Task Explorer - View and Run Tasks from Visual Studio Code

PROJECT ON HOLD

IF YOU HAVE KIDS, HUG THEM EVERY CHANCE YOU GET

I LOST MY DAUGHTER, AND AM FOREVER BROKEN

The most downloaded task related extension on the Marketplace

IMPORTANT NOTE: This extension has surpassed where I was ever going to take it, and the time that ended up going into it were more than I ever intended. Considering a pay scheme (cheap, e.g. $10 - $20), with free usage up to the # of to-be-determined number of parsed tasks. Note the license, this codebase is NOT permitted to be copied or distributed without my permission.

VERSION 3

VERSION 3 COMING SOON!!

Version 3 includes a plethora of new features, as well as bug fixes, two of which have existed since Version 1. Note that Version 3 is licensable and will introduce a small subscription fee for unlimited parsed tasks and a full featured Task Monitor (more info available soon). Of course, you can continue to use Version 3 at no cost, but with a semi-limited set of tasks parsed for a single or multi-root workspace.

Description

Provides a view in either (or both) the SideBar and/or Explorer that displays all supported tasks organized into a treeview, with parent task file nodes, grouped nodes, and project folders (convenient for large multi-root workspaces). Tasks can be opened for view/edit, executed, and stopped, among other things for specific task types, for example NPM file nodes support common npm command(s) (i.e. 'install') via context menu.

Screenshots by Version

Original Explorer Tray	Sidebar View (v1.7)	Task Type Groups (v1.13)

Grunt/Gulp in Subfolders (v1.14)	Npm Commands (v1.16)	Task Groupings (v1.23)

Multi-Level Task Groupings (v1.29)	Run with Args, No Terminal (1.30)	Last Tasks (1.25) Favorites (2.0)

Requirements

Visual Studio Code v1.50+

"Should" work with VSCode versions 1.30 and above, but am no longer running tests against VSCode versions below 1.50 as of 2/5/2021 (v1.28.0).

Features by Version

v2.7 - External provider integration API #22
v2.6 - Composer support #150 Include shellscripts with no extension #153 Rename tasks #164
v2.5 - Webpack build - Runs 10-15% faster.
v2.4 - Add Pipenv support for Python Pipfile scripts. (thanks rob4226) #155
v2.3 - App-Publisher v2.0 support. Several fixes including long time issue #143.
v2.2 - Support for Maven (closes #107)
v2.1 - App Publisher changelog pull tasks
v2.0 - All async-await processing, Favorites (closes #101), Clear special task lists
v1.30 - Configurable default click action (closes #97), Add 'Run with Arguments' command (closes #88), Add 'Run with NoTerminal' command (closes #39) (note that as of VSCode 1.53, there seems to be a bug that prevents running tasks without showing the terminal).
v1.29 - Support multi-level task groupings (closes #129), Support user tasks (closes #127)
v1.28 - Support Makefile aliases (thanks MichaelCurrin)
v1.27 - Use gulp and ant to find their respective tasks (configurable on/off) (closes #105), Make grouping separator configurable (thanks richarddavenport)
v1.26 - Add 'Running Task' status bar message (refs #47)
v1.25 - Add 'Last Tasks' pseudo-folder
v1.24 - Add 'Open Terminal' button to running tasks (closes #23)
v1.23 - Task groupings with dashed task groups (Off by default)
v1.22 - Major performance enhancements - Task Tree / Task Scanning
v1.21 - Add option to keep terminal open after stopping task (closes #51)
v1.20 - Add support for restarting task (thanks antfu)
v1.19 - App-Publisher task support for BETA testing
v1.18 - Add 'Add to excludes' action in task file node context menu
v1.17 - Add 'Run last task' button to titlebar
v1.16 - Add npm management tasks to npm file node context menus
v1.15 - Support for gradle tasks (includes provider) (closes #15)
v1.14 - Support for grunt and gulp task files not located in the project root (closes #12)
v1.13 - Multiple task files of the same type placed within a group node for less clutter in folder level nodes
v1.12 - Support for bash, batch, perl, powershell, python, ruby, and nsis scripts (includes provider)
v1.11 - N/A - Obsolete Batch Task Provider replaced by v1.12 ScriptProvider
v1.10 - Support for Makefiles (includes provider)
v1.9 - Support for gulp and grunt tasks (includes provider)
v1.8 - Support for ant files not named [Bb]uild.xml, ansicon output colorization fixed
v1.7 - Two view types - Use one or both of either SideBar View and/or Explorer Tray
v1.6 - Progress icons for running tasks
v1.6 - Stop execution button for running tasks
v1.5 - Support for Apache Ant tasks (includes provider)
v1.4 - Support for TSC tasks
v1.3 - Support for Visual Studio Code tasks
v1.2 - Convenient layout - groups all tasks by project folder, by task file, by task
v1.1 - Supports multi-root or single-root workspaces
v1.0 - Open and launch NPM scripts as tasks

Version 2

Version 2 highlights 2 major performance enhancements along with several features and bug fixes, notably:

An async/await approach for all processing has improved task load time performance 10-20%.
Launching tasks is more than 2x more responsive in the Tree UI, as well as when tasks finish.
Favorites List.
Clear buttons for Favorites and last Tasks lists (need icon!!!).
Much improved logging for debugging user issues.
Completely refactored classes, interfaces, and commenting for easier community contributions.

App-Publisher

Integrates with the app-publisher tool.

App-Publisher is a multi-purpose versioning/release tool that can be used for, but not limited to, the following:

Publish releases in a CI like manner on a local system, with version calculation.
Several task-mode tasks such as generating the next version from commit message subjects.
NPM releases.
GitHub Releases.
MantisBT releases via the Releases Plugin.
View/output changelogs for a pending release.

Configuring Global Excludes, Apache Ant and Bash Globs

The setting exclude defines a file/directory pattern or an array of file/directory patterns to ignore using Glob Patterns or a valid File URI. The setting applies to all script types. For example:

taskexplorer.exclude: [ "**/.vscode-test/**", "**/vendor/**", "**/out/**", "**/output/**", "/c:/projects/project1/src/theme/test/package.json" ]

Note that the glob pattern "**/node_modules/**" is applied by default to the excludes list in all cases. Using the exclude configuration can greatly improve performance in large workspaces if configured correctly.

Task files that are found by Task Explorer can also be added to the excludes list via the tree node context menu, by right clicking the task file or task group node, and selecting Add to Excludes.

Apache Ant uses an .xml file extension, the setting globPatternsAnt can be used to specify other file names other than [Bb]uild.xml to include as ant files so that all xml files do not need to be searched (slowing down tree refreshes in large workspaces or project with a large number of various xml files). The setting defines a file pattern or an array of file patterns to include using Glob Patterns or a valid File URI, for example:

taskexplorer.globPatternsAnt: [ "**/extraTasks.xml", "**/scripts/ant/*.xml", "/c:/projects/project1/scripts/test/antetests.xml" ]

Note that the glob pattern "**/[Bb]uild.xml" is applied by default to the Ant includes list in all cases. If you don't include the asterisked glob pattern **/ first in the string, files in sub-folders will not be found.

In the same way as for Ant tasks, Bash scripts without extensions can be configured to be found by the Bash Task Provider by using glob patterns in the same way, with the globPatternsBash setting:

taskexplorer.globPatternsBash: [ "**/bash_scripts/**", "**/sh/scripts/**", "/usr/local/bin/start_task" ]

Ant and Gulp Self-Provided Tasks

By default, a custom parser is used to locate Ant and Gulp tasks in respective files. This may be fine in most cases, but in cases where the script and/or build files become complex, or there is something in the file that was not coded into the parser, you can use the ant and gulp programs themselves to find their own tasks. Note however that turning this on has a negative performance impact when refreshing and providing tasks to the VSCode Task Host.

