| Marketplace
Sign in
Visual Studio Code>Other>Task ExplorerNew to Visual Studio Code? Get it now.

Task Explorer

Scott Meesseman

|
17,510 installs
| (6) | Free
Manage tasks for npm, vscode, ant, gradle, grunt, gulp, batch, bash, make, python, perl, powershell, ruby, and nsis
Installation
Launch VS Code Quick Open (Ctrl+P), paste the following command, and press enter.
Copied to clipboard
More Info

Task Explorer - View and Run Tasks from Visual Studio Code

Version Installs Downloads Ratings authors

Build Status codecov Greenkeeper badge GitHub issues open GitHub issues closed semantic-release

src0 src1 src2 src3 src13 src4 src5 src6 src7 src8 src9 src10 src11 src12

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. NPM file nodes support special npm command(s) (i.e. 'install') via context menu.

Table of Contents

  • Task Explorer - View and Run Tasks from Visual Studio Code
    • Description
    • Table of Contents
    • Screenshots
    • Requirements
    • Features
    • Configuring Global Excludes and Apache Ant Includes with Glob Patterns
    • Internally Provided Tasks vs. VSCode Provided Tasks
    • Running bash/sh scripts in Windows Environment
    • Feedback & Contributing
    • Thank You
    • Settings

Screenshots

Original Explorer Tray Sidebar View (v1.7) Task Type Groups (v1.13)
ss0 ss1 ss2
Grunt/Gulp in Subfolders (v1.14) Npm Commands (v1.16)
ss3 ss3

Requirements

  • Visual Studio Code v1.30+

Features

  • Check out the todo list (kept with Todo+)
  • v1.21 - Add option to keep terminal open after stopping task [closes #51]
  • v1.20 - Add support for restarting task (thank you antfu)
  • v1.19 - App-Publisher task support for BETA testing
  • v1.18 - Added 'Add to excludes' action in task file node context menu
  • v1.17 - Added 'Run last task' button to titlebar
  • v1.16 - Added 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

Configuring Global Excludes and Apache Ant Includes with Glob Patterns

The setting 'exclude' defines a string or an array of strings of file patterns to ignore. The setting applies to all script types. The string(s) must be glob pattern(s), for example:

  • taskExplorer.exclude: [ "**/.vscode-test/**", "**/vendor/**", "**/out/**", "**/output/**" ]

Note that the glob pattern "**/node_modules/**" is applied by default to the excludes list in all cases.

Since Apache Ant uses a .xml file extension, the setting 'includeAnt' 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 is a string or an array of strings and must be glob pattern(s) including the .xml extension, for example:

  • taskExplorer.includeAnt: [ "**/extraTasks.xml", "**/scripts/ant/*.xml" ]

Note that the glob pattern "**/[Bb]uild.xml" is applied by default to the ant includes list in all cases.

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 internaly 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.

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.

Feedback & Contributing

  • Please report any bugs, suggestions or documentation requests via the Issues
  • Feel free to submit pull requests
  • Contributors

Thank You

  • The Material Icon Theme for some of the task type icons.
  • The author of the NSIS Extension idleberg for NSIS graphics.

Settings

Config Description Default
taskExplorer.enableSideBar Enable/show visual studio code tasks false
taskExplorer.enableExplorerView Enable a task explorer view in the sidebar true
taskExplorer.enableAnt Enable/show ant targets as tasks true
taskExplorer.enableBash Enable/show bash scripts as tasks true
taskExplorer.enableBatch Enable/show batch file scripts as tasks true
taskExplorer.enableGradle Enable/show gradle tasks true
taskExplorer.enableGrunt Enable/show grunt tasks true
taskExplorer.enableGulp Enable/show gulp tasks true
taskExplorer.enableNpm Enable/show npm scripts as tasks true
taskExplorer.enableNsis Enable/show nullsoft installer scripts as tasks true
taskExplorer.enablePowershell Enable/show powershell scripts as tasks true
taskExplorer.enablePython Enable/show python scripts as tasks true
taskExplorer.enableRuby Enable/show ruby scripts as tasks true
taskExplorer.enableTsc Enable/show tsc npm configs as tasks true
taskExplorer.enableWorkspace Enable/show vscode tasks true
taskExplorer.enableMake Enable/show Makefile targets as tasks true
taskExplorer.enableAnsiconForAnt Enable ansicon output colorization for ant tasks false ",
taskExplorer.keepTermOnStop Keep terminal open on when stopping a task false
taskExplorer.pathToAnt The path to the ant program, if not registered in system path ant.bat for Windows, ant for Unix ",
taskExplorer.pathToAnsicon The path to the ansicon binary, if not registered in system path ansicon.exe ",
taskExplorer.pathToGradle The path to the gradle program, if not registered in system path gradle.bat for Windows, gradle for Unix ",
taskExplorer.pathToMake The path to the make program, if not registered in system path nmake for Windows, make for Unix ",
taskExplorer.pathToNsis The path to the nsis make program, if not registered in system path makensis.exe ",
taskExplorer.pathToPerl The path to the perl program, if not registered in system path perl ",
taskExplorer.pathToPython The path to the python program, if not registered in system path python ",
taskExplorer.pathToPowershell The path to the powershell program, if not registered in system path powershell ",
taskExplorer.pathToRuby The path to the ruby program, if not registered in system path ruby ",
taskExplorer.debug Turn on logging false
taskExplorer.debugLevel Verbosity level of logging (if turned on) 1
taskExplorer.exclude Configure glob patterns for folders that should be excluded from automatic script detection ["**/.vscode-test/**", "**/bin/**", "**/build/**", "**/CompiledOutput/**", "**/dist/**", "**/doc/**", "**/ext/**", "**/out/**", "**/output/**", "**/packages/**", "**/release/**", "**/releases/**", "**/samples/**", "**/sdks/**", "**/static/**", "**/target/**", "**/test/**", "**/third_party/**", "**/vendor/**"] By default, "**/node_modules/**" is always applied
taskExplorer.includeAnt Configure glob patterns for files that should be included in ANT script detection [] By default, "**/[Bb]uild.xml" is always applied
  • Contact us
  • Jobs
  • Privacy
  • Terms of use
  • Trademarks
© 2019 Microsoft