Edit code with Visual Studio Code for the Web (preview)
[This topic is pre-release documentation and is subject to change.]
From the design studio, you can edit site code using Visual Studio Code for the Web. This feature allows you to edit a single page's content, custom CSS, and custom JavaScript.
Visual Studio Code for the Web provides a free, zero-install Microsoft Visual Studio Code experience running entirely in your browser, allowing you to browse site code and make lightweight code changes quickly and safely. More information: Visual Studio Code for the Web experience.
Important
- This is a preview feature.
- Preview features aren’t meant for production use and may have restricted functionality. These features are available before an official release so that customers can get early access and provide feedback.
Note
- First time Visual Studio Code for the Web load may take some time as it will be installing required extensions for this feature.
- File Create, Delete and Rename operations are not supported.
- This feature utilizes Power Platform Tools web extension. Web extensions are restricted by the browser sandbox and therefore have limitations compared to normal extensions.
- Power Platform CLI is not supported.
- Power Platform Tools web extension features are limited to Power Pages code editing experience.
- This feature is not available in Government Community Cloud (GCC), Government Community Cloud (GCC High), and Department of Defense (DoD). Users in these regions will use the code editor in design workspace to make their changes. More information: Using the code editor
Edit code available in design studio
Edit code feature will allow users to edit code in following areas:
- Edit web page code from Pages workspace
- Header template code from Pages workspace
- Edit custom CSS code from Styling workspace
Let's take a look how to edit code using these areas.
Edit web page code from Pages workspace
When you open Power Pages design studio, you'll see Edit code option in Pages menu1 and upper-right corner of the screen2.
Header template code from Pages workspace
Select site header and then select Edit code to open code editor.
Edit custom CSS code from Styling workspace
Go to Styling workspace and select available custom CSS Edit code menu to open code editor.
Tutorial: Edit site code using Visual Studio Code for the Web
In this tutorial, you'll walk through editing the site code using Visual Studio Code for Web.
Step 1: Edit site code using Visual Studio Code
Open your site in Power Pages design studio
On the top right corner, select Edit code
Select Open Visual Studio Code from the confirmation dialog.
Sign in to Visual Studio Code using your environments credentials.
Wait for Power Platform Tools web extension to initialize, and web page code to load in left-pane.
Step 2: Update web page code
The explorer on the left-side of the screen will load respective customs CSS and custom JS files along with the web page copy content.
Make changes to the respective files and press Ctrl+S to save the changes.
Go to design studio and select Sync to pull all the updates in your current design studio session.
Select Preview to see changes on the Power Pages site.
Using Visual Studio Code for Web or Visual Studio Code desktop
Users can edit, debug, and preview changes to page edits using Visual Studio Code for the Web without needing to use external tools. Visual Studio Code for desktop provides other advanced features for editing all site metadata and integrating with GitHub, frameworks, and continuous integration/continuous development (CI/CD) processes.
Feature | Visual Studio for Web | Visual Studio Code desktop |
---|---|---|
Direct site editing | Yes | No |
Site metadata editing | Limited to Custom CSS and Web pages | All power pages configuration entities |
Site preview | Planned | Planned |
Power Platform CLI support | No | Yes |
Advanced CPU and storage bound workflow - ReactJS or other framework build tool support | No | Yes |
GitHub integration with capabilities such as code check-in, check-out, managing conflicts, and merge. | No | Yes |
Using the code editor
Note
- Using Visual Studio Code for the Web to edit websites is not supported in Government Community Cloud (GCC), Government Community Cloud (GCC High), and Department of Defense (DoD). Users in these regions can use the code editor in design studio to make their changes.
- Regions that support the Visual Studio Code editor will not see the design studio code editor.
To view the source code of the page on the canvas, select the code editor icon </> in the command bar.
The source code is displayed in the code editor pane at the bottom of the screen. Any changes you made previously will be updated in the source code. To make changes, update the source code and then select Save. The changes will be reflected on the canvas.
The code editor supports three docking options: docked on the bottom, docked on the right side, or full-screen edit mode.
The code editor canvas supports HTML editing. To edit JavaScript or custom CSS, select Edit CSS & JS, which will take you to the Portal Management app. From there, select the Advanced tab to make any edits you want in the JavaScript and CSS sections.
See also
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