Using Groups with a Separator

The Groups With Separator option is simply an extra level of task groupings that can be made based on a configured separation character in the script name. This option can be turned on/off with the Group With Seperator option in Settings, the default is OFF. The default separator is a dash ("-").

For example, consider 10 npm tasks, 5 of which all start with the string dev-, 5 of which start with the string prod-. Prior to Version 1.23, this would create 10 individual task nodes within the main npm task node in the task tree:

npm
    dev-build
    dev-build-server
    dev-build-themes
    dev-cp-from-bin
    dev-clean
    prod-build
    prod-build-server
    prod-build-themes
    prod-cp-from-bin
    prod-clean

By enabling the Group With Separator option in Settings and setting the Group Separator to a dash ("-") two new grouped nodes would be created underneath the main npm node, one called dev and the other called prod. Each of these two sub-nodes of course would contain the respective dev- and prod- scripts/tasks, minus the prepended group name:

npm
    dev
        build
        build-server
        build-themes
        cp-from-bin
        clean
    prod
        build
        build-server
        build-themes
        cp-from-bin
        clean

Internally Provided Tasks vs. VSCode Provided Tasks

The following tasks are provided by VSCode:

Workspace (.vscode/tasks.json)
NPM (**/package.json)

All other tasks are internally provided. Workspace tasks are detected by VSCode in all cases. However, NPM tasks are detected only if the setting 'Npm -> Auto Detect' is turned on in VSCode Settings. By default this is turned on, but if NPM tasks are not displaying, please check this setting, also check the setting that turns npm package management off in favor of Yarn 'Npm -> Package manager'. A future release will contain internally provided NPM and Yarn tasks. Note these tasks are still displayed in the Task Tree, just not "provided" by this extension.

Detection of all internally provided task types can be turned on/off in Settings - 'Task Explorer -> Enable [Tasktype]'.

Running bash/sh scripts in Windows Environment

Bash/sh scripts in Windows will have the shell executable automatically set to a bash shell (if the default shell set in VSCode is not bash). The shell executable used can be set in Settings using the pathToBash setting. If there is no value set in Settings, and Git Bash exists at the default installation installation, Git Bash will be used (MinGW). If Git Bash does not exist at the default install location, it is assumed the the path to bash.exe is part of the system PATH variable. If you experience errors running Bash scripts in Windows, please check these items.

Running Task Icon Animations

For whatever reason, on some systems the animated running task icon eats a lot of CPU. If this is your case, the animated icon can be turned off in settings (on by default).

Webpack 5 Problem Matcher

For extension developers, this extension contributes a basic problem matcher for Webpack 5 - $webpackte. To set up a watch task for debugging a Webpack 5 VSCode extension build, you can add an entry like the following to the VSCode tasks.json file:

{
    "type": "npm",
    "script": "webpack-watch",
    "problemMatcher": "$webpackte",
    "isBackground": true,
    "presentation": {
        "reveal": "always"
    },
    "group": {
        "kind": "build",
        "isDefault": true
    }
}

And in the package.json file:

scripts: {
    ...,
    "webpack-watch": "webpack -w --env environment=dev --config ./webpack.config.js"
}

Parsing Reports

For debugging or curiosity, a report can be generated listing all parsed components and the properties found. You can generate a report in the explorer context menus using the Task Explorer: View Parsing Report menu item.

External Provider Integration API

Any extension that implements TaskProvider (specifically it's provideTasks method) can add it's tasks to the Task Explorer tree. To register an external provider with Task Explorer, follow these steps:

Get the TaskExplorer API object:

const teApi = await vscode.commands.executeCommand("taskexplorer.getApi");

Alternatively, using the Task Explorer type definitions:

let teApi;
const taskExplorer = extensions.getExtension("spmeesseman.vscode-taskexplorer");
if (taskExplorer && taskexplorer.isActive)
{
    teApi = taskexplorer.exports as TaskExplorerApi;
}

Note: Before using any of the API functions, check busy status using the teApi.isBusy API function first, to ensure the indexer is not running.

