Issue #24 (Getting Extension Info)10/05/22
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I like how easy it is to see the last-updated status of any extension I want to install in VS Code. There are generally four different ways you can view a VS Code extension:
- The extension's official home page (sometimes a dedicated domain name, though few extensions have this).
- The extension's page in the official VS Code extension marketplace.
- The extension's source code repository (usually on GitHub).
- Directly inside VS Code using the Extensions sidebar.
When I include extensions in the list of "VS Code Tools" in this newsletter, I always try to link to either the home page or the marketplace URL. Once you're inside the marketplace, you can click the green "Install" button, which will open the extension's page inside VS Code, where you can install it.
Once the page is open inside your editor, you can more or less see the same info that's on the page in the marketplace. This is the same result you get when you search for an extension using the Extensions sidebar menu option.
Whether you're viewing the page in your editor or in the marketplace directly, it's always good to
take note of certain things before you install any extension:
- How many users have installed the extension?
- What's the average star rating?
- When was the extension first released?
- When was the last time the extension was updated?
The installs and star rating are front-and-center on the page, so you won't miss those. The extension's last update and release date are just off in the right sidebar. These are important to check to ensure you're not installing an outdated extension that's no longer maintained. Of course, maybe the extension works fine and doesn't require further updates. That's common too. The most recent user reviews might help in this regard.
There's one last thing I like to look at for each extension, which doesn't appear when viewing the extension page inside VS Code. Just above the last updated section, you'll see
a heading called "Project Details". This gives you a little more insight on the status of the extension.
Notice this tells you a lot more about the update status of the extension such as the date of the last commit and how many open issues there are. So even if an extension hasn't been updated in a year or more, you might still see some activity here, indicating that the authors are still working on improvements that could be pushed to the marketplace soon.
