Task Explorer - View and Run Tasks from Visual Studio Code

The most downloaded task related extension on the Marketplace

IMPORTANT NOTE: This extension has surpassed where I was ever going to take it, and the time that ended up going into it were more than I ever intended. Considering a pay scheme (cheap, e.g. $10 - $20), with free usage up to the # of to-be-determined number of parsed tasks. Note the license, this codebase is NOT permitted to be copied or distributed without my permission.

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, among other things for specific task types, for example NPM file nodes support common 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 by Version
  • Requirements
  • Features by Version
  • Version 2
  • App-Publisher
  • Configuring Global Excludes, Apache Ant and Bash Globs
  • Ant and Gulp Self-Provided Tasks
  • Using Groups with a Separator
  • Internally Provided Tasks vs. VSCode Provided Tasks
  • Running bash/sh scripts in Windows Environment
  • Running Task Icon Animations
  • Parsing Reports
  • External Provider Integration API
  • Feedback & Contributing
    • Rate It - Leave Some Stars
  • Thank You
  • Open Source Projects
  • Donations

Screenshots by Version

Original Explorer Tray	Sidebar View (v1.7)	Task Type Groups (v1.13)

Grunt/Gulp in Subfolders (v1.14)	Npm Commands (v1.16)	Task Groupings (v1.23)

Multi-Level Task Groupings (v1.29)	Run with Args, No Terminal (1.30)	Last Tasks (1.25) Favorites (2.0)

Requirements

• Visual Studio Code v1.50+

"Should" work with VSCode versions 1.30 and above, but am no longer running tests against VSCode versions below 1.50 as of 2/5/2021 (v1.28.0).

Features by Version

• v2.7 - External provider integration API #22
• v2.6 - Composer support #150 Include shellscripts with no extension #153 Rename tasks #164
• v2.5 - Webpack build - Runs 10-15% faster.
• v2.4 - Add Pipenv support for Python Pipfile scripts. (thanks rob4226) #155
• v2.3 - App-Publisher v2.0 support. Several fixes including long time issue #143.
• v2.2 - Support for Maven (closes #107)
• v2.1 - App Publisher changelog pull tasks
• v2.0 - All async-await processing, Favorites (closes #101), Clear special task lists
• v1.30 - Configurable default click action (closes #97), Add 'Run with Arguments' command (closes #88), Add 'Run with NoTerminal' command (closes #39) (note that as of VSCode 1.53, there seems to be a bug that prevents running tasks without showing the terminal).
• v1.29 - Support multi-level task groupings (closes #129), Support user tasks (closes #127)
• v1.28 - Support Makefile aliases (thanks MichaelCurrin)
• v1.27 - Use gulp and ant to find their respective tasks (configurable on/off) (closes #105), Make grouping separator configurable (thanks richarddavenport)
• v1.26 - Add 'Running Task' status bar message (refs #47)
• v1.25 - Add 'Last Tasks' pseudo-folder
• v1.24 - Add 'Open Terminal' button to running tasks (closes #23)
• v1.23 - Task groupings with dashed task groups (Off by default)
• v1.22 - Major performance enhancements - Task Tree / Task Scanning
• v1.21 - Add option to keep terminal open after stopping task (closes #51)
• v1.20 - Add support for restarting task (thanks antfu)
• v1.19 - App-Publisher task support for BETA testing
• v1.18 - Add 'Add to excludes' action in task file node context menu
• v1.17 - Add 'Run last task' button to titlebar
• v1.16 - Add 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

Version 2

Version 2 highlights 2 major performance enhancements along with several features and bug fixes, notably:

1. An async/await approach for all processing has improved task load time performance 10-20%.
2. Launching tasks is more than 2x more responsive in the Tree UI, as well as when tasks finish.
3. Favorites List.
4. Clear buttons for Favorites and last Tasks lists (need icon!!!).
5. Much improved logging for debugging user issues.
6. Completely refactored classes, interfaces, and commenting for easier community contributions.

App-Publisher

Integrates with the app-publisher tool.

App-Publisher is a multi-purpose versioning/release tool that can be used for, but not limited to, the following:

• Publish releases in a CI like manner on a local system, with version calculation.
• Several task-mode tasks such as generating the next version from commit message subjects.
• NPM releases.
• GitHub Releases.
• MantisBT releases via the Releases Plugin.
• View/output changelogs for a pending release.

Configuring Global Excludes, Apache Ant and Bash Globs

The setting exclude defines a file/directory pattern or an array of file/directory patterns to ignore using Glob Patterns or a valid File URI. The setting applies to all script types. For example:

• taskExplorer.exclude: [ "**/.vscode-test/**", "**/vendor/**", "**/out/**", "**/output/**", "/c:/projects/project1/src/theme/test/package.json" ]

Note that the glob pattern "**/node_modules/**" is applied by default to the excludes list in all cases. Using the exclude configuration can greatly improve performance in large workspaces if configured correctly.

Task files that are found by Task Explorer can also be added to the excludes list via the tree node context menu, by right clicking the task file or task group node, and selecting Add to Excludes.

Apache Ant uses an .xml file extension, the setting globPatternsAnt 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 defines a file pattern or an array of file patterns to include using Glob Patterns or a valid File URI, for example:

• taskExplorer.globPatternsAnt: [ "**/extraTasks.xml", "**/scripts/ant/*.xml", "/c:/projects/project1/scripts/test/antetests.xml" ]

Note that the glob pattern "**/[Bb]uild.xml" is applied by default to the Ant includes list in all cases. If you don't include the asterisked glob pattern **/ first in the string, files in sub-folders will not be found.

In the same way as for Ant tasks, Bash scripts without extensions can be configured to be found by the Bash Task Provider by using glob patterns in the same way, with the globPatternsBash setting:

• taskExplorer.globPatternsBash: [ "**/bash_scripts/**", "**/sh/scripts/**", "/usr/local/bin/start_task" ]

Ant and Gulp Self-Provided Tasks

By default, a custom parser is used to locate Ant and Gulp tasks in respective files. This may be fine in most cases, but in cases where the script and/or build files become complex, or there is something in the file that was not coded into the parser, you can use the ant and gulp programs themselves to find their own tasks. Note however that turning this on has a negative performance impact when refreshing and providing tasks to the VSCode Task Host.

Using Groups with a Separator

EXPERIMENTAL The Groups With Separator option is simply an extra level of task groupings that can be made based on a configured separation character in the script name. This option can be turned on/off with the Group With Seperator option in Settings, the default is OFF. The default separator is a dash ("-").

For example, consider 10 npm tasks, 5 of which all start with the string dev-, 5 of which start with the string prod-. Prior to Version 1.23, this would create 10 individual task nodes within the main npm task node in the task tree:

npm
    dev-build
    dev-build-server
    dev-build-themes
    dev-cp-from-bin
    dev-clean
    prod-build
    prod-build-server
    prod-build-themes
    prod-cp-from-bin
    prod-clean

By enabling the Group With Separator option in Settings and setting the Group Separator to a dash ("-") two new grouped nodes would be created underneath the main npm node, one called dev and the other called prod. Each of these two sub-nodes of course would contain the respective dev- and prod- scripts/tasks, minus the prepended group name:

npm
    dev
        build
        build-server
        build-themes
        cp-from-bin
        clean
    prod
        build
        build-server
        build-themes
        cp-from-bin
        clean

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 internally 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. Note these tasks are still displayed in the Task Tree, just not "provided" by this extension.

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.

Running Task Icon Animations

FOr whatever reason, on some systems the animated running task icon eats a lot of CPU. If this is your case, the animated icon can be turned off in settings (on by default).

Parsing Reports

For debugging or curiosity, a report can be generated listing all parsed components and the properties found. You can generate a report in the explorer context menus using the Task Explorer: View Parsing Report menu item.