Register the instance of TaskProvider or ExternalExplorerProvider using the register method of the Task Explorer API object:

await teApi.register("taskTypeName", myProvider as TaskProvider);

Where taskTypeName is the name of the task type, i.e. "npm", "ant", "gulp", etc, and myProvider is the instance of TaskProvider that implements the provideTasks method.

Any provider(s) should be unregistered in the deactivate method of an extension, to remove a provider:

await teApi.unregister("taskTypeName");

Where taskTypeName is the name of the task type, i.e. "npm", "ant", "gulp".

You can optionally install the Task Explorer API types:

npm install @spmeesseman/vscode-taskexplorer-types

The provided tasks must implement the taskexplorer.external task interface:

{
    script: "the task name",
    target: "command to run",
    path: "file path",
    fileName: "file name",
    uri: file `Uri`,
    taskItemId: (internal use, ignore),
    icon: {
        light: "/path/to/light.svg",
        dark: "/path/to/dark.svg"
    }
}

The task definition must also define most of the interface properties in the package.json, for completeness, the entire definition is:

"taskDefinitions": [
{
    "type": "extjs",
    "required": [],
    "properties": {
        "script": {
            "type": "string",
            "description": "taskdef.task.script"
        },
        "target": {
            "type": "string",
            "description": "taskdef.task.target"
        },
        "cmdLine": {
            "type": "string",
            "description": "taskdef.task.cmdLine"
        },
        "fileName": {
            "type": "string",
            "description": "taskdef.task.fileName"
        },
        "icon": {
            "type": "string",
            "description": "taskdef.task.icon"
        },
        "iconDark": {
            "type": "string",
            "description": "taskdef.task.icon.dark"
        },
        "isDefault": {
            "type": "boolean",
            "description": "taskdef.task.isDefault"
        },
        "path": {
            "type": "string",
            "description": "taskdef.task.path"
        },
        "taskItemId": {
            "type": "string",
            "description": "taskdef.task.taskItemId"
        },
        "uri": {
            "type": "object",
            "description": "taskdef.task.fileUri"
        }
    }
}]

The definition will be reduced in the future. This definition is remnant of Task Explorer's early days and is in need of a cleanup.

For reference, the entire Task Explorer API object is:

interface TaskExplorerApi
{
    log: any;
    utilities: any;
    fileCache: any;
    explorerProvider: TaskTreeDataProvider | undefined;
    sidebarProvider: TaskTreeDataProvider | undefined;
    taskProviders: Map<string, TaskExplorerProvider>;
    registerProvider(providerName: string, provider: TaskProvider): void;
    unregisterProvider(providerName: string): void;
}

Putting it all together:

async function activate()
{
    ... other code ...
    const taskProvider = new ExtJsTaskProvider();
    context.subscriptions.push(tasks.registerTaskProvider("extjs", taskProvider));
    registerWithTaskExplorer(taskProvider);
    ... other code ...
}

async function deactivate()
{
    ... other code ...
    const taskExplorer = extensions.getExtension("spmeesseman.vscode-taskexplorer");
    if (taskExplorer && taskexplorer.isActive && taskExplorerRegistered)
    {
        const teApi = taskexplorer.exports as TaskExplorerApi;
        await teApi.unregister("extjs");
    }
    ... other code ...
    return Promise.resolve();
}

function registerWithTaskExplorer(taskProvider: ExternalExplorerProvider)
{
    const taskExplorer = extensions.getExtension("spmeesseman.vscode-taskexplorer");
    if (taskExplorer && taskexplorer.isActive)
    {
        const teApi = taskexplorer.exports as TaskExplorerApi;
        if (!teApi.isBusy())
        {
            await teApi.register("taskTypeName", taskProvider);
            taskExplorerRegistered = true;
        }
        else {
            setTimeout(() => registerWithTaskExplorer(taskProvider), 1000);
        }
    }
    else
    {
        setTimeout(() => registerWithTaskExplorer(taskProvider), 5000);
    }
}

As of v2.7.0, the external task API has not been formally tested, a. Who will be the guineau? Hahaha ;)
As of v2.7.0, the API does not support custom icons from the task definition, but for extension testing you can place an icon in res/img/sources or res/img/dark / res/img/light of the TaskExplorer installation folder, named using the same task type name in the registerProvider call mentioned above, and will be used by the Task Explorer tree.

