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Visual Studio Live Share Changelog

What's new in Visual Studio Live Share 1.0.1377

Oct 15, 2021
  • With contacts you can now send direct user invitations to your frequent and contextual collaborators. Contacts also allow you to share your availability through statuses so you can be a productive collaborator.

New in Visual Studio Live Share 1.0.2478 for VSCode (Aug 5, 2020)

  • New features:
  • Added activities to the Live Share API, which allow VS Code extensions to suscribe to and post events describing Live Share activities. Live Share raises events such as a guest joining a session, sharing a terminal, or opening a file.
  • Insiders features:
  • Live Share built-in chat support
  • Live Share Web: audio calls are now available for all Live Share sessions [Public Preview]
  • Planned Sessions: Live Share support for sessions that can be scheduled in advance
  • Policies: Live Share extension API that allows controlling default user settings along with other security features. Refer to Gatekeeper extension for more details

New in Visual Studio Live Share 1.0.1374 (Feb 6, 2020)

  • Security fix as described in CVE-2019-1486 ( http://portal.msrc.microsoft.com/en-us/security-guidance/advisory/CVE-2019-1486 ); LiveShare guests are now prompted for consent prior to browsing to host-specified URL.
  • General bug fixes

New in Visual Studio Live Share 1.0.766 for VS / 1.0.766 for VSCode (Sep 4, 2019)

  • Uninterrupted Workflow is here!
  • With Live Share, we want our users to experience a workflow that feels intuitive and seamless. We currently have this feature in Visual Studio, and in this release we bring to you the ability to share untitled files without any interruptions during a Live Share session in VS Code.
  • Bug Fixes (VS Code):
  • Fixed welcome page bug -Some of our new Live Share users were unable to see the welcome page after downloading the extension. This has been fixed in this release.

New in Visual Studio Live Share 1.0.750 (Sep 2, 2019)

  • Adding Reusable Sessions functionality (Insiders) - We have added a new functionality that allows users to create a reusable link from the command palette (Ctrl+Shift+P > Live Share: Create reusable link). Users can use these links to access the same session for repeated use.
  • Fixed the file-matching filter in text search - We fixed a bug that was causing problems with global conversions on the VS Code hosts side for the text search service. This showed up when some users tried searching for a certain file type during a Live Share session, with a VS Code host, and experience erroneous filtering.

New in Visual Studio Live Share 1.0.91.0 for VS / 1.0.91 for VSCode (Apr 28, 2019)

  • Read-only guest/session fixes - We resolved a handful of bugs related to both read-only sessions and read-only guests (participants that didn't login), which ensures that files show up correctly, and can't be edited.
  • Fixing audio 502 failures (#2015) - Some users were experiencing issues trying to start audio calls, but that has now been addressed.

New in Visual Studio Live Share 1.0.45 0 for VS / 1.0.45 for VSCode (Apr 11, 2019)

  • This release is a stability release. It includes a couple bug fixes around localization, improving file search/peek, and cleaning up shared servers.
  • As always, we really appreciate all of the usage/feedback, so please keep letting us know how to improve!

New in Visual Studio Live Share 0.3.735 Preview for VSCode (Sep 28, 2018)

  • Accessibility Fixes:
  • We are committed to ensuring that Live Share is accessible to all users. This release, we've done work to make sure Live Share works properly with screen reader technologies, notifying users when important events happens, and has proper keyboard accessibility. We will continue to work to improve the experience make sure we are accessible. If you encounter any accessibility issues with Live Share, please let us know by filing an issue on GitHub.
  • Feature Improvements (VS Code / Visual Studio):
  • Follow and Focus improvements (#771) - We've made it easier to follow or focus participants during a Live Share session. We've improved the reliability, and made focus notifications stickier so you can be better reminded if a participant is requesting you follow them (only when you are not in mandatory focus mode).
  • Better messaging and notifications - We've improved some messaging in notifications to provide more clarity. Hosts will be notified that a user has left a session instead of being told they disconnected.
  • Additionally, messaging for accepting and rejecting guests has been clarified. Hosts will have the options to either "accept" or "reject and block" a guest if approval is required for joining a session, and guests will have clearer messages for when they get rejected from a session.

