vscode-status-bar-tasks

This extension loads your VS Code tasks into executable status bar commands.

Installation

The extension can be installed via the VS Code Marketplace. If you want to install it manually directly from this repo, take the entire status-bar-tasks folder and place it into your user profile .vscode/extensions folder. This will make it available to any project you open in VS Code.

Operation

The extension runs once automatically each time you open a new project folder. If the project has a vscode/tasks.json file, it will load the tasks automatically from that file. If you change the tasks.json file, your status bar tasks will update as soon as you save the file.

Not recommended for certain background tasks

Once a process is spawned for a task, the extension does nothing to stop or suspend it when the application is closed or VS Code is closed. This extension works best with tasks that run to completion and exit their process when complete on their own. For example, this extension doesn't work well with dotnet watch, because that will leave the watch process running after the program or VS Code are closed.

tasks.json File Setup

Here is an example tasks.json file that contains a number of Gulp and dotnet cli commands. The commands will appear in the status bar in the order that they are read from the file.

You may use the following strings in your arguments and they will be replaced with the appropriate values.

• ${workspaceRoot} the path of the folder opened in VS Code
• ${workspaceRootFolderName} the last folder on the path of the folder opened in VS Code (e.g., if ${workspaceRoot} is c:_APPS\folder1\folder2, then ${workspaceRootFolderName} will return folder2)
• ${file} the current opened file full path and filename with extension
• ${relativeFile} the filepath to the current opened file relative to the workspace root (e.g., if the ${workspaceRoot} is c:_APPS\folder1\folder2 and the current open file is c:_APPS\folder1\folder2\folder3\somefile.txt, this var will return folder3\somefile.txt)
• ${fileBasename} the current opened file's basename (e.g., if the open file is c:_APPS\folder1.vscode\tasks.json, this var will return tasks.json)
• ${fileBasenameNoExtension} the current opened file's basename without the extension (e.g., if the open file is c:_APPS\folder1.vscode\tasks.json, this var will return tasks)
• ${fileDirname} the current opened file's directory (e.g., if the open file is c:_APPS\folder1.vscode\tasks.json, this var will return c:_APPS\folder1.vscode)
• ${fileExtname} the current opened file's extension (e.g., if the open file is c:_APPS\folder1.vscode\tasks.json, this var will return .json)
• ${env.<ENVIRONMENT_VARIABLE_NAME>} environment variable (e.g., ${env.MY_ENV_VAR} will be replaced by the value of MY_ENV_VAR on the system or an empty string if the environment variable is not set).

Here is a task that you can use with Status Bar Tasks to show all of the variables in action for the current open file:

{
    "label": "test variable replacements",
    "command": "echo",
    "args" : ["file: ${file} fileBasename: ${fileBasename} relativeFile: ${relativeFile} fileDirname: ${fileDirname} fileExtname: ${fileExtname} workspaceRoot: ${workspaceRoot} fileBasenameNoExtension: ${fileBasenameNoExtension} workspaceRootFolderName: ${workspaceRootFolderName}"]
}

As of VS Code 1.9, there is a new command property that you can have on each task. If you don't supply this property on a task, then the global command property and args property are used (cmd /c in the example below). If you do supply a task with a command property, the global property is not used and the command on the task along with the task's <args> are used to assemble the command.

For the example tasks.json file below, restore example 1 yields a command execution of:

dotnet restore

The task restore example 2 yields a command execution of:

cmd /c dotnet restore

Note that the schema for the tasks.json file is hard-coded into VS Code right now. Therefore, if you do add "showInStatusBar": false to any of the tasks in order to prevent them from being shown in the Status Bar, you'll get a warning that the property isn't allowed. This warning should be harmless and not affect VS Code's operation. It'll just show up in the UI as a green squiggle under the property. I'm monitoring an open issue that should fix the problem with adding properties to the task.json schema. If you agree that they should offer this feature, you can go to the issue and click the 👍 on the main post to vote your support for the feature: microsoft/vscode#20193

{
    "version": "2.0.0",
    "command": "cmd",
    "args": [
        "/c"
    ],
    "tasks": [
        {
            "type": "shell",
            "label": "restore example 1",
            "command": "dotnet restore"
        },
        {
            "type": "shell",
            "label": "restore example 2",
            "args" : ["dotnet", "restore"]
        },
        {
            "type": "shell",
            "label": "build",
            "command" : "dotnet build --configuration Debug",
            "group": {
                "kind": "build",
                "isDefault": true
            },
            "problemMatcher": "$msCompile"
        },
        {
            "type": "shell",
            "label": "DO NOT show this task in the Status Bar!",
            "command": "dotnet publish --configuration Release --runtime win10-x64",
            "problemMatcher": "$msCompile",
            "showInStatusBar": false
        },
        {
            "type": "shell",
            "label": "process css",
            "command": "gulp processCSS"
        },
        {
            "type": "shell",
            "label": "test",
            "command": "dotnet test",
            "args" : ["test"]
        },
        {
            "type": "shell",
            "label": "dotnet info",
            "command": "dotnet --info"
        }
    ]
}

Version History

Version	Changes Made
0.0.1	Initial Release
0.0.2	Increased the OutputChannel maximum buffer from 200K to 2MB to cover commands with massive output (e.g., dotnet restore). Added child_process module err output to OutputChannel.
0.0.3	Reversed err addition due to exception with published extension.
0.0.4	Updated README.md to show multiple dotnet publish runtime options.
0.0.5	Added a plugin to strip JSON comments from the file before parsing to avoid exception if comments are present.
0.0.6	Reacted to suggestion for regex modification for comment removal.
0.0.7	Changed the Output Channel from 'Project Task' to 'Tasks' so that command output appears in the existing 'Tasks' panel.
0.0.8	Added string replacements in arguments for ${workspaceRoot}, ${file}, ${fileBasename}, ${fileDirname}, ${fileExtname}, and ${env.<ENVIRONMENT_VARIABLE_NAME>}.
0.0.9	Added auto-update of the status bar tasks when the tasks.json file is saved.
0.1.0	Reversed change made in 0.0.7, because there is no way to get a reference to the existing Tasks OutputChannel through the VS Code API. Reverted back to using a new OutputChannel but changed the name and will use Status Bar Tasks. Fixed a counting bug in the code that handles populating the status bar tasks on save of the tasks.json file.
0.1.1	Fixed a bug that prevented using replacement strings more than once in arguments. Added a feature that allows setting showInStatusBar to false on a task to prevent it from being listed in the status bar tasks provided. Updated the instructions to mention that the extension does not suspend/stop/cancel processes of tasks when they are spawned. Added replacement variables for ${workspaceRootFolderName} and ${fileBasenameNoExtension}, and ${relativeFile}.
0.1.2	Updated README file
0.2.0	BREAKING CHANGE: Reacted to new VS Code 1.9 feature for tasks.json where each task can have a command that overides the global command. With this version of Status Bar Tasks, the global command and args are prefixed to the task arguments unless the new task command property is found.
0.2.1	React to guardrex#23 so that ${workspaceRoot} and ${workspaceRootFolderName} are populated when no project is open.
0.3.0	Use label to provide task names. taskName is still supported by the extension, but VS Code has depreciated taskName in favor of label.