Contributing - Add a New Task Provider

Use the following steps as a guideline to add a new task provider.

Task Type

Each task provider requires a unique name, for example grunt, npm, tsc, etc. The first step is to choose the unique task provider name.

Define the task type in package.json. TODO

There are two types of task files, script files and task files. A script file is exactly that, a script, than can be considered 1 task. A task file is a file that can contain multiple tasks, for example there can be any number of tasks defined in the 8scripts8 section of package.json.

If adding a script file type provider, add the task type to the array return in the getScriptTaskTypes functionfound in the lib/utils/taskUtils module. For example, if the new task provider task type name is "newprovider", modify the function to the following:

export function getScriptTaskTypes(): string[]
{
    return [
        "bash", "batch", "newprovider", "nsis", "perl", "powershell", "python", "ruby"
    ];
}

TODO

Pull Requests

Contributors

Feedback

Please report any bugs, suggestions or documentation requests via the Issues

Rate It - Leave Some Stars

Please rate your experience with stars... like five of them ;)

Thank You

Icon Contributors:

pkief - Material Icon Theme
idleberg - NSIS Extension
Font Awesome - Font Awesome
Microsoft - VSCode
Microsoft - Maven for VSCode

Contributors:

antfu
eamodio (fixed #114)
MichaelCurrin
tiansin
JacobParis
Spitfire1900

Donations

If my work and this extension has made your life easier, consider a donation. All donations go straight to the Single Dad ATM.

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
Latest commit History 9 Commits
doc		doc
res		res
.gitlab-ci.yml		.gitlab-ci.yml
.publishrc.json		.publishrc.json
CHANGELOG.md		CHANGELOG.md
LICENSE		LICENSE
README.md		README.md

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Task Explorer - View and Run Tasks from Visual Studio Code

PROJECT ON HOLD

IF YOU HAVE KIDS, HUG THEM EVERY CHANCE YOU GET

I LOST MY DAUGHTER, AND AM FOREVER BROKEN

VERSION 3

Description

Table of Contents

Screenshots by Version

Requirements

Features by Version

Version 2

App-Publisher

Configuring Global Excludes, Apache Ant and Bash Globs

Ant and Gulp Self-Provided Tasks

Using Groups with a Separator

Internally Provided Tasks vs. VSCode Provided Tasks

Running bash/sh scripts in Windows Environment

Running Task Icon Animations

Webpack 5 Problem Matcher

Parsing Reports

External Provider Integration API

Contributing - Add a New Task Provider

Task Type

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Thank You

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About

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Repository files navigation

Task Explorer - View and Run Tasks from Visual Studio Code

PROJECT ON HOLD

IF YOU HAVE KIDS, HUG THEM EVERY CHANCE YOU GET

I LOST MY DAUGHTER, AND AM FOREVER BROKEN

VERSION 3

Description

Table of Contents

Screenshots by Version

Requirements

Features by Version

Version 2

App-Publisher

Configuring Global Excludes, Apache Ant and Bash Globs

Ant and Gulp Self-Provided Tasks

Using Groups with a Separator

Internally Provided Tasks vs. VSCode Provided Tasks

Running bash/sh scripts in Windows Environment

Running Task Icon Animations

Webpack 5 Problem Matcher

Parsing Reports

External Provider Integration API

Contributing - Add a New Task Provider

Task Type

Feedback

Rate It - Leave Some Stars

Thank You

Donations

About

Resources

License

Stars

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Forks

Releases

Packages 0

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