External Provider Integration API

Any extension that implements TaskProvider (specifically it's provideTasks method) can add it's tasks to the Task Explorer tree. To register an external provider with Task Explorer, follow these steps:

Get the TaskExplorer API object:

const teApi = await vscode.commands.executeCommand("taskExplorer.getApi");

Alternatively, using the Task Explorer type definitions:

let teApi;
const taskExplorer = extensions.getExtension("spmeesseman.vscode-taskexplorer");
if (taskExplorer && taskExplorer.isActive)
{
    teApi = taskExplorer.exports as TaskExplorerApi;
}

Note: Before using any of the API functions, check busy status using the teApi.isBusy API function first, to ensure the indexer is not running.

Register the instance of TaskProvider or ExternalExplorerProvider using the register method of the Task Explorer API object:

await teApi.register("taskTypeName", myProvider as TaskProvider);

Where taskTypeName is the name of the task type, i.e. "npm", "ant", "gulp", etc, and myProvider is the instance of TaskProvider that implements the provideTasks method.

Any provider(s) should be unregistered in the deactivate method of an extension, to remove a provider:

await teApi.unregister("taskTypeName");

Where taskTypeName is the name of the task type, i.e. "npm", "ant", "gulp".

You can optionally install the Task Explorer API types:

npm install @spmeesseman/vscode-taskexplorer-types

The provided tasks must implement the taskExplorer.external task interface:

{
    script: "the task name",
    target: "command to run",
    path: "file path",
    fileName: "file name",
    uri: file `Uri`,
    taskItemId: (internal use, ignore),
    icon: {
        light: "/path/to/light.svg",
        dark: "/path/to/dark.svg"
    }
}

The task definition must also define most of the interface properties in the package.json, for completeness, the entire definition is:

"taskDefinitions": [
{
    "type": "extjs",
    "required": [],
    "properties": {
        "script": {
            "type": "string",
            "description": "taskdef.task.script"
        },
        "target": {
            "type": "string",
            "description": "taskdef.task.target"
        },
        "cmdLine": {
            "type": "string",
            "description": "taskdef.task.cmdLine"
        },
        "fileName": {
            "type": "string",
            "description": "taskdef.task.fileName"
        },
        "icon": {
            "type": "string",
            "description": "taskdef.task.icon"
        },
        "iconDark": {
            "type": "string",
            "description": "taskdef.task.icon.dark"
        },
        "isDefault": {
            "type": "boolean",
            "description": "taskdef.task.isDefault"
        },
        "path": {
            "type": "string",
            "description": "taskdef.task.path"
        },
        "taskItemId": {
            "type": "string",
            "description": "taskdef.task.taskItemId"
        },
        "uri": {
            "type": "object",
            "description": "taskdef.task.fileUri"
        }
    }
}]

The definition will be reduced in the future. This definition is remnant of Task Explorer's early days and is in need of a cleanup.

For reference, the entire Task Explorer API object is:

interface TaskExplorerApi
{
    log: any;
    utilities: any;
    fileCache: any;
    explorerProvider: TaskTreeDataProvider | undefined;
    sidebarProvider: TaskTreeDataProvider | undefined;
    taskProviders: Map<string, TaskExplorerProvider>;
    registerProvider(providerName: string, provider: TaskProvider): void;
    unregisterProvider(providerName: string): void;
}

Putting it all together:

async function activate()
{
    ... other code ...
    const taskProvider = new ExtJsTaskProvider();
    context.subscriptions.push(tasks.registerTaskProvider("extjs", taskProvider));
    registerWithTaskExplorer(taskProvider);
    ... other code ...
}

async function deactivate()
{
    ... other code ...
    const taskExplorer = extensions.getExtension("spmeesseman.vscode-taskexplorer");
    if (taskExplorer && taskExplorer.isActive && taskExplorerRegistered)
    {
        const teApi = taskExplorer.exports as TaskExplorerApi;
        await teApi.unregister("extjs");
    }
    ... other code ...
    return Promise.resolve();
}

function registerWithTaskExplorer(taskProvider: ExternalExplorerProvider)
{
    const taskExplorer = extensions.getExtension("spmeesseman.vscode-taskexplorer");
    if (taskExplorer && taskExplorer.isActive)
    {
        const teApi = taskExplorer.exports as TaskExplorerApi;
        if (!teApi.isBusy())
        {
            await teApi.register("taskTypeName", taskProvider);
            taskExplorerRegistered = true;
        }
        else {
            setTimeout(() => registerWithTaskExplorer(taskProvider), 1000);
        }
    }
    else
    {
        setTimeout(() => registerWithTaskExplorer(taskProvider), 5000);
    }
}

• As of v2.7.0, the external task API has not been formally tested, a. Who will be the guineau? Hahaha ;)
• As of v2.7.0, the API does not support custom icons from the task definition, but for extension testing you can place an icon in res/sources or res/dark / res/light of the TaskExplorer installation folder, named using the same task type name in the registerProvider call mentioned above, and will be used by the Task Explorer tree.

Feedback & Contributing

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

Rate It - Leave Some Stars

Please rate your experience with stars... like five of them ;)

Thank You

Icon Contributors:

• pkief - Material Icon Theme
• idleberg - NSIS Extension
• Microsoft - VSCode
• Microsoft - Maven for VSCode

Other Contributors:

• antfu
• eamodio (fixed #114)
• MichaelCurrin
• tiansin
• JacobParis
• Spitfire1900

Open Source Projects

Package	Use Case	Repository	Marketplace
app-publisher	Release Automation / CI	GitHub	Npmjs.org Registry
arg-parser	Node Argument Parser	GitHub	Npmjs.org Registry
code-package	Code Dev Environment	GitHub	GitHub Releases
env-ci	CI ENvironment Detection	GitHub	Npmjs.org Registry
extjs-pkg-filterbar	ExtJS Grid Filter Bar	GitHub	Npmjs.org Registry
extjs-pkg-fontawesome	ExtJS FontAwesome Integration	GitHub	Npmjs.org Registry
extjs-pkg-fontawesome-pro	ExtJS FontAwesome Pro Integration	GitHub	Npmjs.org Private Registry
extjs-pkg-intltelinput	ExtJS IntlTelInput Wrapper	GitHub	Npmjs.org Registry
extjs-pkg-mantis	ExtJS MantisBT Integration	GitHub	Npmjs.org Registry
extjs-pkg-plyr	ExtJS Plyr Wrapper	GitHub	Npmjs.org Registry
extjs-pkg-tinymce	ExtJS TinyMCE Wrapper	GitHub	Npmjs.org Registry
extjs-pkg-websocket	ExtJS WebSocket Wrapper	GitHub	Npmjs.org Registry
extjs-pkg-webworker	ExtJS WebWorker Wrapper	GitHub	Npmjs.org Registry
jenkins-mantisbt-plugin	Jenkins MantisBT Integration	GitHub	Npmjs.org Registry
jenkins-utility-server	Jenkins Desktop Server	GitHub	Npmjs.org Registry
mantisbt	MantisBT Custom Site	GitHub	GitHub Releases
ApiExtend	MantisBT API Extensions	GitHub	GitHub Releases
CommitReact	MantisBT Post Commit Actions	GitHub	GitHub Releases
GanttChart	MantisBT Gantt Chart	GitHub	GitHub Releases
IFramed	MantisBT IFramed Pages	GitHub	GitHub Releases
ProjectPages	MantisBT Custom Nav Buttons	GitHub	GitHub Releases
Releases	MantisBT Releases Management	GitHub	GitHub Releases
SecurityExtend	MantisBT SPAM Filter	GitHub	GitHub Releases
ServerFiles	MantisBT Server File Editor	GitHub	GitHub Releases
svn-scm-ext	VSCode SVN Extension	GitHub	Visual Studio Marketplace
vscode-extjs	VSCode ExtJS Intellisense	GitHub	Visual Studio Marketplace
vscode-taskexplorer	VSCode Tasks Management	GitHub	Visual Studio Marketplace
vscode-vslauncher	VSCode VS Project Launcher	GitHub	Visual Studio Marketplace

Donations

If my work and this extension has made your life easier, consider a donation. All donations go straight to the Single Dad ATM.