.NET Extension Pack for VS Code (CSharpDev)

This extension pack for Visual Studio Code aims to enhance the .NET development experience by providing a comprehensive set of tools and features to manage projects, code, NuGet packages, tests, tasks, and much more.

Key Features

1. .NET Project and Solution Management

• Create Projects: Create new .NET projects from selected templates and automatically add them to an existing solution.
• Manage Project References: Add or remove references between C# projects within your solution.
• Create Solutions: Generate new .NET solution files (.sln or the new .slnx format).
• Add Projects to Solution: Incorporate existing .csproj projects into a solution.
• Remove Projects from Solution: Unlink projects from a solution file.

2. Code Generation and Snippets

• Intelligent Snippets: Use snippets to quickly generate C# code structures like classes, interfaces, enums, records, and endpoints.
  • Snippets automatically include the namespace and class name calculated based on the file location and the nearest .csproj.
• Convert JSON to C# Classes: Paste JSON from the clipboard and automatically convert it into C# classes in the active editor or a new file.
• Convert XML to C# Classes: Paste XML from the clipboard and transform it into C# class definitions.
• Generate GUID: Create and insert GUIDs (UUIDs) into the editor with various formatting options (uppercase/lowercase, with/without hyphens, with/without braces).

3. NuGet Package Management

• Install Packages: Search and install NuGet packages into your projects, with options to select the version and include pre-releases.
• Uninstall Packages: Remove NuGet packages from a project.
• Update Packages: Check and update NuGet packages to their latest versions (stable or pre-releases, as configured).
• Check for Vulnerabilities: Run a scan for known vulnerabilities in your project's NuGet packages.

4. .NET Test Integration (Test Explorer)

• Automatic Discovery: Automatically detects test projects (.csproj) in the workspace.
• Test Explorer View: Displays tests hierarchically (Project -> Namespace -> Class -> Method).
• Run Tests: Run tests individually, by class, namespace, or project.
• Debug Tests: Start debugging sessions for your tests directly from the Test Explorer.
  • The system detects the test host process ID and attaches the debugger.
• Code Coverage: Run tests with code coverage data collection (requires coverlet.collector).
  • Analyzes coverage reports in OpenCover and Cobertura formats.
  • Displays coverage directly in the code files.
• Detailed Results: Processes .trx result files to provide feedback on the status of each test.

5. Code Notes (TODOs, FIXMEs)

• Notes Viewer: Find and view code annotations like TODO:, FIXME:, BUG: in your C# files.
• Easy Navigation: Notes are displayed in a TreeView, organized by Workspace Folder -> Folder -> File -> Note.
• Go to Code: Click on a note to navigate directly to the corresponding line in the file.
• Configurable Terms: Customize the search terms for notes (e.g., HACK:, NOTE:).

6. Asset and Build Task Management

• Debug Files and Tasks: Automatically generate and update launch.json (debug configurations) and tasks.json (build, clean, publish tasks, etc.) for executable projects and solutions.
  • Includes generation of Dockerfiles and .dockerignore for executable projects.
  • Monitors launchSettings.json for automatic updates.
• Common .NET Assets: Create common files from the .NET ecosystem like .editorconfig, .gitignore, global.json, and nuget.config.
• Common MSBuild Files: Generate Directory.Build.props, Directory.Build.targets, and Directory.Packages.props.
• Task Viewer: A dedicated TreeView displays tasks defined in .vscode/tasks.json, allowing for their direct execution.

7. .NET Command Line Tools

• Global Tools (.NET Global Tools):
  • Install, uninstall, and update .NET global tools.
• .NET Workloads:
  • Install, uninstall, update, and repair .NET SDK workloads.

8. Miscellaneous Utilities

• Status Bar Clock and Timer:
  • Displays the current time.
  • Allows starting a countdown timer, with a visual and audible alert (if configured in the system) upon expiration.
• Development Certificates:
  • Command to trust the .NET HTTPS development certificate (dotnet dev-certs https --trust).
• Shortcut Commands:
  • Registers commands for quick access to VS Code functionalities like "Save All Files," "Reload Window," "Start Debugger," etc. (Some may be default settings or aliases).

9. AI-Powered Commit Messages

• Automatic Generation: Use AI (Google Gemini) to generate commit messages based on your changes (git diff).
• Conventional Commits: Messages are formatted following the Conventional Commits standard.
• SCM Integration: Automatically populates the Git commit message box in VS Code.
• Requires Configuration: Needs a Google AI API key.

10. Database Management (Entity Framework Core)

• Create Migrations: Generate new EF Core migrations for a selected project and DbContext.
• Remove Migrations: Remove the last applied migration.
• Update Database: Apply pending migrations to the database.
• Generate SQL Script: Create an SQL script from migrations, with an option for an idempotent script.

How to Use

Most features can be accessed via the Command Palette (Ctrl+Shift+P or Cmd+Shift+P). Look for commands prefixed with "CSharpDev", ".NET", "EF", "NuGet", "AI", etc.

Some features have dedicated viewers in the VS Code sidebar:

• Code Notes
• Workspace Tasks
• Test Explorer (integrated with VS Code's native Test Explorer)

Configuration

Some features may require specific configuration in VS Code settings (settings.json):

• csharpdev.notes.searchTerms: List of terms to search for in code notes (e.g., ["TODO:", "FIXME:"]).
• csharpdev.googleAi.apiKey: Your Google AI API key for commit message generation.
• csharpdev.googleAi.model: Google AI model to be used (e.g., gemini-1.5-flash-latest).
• csharpdev.googleAi.language: Language for generated commit messages (e.g., en-US).
• csharpdev.nuget.usePrerelease: If true, includes pre-release versions in NuGet package search and updates.
• csharpdev.nuget.overwritePackage: If true, allows reinstalling a NuGet package even if the selected version is already current.
• csharpdev.tool.usePrerelease: If true, includes pre-releases when searching for .NET global tools.
• csharpdev.workload.usePrerelease: If true, includes pre-releases when installing .NET workloads.
• csharpdev.database.idempotentScripts: If true, generates EF Core migration SQL scripts idempotently.
• csharpdev.testExplorer.debugJustMyCode: If true (default false), enables "Just My Code" when debugging tests.

Refer to the extension's "Contributions" tab in VS Code for a complete list of available commands and settings.