{"id":3681,"date":"2015-06-10T09:45:00","date_gmt":"2015-06-10T09:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.msdn.microsoft.com\/visualstudio\/2015\/06\/10\/javascript-editor-improvements-in-visual-studio-2015\/"},"modified":"2022-05-18T08:40:52","modified_gmt":"2022-05-18T15:40:52","slug":"javascript-editor-improvements-in-visual-studio-2015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/visualstudio\/javascript-editor-improvements-in-visual-studio-2015\/","title":{"rendered":"JavaScript Editor Improvements in Visual Studio 2015"},"content":{"rendered":"

JavaScript is an important technology for development on many different platforms, including web, mobile app, and server programming. In Visual Studio 2013 we already support IntelliSense, Go to Definition, colorization, and formatting of JavaScript source, along with several other features. We’ve carried these forward into Visual Studio 2015<\/a> and we’ve improved the experience for JavaScript developers by focusing on three key areas:<\/p>\n

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  1. Improving the development experience when using popular JavaScript libraries<\/li>\n
  2. Adding support for new JavaScript ECMAScript 2015 (also known as ES2015 and formerly ES6) language and web browser APIs<\/li>\n
  3. Increasing your productivity in complex JavaScript code bases<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Each of these areas was chosen based on feedback we heard on UserVoice<\/a>, through social media, via the send-a-smile\/frown feature in Visual Studio<\/a>, and from many direct discussions we’ve had with developers like you.<\/p>\n

    In this post, I’ll highlight the new features of the JavaScript editor for each of these areas. You can take advantage of these features in all JavaScript projects supported in Visual Studio.s<\/p>\n

    <\/a>Support for popular JavaScript Libraries<\/h2>\n

    AngularJS 1.x and RequireJS support<\/h2>\n

    By default, Visual Studio 2015 supports the very popular AngularJS<\/a> and RequireJS<\/a> libraries. Previously on this blog we’ve discussed the setup required when using Visual Studio 2013 with both of these libraries (using AngularJS in VS<\/a>, using RequireJS in VS<\/a>). In Visual Studio 2015, the support is baked in, with no additional setup steps required.<\/p>\n

    Whenever you reference the angular.js (or angular.min.js) library in your code, editor automatically provides IntelliSense, Go to Definition, and navigation bar support:<\/p>\n

    \"IntellISense<\/a><\/p>\n

    IntelliSense support for Angular 1.3, showing suggestions for the routeProvider service<\/em><\/p>\n

    Similarly, RequireJS IntelliSense and navigation support are automatically enabled when you bring in the require.js library. To customize RequireJS support, see Customizing IntelliSense in RequireJS<\/a>.<\/p>\n

    \"IntelliSense<\/a><\/p>\n

    IntelliSense suggestions for a module referenced using RequireJS<\/em><\/p>\n

    JSDoc documentation comments<\/h2>\n

    Documentation comments are a great tool for providing detailed information about APIs in your application. They can also help you guide Visual Studio to provide better IntelliSense suggestions as you write code. In Visual Studio 2015, the editor now understands JSDoc-style documentation comments<\/a> and can use them to improve your coding experience. JSDoc has become the unofficial standard for JavaScript comments on the web, and they’re used in libraries like Angular<\/a> and Ember<\/a>. Here’s a quick example using these comments and showing IntelliSense tooltip support to document a getPhotos()<\/span> function.<\/p>\n

    \"JSDoc<\/a><\/p>\n

    JSDoc comments displayed in IntelliSense tool tips<\/em><\/p>\n

    When you reference parameter types in comments (such as Array, above) you can use standard built-in JavaScript types and objects, such as String, Number, or Array. You can also define a custom object, which is useful for documenting parameters with custom properties, such as configuration settings. In the example below, you can see suggestions for an options object that may be passed to the savePhoto()<\/span> function.<\/p>\n

    \"Documenting<\/a><\/p>\n

    Documenting configuration objects using JSDoc<\/em><\/p>\n

    In addition to JSDoc comments, XML-style documentation comments<\/a> continue to be supported as they were in Visual Studio 2013. A full list of the JSDoc tags supported by the editor<\/a> may be found on MSDN.<\/p>\n

    New language and browser features<\/h2>\n

    As language standards and web APIs evolve, the JavaScript editor is also updated to keep pace. In this release we introduce further support for new language features in the ES2015 standard<\/a> (formerly known as ES6) and a set of new DOM APIs. These updates match the same features found in the recently announced Microsoft Edge web browser<\/a>.<\/p>\n

    ECMAScript 2015 (formerly ECMAScript 6) support<\/h2>\n

    Like the Microsoft Edge browser, which now supports a large set of ES2015 features<\/a>, the Visual Studio JavaScript editor also supports a majority of ES2015Specifically, Visual Studio 2015 provides support for:<\/p>\n