Some Little Improvements to My VS Code Workflow (Workspaces, Icons, Tasks)

VS Code workflow improvements: workspaces, icons, and tasks

Recently I discovered a VS Code feature I didn't know about before: while a project folder is open, another different root folder can be added to the same window. I always thought that opening a project can only have one top-level root folder, and if you need to open another folder, it must be opened in a new window. But that's not the case!

In CodePen, we use the "dual repository" mode (a main Ruby on Rails application, a microservice), and now I can open both repositories at the same time:

Now, I can search across two projects and basically handle it as a big project.

The first time you do this and then close the VS Code window, it asks if you want to save a "workspace". I've always felt a little trouble before, thinking it would create a file and I don't have a proper place to store such files (I avoid putting it in a repository because I don't want to impose my system on others).

Eventually, I overcome my laziness and create a local folder to store all .code-workspace files. These files are very useful, I can add them to the Dock and open the workspace I have set up with one click.

Custom workspace icon

Workspace files have special icons:

Since I put these files in the Dock, I thought of creating custom icons for them! This will make my workspaces clear at a glance and more convenient to use, as I may open them multiple times a day.

I took the SVG logo from the original icon and placed it in the bottom right corner of my project logo.

Changing the logo on macOS is very simple: just right-click the file, select "Show introduction", then click on the logo in the panel, and paste a new picture.

Now I can save them in the Dock and open all the projects with one click:

Start the terminal command when opening the project

Now that I have these handy one-click project opening icons, I thought, “It would be cool if it could also launch the project startup command!”. Obviously, that's what Tasks are for and it's not hard to set up (thanks Andrew!). In the .vscode/tasks.json file, I added the following:

 {
  "version": "2.0.0",
  "tasks": [
    {
      "label": "Run Gulp",
      "type": "shell",
      "command": "gulp",
      "task": "default",
      "presentation": {
        "focus": false,
        "panel": "shared",
        "showReuseMessage": true,
        "clear": true
      },
      "runOptions": {
        "runOn": "folderOpen"
      }
    }
  ]
}

Whenever I open this workspace, it launches the gulp command for me. I think you have to run the task manually (terminal → run the task) so that it has the correct permissions and then it works fine.

Override settings

I don't think this is just a workspace-specific feature, but I really like to overwrite the VS Code settings in the project folder using the .vscode/settings.json file.

For example, in CSS-Tricks, I have a very basic Sass setup where Gulp preprocesses .scss to .css . This is fine, but I might search for selectors. I don't need to see it in .css because I never use native CSS. I can add this to the settings file and know that it only works for this project, not all projects:

 {
  "search.exclude": {
    "**/*.css": true,
  }
} 

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