Evidence VS Code

The official VS Code extension for Evidence projects.

Evidence is a Markdown-based business intelligence tool. Connect to your database, write SQL queries, and include charts, tables, and dynamic text - all from Markdown. To get started, visit the docs.

This extension provides language support, basic commands and autocomplete for Evidence Markdown files. This is an early version of the extension and will serve as the starting point for deeper VS Code support for Evidence in the future.

Evidence App Run

Features

Syntax highlighting for:
- Markdown
- SQL Query Blocks
- Components (Svelte syntax highlighting)
- JavaScript expressions
Autocomplete suggestions for inserting:
- Components (Charts, Tables, Text Components)
- SQL Query Blocks
- Templating (Loops, Conditionals)
Evidence commands to:
- Create new project from a template
- Install dependencies
- Start and stop dev server
- Update to latest version
- View settings page and file
- Clear app data and queries cache
- Build app for deployment to production
- Preview app and markdown files in built-in browser

Requirements

Evidence dev server and this extension require Node.js version 16.14 or higher. You can download and install the latest version from nodejs.org.

This extension also depends on Svelte for VS Code that provides syntax highlighting and rich intellisense for Svelte components in VS Code. Svelte for VS Code will be installed automatically when you install Evidence extension.

Installation

You can install Evidence extension from the VS Code Marketplace, or by searching for Evidence in the VS Code Extensions tab.

Evidence Extension Installation

Getting Started

To get started with Evidence BI application development using VS Code desktop version, follow these steps:

Create new project folder and open it in VS Code from the command line:

mkdir evidence-bi
cd evidence-bi
code .

Use Evidence: Create Project from Template command in VS Code to initialize new Evidence project from a template.

Create Evidence Project from Template

Use Evidence: VS Code commands described below to install dependencies, start and stop dev server, and preview Evidence BI app content.

Running Evidence app in GitHub Codespaces

You can use Evidence VS Code extension with GitHub Codespaces.

Open Evidence template project github repository in a browser.
Click the green Use this template button, and select Open in a codespace.
Install Evidence extension in the Codespace when prompted.
Use new Evidence status bar and commands to run and Preview template Evidence app.

Running Evidence App Template in GitHub Codespaces

Commands

Evidence extension provides a number of custom VS Code shortcut commands for Evidence projects. You can access them from View -> Command Palette... menu (ctrl/cmd+shift+p) by typing Evidence in the command search box:

Evidence Extension Commands

Command	Title	Description
`createProjectFromTemplate`	Create Project from Template	Create new Evidence app project from template.
`openSettings`	Open Settings File	Open Evidence app settings file in VS Code JSON editor.
`installDependencies`	Install Dependencies	Install Evidence app NodeJS modules.
`updateDependencies`	Update to Latest Version	Updates all Evidence app NodeJS libraries to the latest version.
`startServer`	Start Server	Start Evidence app dev server.
`stopServer`	Stop Server	Stop Evidence app dev server.
`preview`	Preview	Preview Evidence app using built-in VS Code Simpler Browser.
`viewSettings`	View Settings	View Evidence app settings page in the built-in browser.
`clearCache`	Clear Cache	Clear Evidence application data and queries cache.
`build`	Build	Build Evidence app for deployment to production.
`buildStrict`	Build Strict	Build Evidence app for deployment to production in a strict mode.

Support

If you run into any issues setting up the extension, please reach out: