vscode-debug-visualizer/extension

Debug Visualizer (Preview)

Provides infrastructure to visualize values while debugging.

This extension is still in development. Also, for the best user experience some VS Code APIs are missing.

Usage

Install this extension and the extension Node Debug With Pause Events which is required for technical reasons for now. Then use a debug configuration like this:

{
	"version": "0.2.0",
	"configurations": [
		{
			"type": "node2-with-pause-event",
			"request": "launch",
			"name": "Launch Program",
			"program": "${workspaceFolder}\\dist\\index.js",
			"outFiles": ["${workspaceFolder}/dist/**/*.js"],
			"preLaunchTask": "npm: dev"
		}
	]
}

Use the command Open a new Debug Visualizer View to open a new visualizer view. There you can enter an expression that is visualized when debugging your application.

Integrated Visualizers

Visualizers present preprocessed data. They are mostly React-Components and live in the webview.

These visualizers are integrated:

• Tree Viewer

• Svg Viewer
• Dot Graph Viewer
• Graph Viewer

• Text Viewer
  • Plain Text
  • Monaco

Integrated Data Extractors

Data extractors convert arbitrary values into visualizable data. They live in the debugee.

These visualizers are integrated:

• ToString Text Extractor
• TypeScript Ast to Tree Data
  • Direct Visualization of ts.Nodes
  • Visualization of Record<string, ts.Node> and [ts.Node]. If the record contains a key fn, its value is displayed for each node.

• As Is Data Extractor. Allows to return data directly.

Limitations

Currently, only JavaScript (and thus TypeScript) values can be visualized and only a few visualizations are supported.

See Also

This extension works very well together with my library @hediet/node-reload: