please continue this extension

[metalshanked]

Seems like this excellent extension is being deprecated in favor of Live preview.

Live preview does not offer the below features and does not seem to be in its roadmap either

1. Use the embedded browser like a standalone webbrowser to browse websites (any website)
2. Live preview does not have a handy button to launch the browser on the activity bar
3. Live preview does not open external websites "Externally hosted links are not supported in the embedded preview. "

vscode-browser-preview is to be the only extension in the entire marketplace which does this.

[anwar3606]

@auchenberg, please the above comment

Even though vscode implemented a "Simple Browser" option, it doesn't work,
microsoft/vscode#127141

And nowadays, where the vscode server is open-sourced and can be self-hosted in a server to access it from a browser,
This extension comes in extremely handy.

I also like the development to be continued.

[y-chen]

I agree.

Live preview it's just not the same thing. I don't need to run a web server and then open a tab in vscode. I need just to open a browser in vscode so I can check the changes without switching to another app (I often work with just the laptop screen).

To run the web server I already use other CLI tools that reload the pages at every change.

Now from vscode v1.68 it's not possible to install this extension anymore. I guess I won't update it anymore because I need this extension more than new vscode's features.

[y-chen]

Funny enough; in the project I am working on Browser preview it's the only way I found to successfully set breakpoints and debug the frontend Angular app. :D

For sure there are other tools and ways to do it but I already spent some time before and frankly I don't have other time to spend on it. Plus, now I have breakpoints and browser in vscode. :)

So, yeah I can't really afford to lose this extension.

[uyar]

@y-chen Did you try antfu/vscode-browse-lite?

[y-chen]

@y-chen Did you try antfu/vscode-browse-lite?

@uyar thanks very much for the hint!

It looks a very nice extension with even the development toolbar, will be useful to check the console messages.

Unfortunately when I try to launch it in debug mode I get Couldn't find a debug adapter descriptor for debug type 'chrome' (extension might have failed to activate).

I guess I will use Browser Preview to debug but I will definitely keep both.

Thank you again!

[digitarald]

I totally understand the dependency of the current use cases that are not supported with iframe-based solutions like Live Preview. As the team investigates how to move the features of this extension forward, I did update the deprecated list so users can still install the extension.