Part 1 - Develop a VS Code Extension for Your Capstone Project
API Guardian - My Capstone Project As software and APIs evolve, developers encounter significant difficulties in maintaining and updating API endpoints. Breaking changes can lead to system instability, while outdated or unclear documentation makes maintenance less efficient. These challenges are further compounded by the time-consuming nature of updating dependencies and the tendency to prioritize new features over maintenance tasks. The absence of effective tools and processes to tackle these issues reduces overall productivity and developer efficiency. To address this, API Guardian was created as a Visual Studio Code extension that identifies API endpoints in a project and checks their functionality before deployment. This solution was developed to help developers save time spent fixing issues caused by breaking or non-breaking changes and to alleviate the difficulties in performing maintenance due to unclear or outdated documentation. Features and Capabilities This extension has 3 main features: Feature 1. Developers can decide if the extension will scan or skip specified files in the project. Press “Enter” to scan/skip all files. Type the file name (e.g., main.py) and press “Enter” to scan/skip a single file. Type file names with a delimiter (e.g., main.py | pythonFile.py) and press “Enter” to scan/skip multiple files. Feature 2. Custom hover messages when developers mouse over identified APIs This hover message will vary based on the status of the APIs. If the API returns a success status, the hover message will only show the completed API and its status. However, if an error occurs, the hover message will include this additional information: (1) API Name, (2) Official API Link, (3) Error Message, (4) Title of Recommended Fix and (5) Link to the Recommended Fix. Feature 3. Excel Report with Details of Identified APIs After all the identified APIs have been tested, an excel report will exported with the following information to allow developers to easily identify the APIs in the project. What Technology and Products does it involved? Building a Visual Studio Code extension and publishing it to the Visual Studio Marketplace involves a mix of technologies and tools. The project was initiated using the NPM package, generator-code, to set up a JavaScript project for developing the extension. All the extension's logic will be developed and managed within the "extension.js" file generated during the setup process. Once ready for deployment, we will package the extension using "vsce" to generate a ".vsix" file, which will then be used for deployment to the Visual Studio Code Marketplace. The deployment process involves requiring the user to create a publishing account and using tools like vsce to upload and manage the extension's version, updates, and metadata. As part of this process, you would need to create a Personal Access Token (PAT) from Azure DevOps. This token is used to verify your identity and authenticate the publishing tool, allowing you to securely upload your extension to the Visual Studio Marketplace. The PAT provides the necessary permissions for tasks such as version management, publishing new releases, and updating the extension metadata. What did I learn? Throughout this journey, I learned not just about the technical stack but also about the value of detailed project setup and secure publishing processes. While the technical steps can be challenging, they’re incredibly rewarding, and I’m excited to dive deeper into it moving forward. I’m looking forward to exploring how the extension can be further improved and enhanced. If you're interested in learning more about how my API guidance was built, keep an eye out for my next post! API Guardian https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=APIGuardian-vsc.api About the Authors Main Author - Ms Joy Cheng Yee Shing, BSc (Hon) Computing Science Academic Supervisor - Dr Peter Yau, Microsoft MVPManaging Workflows with the GitHub Actions Extension for VS Code
GitHub Actions is a powerful feature that enables developers to automate their workflow and save valuable time. With the new GitHub Actions Extension for VS Code, developers have even more flexibility and power at their fingertips. The addon allows developers to design, amend, and run workflows without ever leaving the editor. Features include managing workflows, monitoring workflow runs, and workflow authoring. Syntax highlighting, integrated documentation, and validation and code completion for GitHub Actions Expressions and the YAML schema make editing workflows a breeze. Install the GitHub Actions extension for VS Code and start automating your development workflow today.Generating Test Data with Azure OpenAI GPT-3 in Spark:
Generating Test Data with Azure OpenAI GPT-3 in Spark: A Powerful Tool for Developers and Data Analysts. Creating test data is an important task for developers and data analysts alike. However, manually creating test data can be time-consuming and error-prone. In this video, Thomas and Stijn demonstrate how to generate test data using Azure OpenAI GPT-3 within Spark in Synapse Analytics.Getting top marks for your next academic assignment
Test driven development (TDD) Test driven development, or TDD, is a method of directly coupling testing with every part of your daily development. Developers who use TDD typically start developing by first writing a test that fails, and then writing the code that makes the test pass. This approach means that product code is more likely to get high test coverage, and the tests typically come first. Many developers find this pattern useful to help them prioritize good architecture from the start of development, and to stay laser-focused on each part of the functionality they need to implement. This school of thought advocates for testing not being an after-thought of development, but rather a driving force.
