions marketplace has a plethora of add-ons and features that allow developers to configure VS Code into their ideal development environment.
If you’re someone who uses Visual Studio Code, we’ll provide you with 15 extensions in this article that you can install and use to improve your efficiency.
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Debugger for Chrome
This extension is being used in the Visual Studio Code environment to debug JavaScript code in the Google Chrome browser for web pages. This extension is a lot more efficient for debugging JavaScript code than the Chrome console. Initially, install the extension, and then set up the launch.json settings to debug the specific web page you want to analyze. The specific details about the extension can be found in the following link to the marketplace.
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Line Server
This extension is used to launch a local server for creation with a live reload function for static and dynamic pages. This improves efficiency by only implementing changes to the VS code and storing the file to preview the changes made to your source code. Rather than just manually refreshing the browser window, this will automatically refresh the browser and show the modifications you made to it. Detailed information surrounding this extension can be found under the link provided below.
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ESLint
This extension is used for evaluating and correcting errors in your JavaScript code. It can be programmed to auto-format your code, too, and it will send you a ton of alerts if you make a mistake. To correct the errors that were highlighted, you can install and modify your JS code. Extensive data on the installation and use of ESLint can be found under the link provided below.
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Bracket Pair Colorizer
The complicated side of the life of a programmer is a lot of sloppy brackets in several positions in the code. With loads of nested code, deciding which brackets correspond with each other gets challenging for developers. The colors matching brackets include the purpose to mark the brackets with colors in your code with this wonderful extension. Through this, your code will become a lot more readable. This extension would definitely improve the code’s quality and its link is provided below:
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Beautify
This extension is made to use in the case of formatting files such as HTML. Unformatted code in these files is transformed by this extension into formatted, readable code. In the VS Code preferences, you can configure this environment, which would then instantly format all of the code you entered in the editor. Detailed information concerning this extension can be found under the link provided below.
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Browser Preview
This extension is one step ahead in terms of the ease it offers, aside from the Live Server extension. It arrives with the live-reloading preview function right inside the VS Code. You do not need to tab over to your browser for any kind of minor changes. For Front End Developer, this extension is a must as it demonstrates the code’s browser preview and makes life very convenient. To have access to it, click on the link below:
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JS(ES6) Code Snippets
As a professional developer, it gets difficult to write the same code again and again in various places. Well, this extension has a workable alternative and it allows you to use common modern (ES6) JavaScript code snippets that can be used to save your time in your application. If you don’t use the JavaScript features of ES6, you can go ahead and give it a try by clicking on the link below:
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Settings Sync
This extension is used to preserve your editor settings so that they can be restored to a new computer, rather than configuring them at any time. This can be helpful in setting up a tailored development environment for editors. We can upload the settings to a GitHub location using this extension and then restore them to a new computer for the editors. Please find the below link to learn more about the same:
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Quokka
Quokka provides you a scratchpad for JavaScript (and TypeScript) in VS code. This implies that you can test your code in your editor. This extension is used in the Visual Studio Code editor itself to evaluate JavaScript code rather than testing it out in the browser console. Comprehensive details concerning this extension can be found under the following link.
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C#
In the Visual Studio Code editor, this extension is used for creating web applications in C#. You can have access to this extension to create C# code and access functions such as Go to Definition, Find All Reference, IntelliSense, etc., typically available in source editors such as Visual Studio. Thorough details concerning this extension can be found under the link provided.
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Git Link
This extension will work perfectly fine for you if you’ve ever wished to view a file that you’re operating on in Github. After installing your file, right-click it and you will see the option to expand the file in Github. If you don’t use the Git Lens extension, it’s useful for testing history, branch versions, etc. To get into more details, click on the link below:
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Path Intellisense
In huge projects, it can become challenging to identify basic file names and the directories in which your files are. For just that, this extension will offer you Intellisense. You can get Intellisense for directories and file names when you start typing a path in quotations. This will save you a lot of time spent on the file explorer.
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Better Comments
To enhance the readability and comprehensibility of the code, this extension is used to distinguish comment types such as alerts, errors, highlights, and queries. Informative details concerning this extension can be found under the link provided below:
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Live Sass Compiler
In comparison to the other compilers, such as Visual Studio extensions, this VS Code extension is being used to compile SCSS files into CSS files easily. For web developers, this is useful when creating web pages with SCSS files. Thorough details can be accessed in the following link about this.
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Better Align
This extension is being used to better align the code. It can be used to align several declarations of variables, trailing comments, code pieces, and more. Thorough details concerning this extension can be found under the following link.
In A Nutshell…
Visual studio code is possibly the best code editor to use at the moment. This editor is largely facilitated owing to its broad variety of extensions and support from Microsoft. Customizability, particularly through extensions, is among the most impressive aspects of Visual Studio Code. It would become highly challenging to survive without downloading these extensions if you’re a web developer.
In addition to these, the VS code provides a large range of awesome extensions to support developers. Make sure to check them out. These will certainly assist you in saving time, but perhaps a little more in embracing your role as a developer.
We hope that our comprehensive but not exhaustive list of Visual Studio Extensions for web development will help you in the long run. Let us know your favorite extension in the comments section below.