New in Visual Studio Live Share 0.3.666 Preview for VSCode (Sep 12, 2018)

  • Bug fixes (VS Code / Visual Studio):
  • Asynchronous file indexing (#888) - We heard a few reports of the sharing action taking a long time to complete, when a project has a significant number of symlinks. To unblock getting started, we now perform file indexing (which powers "Go to File", full-text search, etc.) entirely asynchronously, which allows quickly starting a new collaboration session, regardless how big the project is.
  • Bug Fixes (VS Code):
  • Improvements to Nodemon debugging (#520) - When using Nodemon to debug a Node.js application, we now re-use the existing debug terminal instance, as opposed to creating a new one every time the application is restarted.
  • Improvements to VS Code extension debugging (#969) - The restart action now works properly when debugging a VS Code extension (using the extensionHost debug adapter type). Note that Live Share doesn't actually support collaboratively debugging a VS Code extension (stay tuned for this!), however, this change ensures that developers aren't blocked when trying to do local debugging.

New in Visual Studio Live Share 0.3.577 Preview for VSCode (Aug 22, 2018)

  • Feature Enhancements (VS Code):
  • Session management explorer view ??(#137) - As soon as you click the Share button (or join a session), a new Explorer view will appear called VS Live Share that allows you to easily manage the shared resources in your session (e.g. terminals, shared servers), and passively view what other participants are doing. The existing command palette options are still available, but this view provides a quicker way to interact with Live Share moving forward (e.g. you can simply select a participant to begin following them).
  • screen shot 2018-08-21 at 3 10 30 pm
  • Additionally, we introduced a new Live Share tab to the "activity bar", which provides another way to manage your session. More importantly though, it provides a home for other extensions to contribute functionality to enhance the Live Share experience. For example, the Slack Chat extension adds a view of online users, which allows you to simply click on someone, and automatically invite them to a collaboration session.
  • screen shot 2018-08-21 at 3 28 33 pm
  • CodeLens support for guests ??- In addition to the existing supported language services (e.g. completion, go-to-definition, errors), guests in a Live Share session now receive CodeLens' remotely from the host as well. This provides guests with potentially valuable context, such as version control information, and code complexity, depending on the extensions the host has installed. By default, guests are able to view CodeLens within opened files, but in order to execute one (by clicking it), the host has to enable the liveshare.allowGuestCommandControl setting (for security purposes).
  • VS Live Share Extension Pack ??- In order to accomodate users that already have their own communication tool (e.g. Skype, Slack), we released the VS Live Share Audio experience as a separate extension, which didn't impact the "core" Live Share extension. However, to simplify the acquisition experience for users that want both VS Live Share and VS Live Share Audio, we published a new "extension pack" that allows grabbing both extensions via a single installation.
  • Remove user from session (#398) - The guest join notification already provides a Remove button, however, if you dismissed that toast, there wasn't previously a way to later remove the user. Via the new explorer view (mentioned in #1 above), you can now remove a user from the session at any time, by simply clicking the X button next to their name.

New in Visual Studio Live Share 0.3.535 Preview for VSCode (Aug 14, 2018)

  • Feature Enhancements (VS Code/Visual Studio):
  • Support for guest's to start without debugging - We previously added the ability for guests to start debugging (assuming the host enabled it), and with this release, guests can now perform a CTRL+F5 (VS) or Start Without Debugging (VS Code) as well.
  • Feature Enhancements (Visual Studio):
  • Guest support for searching the Solution Explorer - Guest's running Visual Studio can now search for files across the remote project, by hitting Ctrl+; or selecting the Search Solution Explorer text box above the Solution Explorer tree. We shipped guest support for VS Code's Go to File... in a previous release, so this release introduces the equivalent for Visual Studio. Note, this requires VS 2017 15.8+.
  • Feature Enhancements (VS Code):
  • Join command accessibility improvements - The Join Collaboration Session command is now available even when you're not signed in, and will initiate a sign in if/when needed. Additionally, it now supports being run via the keyboard by means of the CMD+ALT+J (Mac) CTRL+ALT+J (Windows/Linux) keyboard shortcut.

New in Visual Studio Live Share 0.3.514 Preview for VSCode (Aug 8, 2018)

  • Bug fixes (VS Code/Visual Studio):
  • Proxy connection improvements - Users can now correctly connect to Live Share when behind an auto-detecting proxy, whose PAC file returns multiple proxy servers.
  • Bug fixes (VS):
  • Fixes for remote code navigation - We fixed a bug that prevented guests from being able to use go-to-definition or find all reference, when using VS 2017 15.6 or 15.7.
  • Bug fixes (VS Code):
  • Debugging fixes (#683) - We fixed an issue where some users would get a Service not available: DebuggerHostService error when trying to start a shared debugging session. Additionally, we fixed some issues that ensure a guest can successfully restart a debugging session that they started (if the host enabled guest-initiated debugging).
  • Prevent creating a .vs folder - When we added support for "find files" (CMD/CTRL+P) for guests, the underlying search index was being stored in a .vs folder in the host's project. This wasn't intentional, and has been removed, in order to ensure that Live Share has zero impact on a project after sharing.

New in Visual Studio Live Share 0.3.472.26271 Preview for VS (Jul 25, 2018)

  • Feature Enhancements (VS Code/Visual Studio):
  • Guest-initiated debugging (#32) - Guests can now be given the permission to start debugging themselves, as opposed to requiring the host to do it. Among other things, this is a huge enabler for pair programming, where it's valuable for guests to have increased autonomy. This is disabled by default (for security reasons!), but the host can enable the liveshare.allowGuestDebugControl setting (VS Code) or the Allow Guest Control setting in Tools | Options | Live Share (VS), at which point, any guest can then run F5 to launch the debugger.
  • Feature Enhancements (VS Code):
  • Starting up voice calls (#22) - We shipped a new experimental extension that adds the ability to start up a voice call within a Live Share session. This way, you can spin up a collaboration session, without needing to coordinate a separate tool to communicate, which can be very valuable for certain use cases (e.g. online mentoring). To get started, simply install the new VS Live Share Audio extension and follow it's getting started instructions.
  • Shared workspace tasks (#40, #48) - If your app uses VS Code tasks to define/perform repeatable workspace actions (e.g. run tests or a build), then when the host runs a task, it's output will be automatically shared with guests. By default, guests aren't able to run tasks themselves (for security reasons!), but if needed, the host can enable the liveshare.allowGuestTaskControl setting, which allows guests to run tasks as well.
  • In addition to tasks that are run from the command palette (e.g. via the Tasks: Run Tasks command), the output of tasks are shared, regardless how they are initiated, which allows the host to work the way they're comfortable with, as opposed to needing to conform to a specific UI gesture in order to collaborate. For example, the following are other task entry points, whose output would be automatically shared:
  • Clicking the Run CodeLens above a script in a package.json file
  • Clicking the play button next to a script in the new NPM Scripts explorer
  • Shared debug terminal - If a launch configuration (defined in a launch.json file) specifies that the app should be run in the integrated terminal (as opposed to the Debug Console), then the terminal instance created on F5 will be automatically shared with guests (in read-only mode). This ensures that command-line tools, scripts, etc. can be fully debugged collaboratively, regardless how the host has configured them to be launched.
  • Guest re-join on reload: (#169) - If you reload VS Code while joined into a Live Share collaboration session, you will now be automatically re-joined into the session again, as opposed to needing to find the session URL and re-joining "manually". This behavior reflects the way a VS Code reload works with local workspaces, and among other things, allows guests to easily manage extensions (i.e. install, disable, etc.) without interrupting their current Live Share session.
  • EXPERIMENTAL: Increased guest limit (#229) - In order to support Live Share being used in classrooms (e.g. to run interactive lectures), the guest limit can now be increased from 5 to 30. This feature is highly experimental, and therefore, to enable it, you need to set the liveshare.features setting to experimental and then reload VS Code. We look forward to working with more instructors to fine-tune the experience and performance moving forward.
  • Feature Enhancements (Visual Studio):
  • Shared build output (#48) ??- When the host runs a project/solution build, the output will now be automatically shared with all guests (even if they're in VS Code!). This enables collaborating on build failures, which is critical piece of context when working together. By default, guests aren't able to run builds themselves, but they can be given permissions to do so by enabling the Allow Guest Control setting in Tools | Options | Live Share.

New in Visual Studio Live Share 0.3.371.21992 Preview for VS (Jul 3, 2018)

  • Bug Fixes (Visual Studio):
  • Resolved debugging hang when hitting a breakpoint (#402) - When users had certain extensions installed alongside of Live Share, it was possible for the UI thread to hang when a breakpoint was hit during debugging. This has been addressed, and therefore, shared debugging is more reliable, but also more interoperable with other Visual Studio extensions that contribute debugging capabilities (e.g. OzCode).

New in Visual Studio Live Share 0.3.335.25007 Preview for VS / 0.3.335 Preview for VSCode (Jun 26, 2018)

  • This is a small release with some fixes that resolve some telemetry indicated and user-reported issues in both Visual Studio and Visual Studio Code. We really appreciate all of the usage/feedback, so please keep letting us know how to improve!
  • Bug Fixes (VS Code):
  • dpkg error on non-Debian/Ubuntu Linux distros (#537) - An error would appear on distributions like Fedora or Arch that reported that dpkg was not present. This was part of a dependency check and is expected to error, so we made the log message clearer.
  • Enhancements (VS Code):
  • Find files by name now respects the search.excludeFiles setting - The feature respect the search.excludeFiles setting in config.json

New in Visual Studio Live Share 0.3.317.29095 Preview for VS / 0.3.317 Preview for VSCode (Jun 20, 2018)

  • Enhancements (VS Code):
  • Find files by name - Guests can now type a filename in the command palette (Ctrl+P / Command-P) to find a file in the source tree. It currently does not respect the search.excludeFiles setting but support for this setting is coming along with VS support.
  • Bug Fixes (VS/VSCode):
  • Proxy support and auto-detection (#86, #504) - This release adds improved proxy support, messaging, and auto-detection of proxy settings.
  • Users are able to rejoin and active session if they have been removed (#342) - Guests that were not approved or removed from the collaboration session could attempt to re-join causing the host to have to remove / not approve them again.
  • Bug Fixes (VS Code):
  • Live Share impacting git operations in VS Code (#419, #404, #511) - We had reports of some users encountering odd behaviors with VS Code's Git support that should now be resolved.
  • Improved detection and messaging of corrupted installs - Live share now detects more situations where the installation process failed and provides more actionable feedback.

New in Visual Studio Live Share 0.3.262.16695 Preview for VS / 0.3.262 Preview for VSCode (Jun 5, 2018)

  • Bug Fixes (VS/VSCode):
  • Performance improvements for shared terminals and servers (#367, #390) - We made some fundamental improvements to the way shared servers and terminals work, which should significantly improve performance, particularly when retrieving lots of data (e.g. downloading a large Javascript as part of a shared web app) over high-latency connections.
  • Correctly syncing the effects of Git operations (#470) - We heard reports of files being deleted when the host ran certain Git operations (e.g. git rebase). This release resolves that issue, and ensures that the side-effects of Git commands are synchronized correctly amongst participants.
  • Bug Fixes (VSCode):
  • Controlling the visibility of the Live Share status bar items (#90) - Your VS Code status bar can start to get pretty cluttered after installing enough extensions. To ensure that users have complete control over their status bar arrangement, we introduced a new setting called liveshare.showInStatusBar, which allows you to choose when the Live Share-specific status bar items should be displayed:
  • never - Keep your status bar clutter-free, and instead, rely entirely on the command palette to share/join/etc.
  • always - The current and default behavior
  • whileCollaborating - Only show the status bar items when actively sharing/joining a collaboration session.
  • Feature Enhancements (VS):
  • Context menu for user info/actions - Right-clicking on a user in the list of participants will now display their name, avatar (currently GitHub-only), and a button to begin following them.

New in Visual Studio Live Share 0.3.237 Preview for VSCode (May 31, 2018)

  • Bug Fixes (VSCode):
  • Fixed debugging for AL, Apex and Dart (#138, #396, #465) - We improved our overall collaborative debugging support, which among other things, enable AL, Apex (SalesForce) and Dart debugging sessions to be shared with other participants.
  • Fixed auto-completion duplication for some languages - Certain languages (e.g. CSS, JSON) used to display duplicate entries in the completion list for guests. Now, all languages (either in-box or installed via a marketplace extension) are remotely available to guests, and will be properly de-duplicated. This allows guests to receive the expected language experience, whether or not they have the same extensions installed as the host.

New in Visual Studio Live Share 0.3.198.43204 Preview (May 23, 2018)

  • Feature Enhancements (VS/VSCode):
  • Guest Leave Notification (#95) - Users now receive a notification when a guest leaves the collaboration session. We had previously introduced notifications for when a guest joins the session, and so this release completes the request described in #95.
  • User-Reported Issues (VS/VSCode):
  • Fixes for hosts with case-sensitive file systems (#301, #302, #303) - We had previously introduced the ability for guests to add/delete/rename files, as well as for hosts to hide certain files from guests (e.g. secrets). However, those features experiences issues when the host was using a case-sensitive file system. This release resolves these bugs, and ensures the correct behavior regardless of the filesystem the host is using.
  • Fix for shared terminals when using a custom shell (#361) - The shared terminal feature already allowed you to specify a custom shell, however, it required you to specify it as an absolute file path. With this release, you can now specify just the shell name (e.g. fish), and it will correctly resolve it based on your PATH.
  • User-Reported Issues (VS Code/macOS):
  • Resolving 100% CPU consumption on macOS (#355) - We heard numerous reports of macOS users seeing the Live Share agent process (vsls-agent) consuming 100% of their CPU, even when they weren't sharing. This release resolves that issue, to ensure that Live Share is lean and mean!