How can I get a proper syntax highlighting in Visual Studio 2015 for JSX with ES2015 code?
It works fine if I remove the import
and export
keywords:
I just updated to Visual Studio 2015 Enterprise Update 1 but it still remains the same.
How can I get a proper syntax highlighting in Visual Studio 2015 for JSX with ES2015 code?
It works fine if I remove the import
and export
keywords:
I just updated to Visual Studio 2015 Enterprise Update 1 but it still remains the same.
UPDATE (2017-02)
Node Tools for Visual Studio (NTVS) has been using the Salsa analysis engine since v1.2 and using NTVS is likely the path of least resistance for JSX support.
https://github.com/Microsoft/nodejstools
Read (and upvote) this answer for more details: https://stackoverflow.com/a/41996170/9324
ORIGINAL ANSWER
I ran into the same issue and found two solutions - one using ReSharper and one modifying Visual Studio external web tools.
SOLUTION 1
In ReSharper 10:
After reloading the solution, the red squigglies were gone for me. However, the syntax highlighting for JSX doesn't work. The opening segment of any elements I declare in the render
function don't have the proper coloring - but that's easy for me to ignore.
I should also mention that the javascript files need to have .js extension. If you give them .jsx extension, you'll get red squigglies on your first import statement. The error message will be JSX Parser: illegal import declaration
. (This can be fixed using solution #2 below)
UPDATE: thanks to @SntsDev for this workaround There is a way to avoid naming the .jsx files as .js:
SOLUTION 2
Curiosity got the better of me and I wanted to explore whether or not there was a non-ReSharper solution. Visual Studio uses a locally running node server module named react-server
to parse JSX on the fly. This module can be found here:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio
14.0\Common7\IDE\Extensions\Microsoft\Web Tools\External\react-server
UPDATE for Visual Studio 2015 Update 3
Thanks to @TheQuickBrownFox for the comment/update.
For Update 3, the location of the react-server
commands is now in this file:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio
14.0\Web\External\vs-task-server\react-commands.js
Further examining the server.js
or react-commands.js
file from the aforementioned folder(s), there is a function named transformJsxFromPost
or transformJsx
. This method contains the following line: var transformed = reactTools.transformWithDetails(code, { elementMap: true });
. This is a reference to the react-tools
module (https://www.npmjs.com/package/react-tools), which has more options available for parsing ES6.
Therefore:
replace this line:
var transformed = reactTools.transformWithDetails(code, { elementMap: true });
with the following:
var transformed = reactTools.transformWithDetails(code, { elementMap: true, es6module: "--es6module", harmony: "--harmony" });
Note the addition of the --es6module
and --harmony
flags, which instruct react-tools
to treat the incoming code as ES6.
disable javascript syntax errors in Visual Studio as follows:
IMPORTANT: restart Visual Studio. Your .jsx
files with ES6 code should no longer have red squiggles on your ES6 code.
NOTES:
server.js
file will impact non-ES6 code. So implement at your own risk. react-tools
within react-server
with Babel CLI. UPDATE: Thanks to @NickDewitt, seems he was able to make this work: https://stackoverflow.com/a/36321109/9324In VS2015 Update-3 and NTVS 1.2 installed, simply setting TypeScript Editor as the default editor for file extension jsx did the trick for me.
1) Open Tools>Options>Text Editor>File Extension.
2) Type jsx in Extension, select TypeScript Editor as Editor, and click Apply.
EDIT: Visuals studio 15 is renamed to Visual Studio 2017: you can get the RC over here: https://www.visualstudio.com/vs/visual-studio-2017-rc/
Future Solution:
Visual Studio "15" Preview 2 support JSX en React out of the box. You can enable the same (Salsa) Javascript Service library like VS Code.
Here the release notes: https://www.visualstudio.com/en-us/news/releasenotes/vs15/vs15-relnotes
Salsa: https://github.com/Microsoft/TypeScript/wiki/Using-the-Salsa-Preview-in-Visual-Studio-15-Preview
SOLUTION '3':
Thanks to the insights from Adam in his answer, I have got this working with babel and it's plugins/presets. It's worth reading his answer first if you are trying this.
You need nodeJs and npm installed before you go any further, and maybe back up any files before you modify them.
I am using react, es2015 plugins with stage1 presets here, but you can use whatever plugins you like
Powershell to C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0\Common7\IDE\Extensions\Microsoft\Web Tools\External\react-server
Install the following packages:
npm install babel-core --save-dev
npm install babel-preset-es2015 --save-dev
npm install babel-preset-react --save-dev
npm install babel-preset-stage-1 --save-dev
Add the dependencies to server.js
below childProcess
var childProcess = require('child_process'); //already there
var babel = require('babel-core');
var es2015 = require('babel-preset-es2015');
var react = require('babel-preset-react');
var stage1 = require('babel-preset-stage-1');
Replace the try{}catch{}
section of the req.on('end'
assignment in the transformJsxFromPost
function:
try {
var transformed =
babel.transform(
code,
{
sourceMaps: true,
presets: [
es2015,
react,
stage1
]
}
);
result = {
elementMappings: []
}
//I found it least buggy when returning an empty list of elementMappings
//but i will leave the code i was using to try and dupe it, or
//recreate the elementMappings from react-tools
//
// result = {
// elementMappings: [{
// 'start': 1,
// 'end': transformed.code.length,
// 'generatedCode': transformed.code
// }],
// map: transformed.map,
// code: transformed.code
// }
}
catch (e) {
//the error that react-tools was returning was slightly different, so
//map the babel error back to the react-tools error that VS 2015 expects
result = {
column: e.loc.column,
description: e.errorMessage,
errorMessage: e.message + ".. :-(",
index: e.pos,
lineNumber: e.loc.line
};
}
Restart visual studio, close and re-open any .jsx files and enjoy babel syntax highlighting :-)
Notes
Give the parser a chance to kick in after you start, visual studio will do the following when you load into a .jsx file the first time:
%localappdata%\Temp\
with stderr.txt
where you can find a log of any errors and stdout.txt
which will tell you what {port}
the server is running on and also logs other info.localhost:{port}
which accepts JSX as a POST on /transformJsxFromPost
and returns the line number and column number of the first error it encounters as a json object to visual studioI had to turn off javascript intellisense for jsx files as Adam shows in solution 1 in his answer:
In Visual Studio, go to Tools > Options > Text Editor > JavaScript > IntelliSense, then uncheck the Show syntax errors box and OK out.
With javascript intellisense off, both react-server as packaged with vs and babel as i am replacing it here both only return the first error they encounter, so you shouldn't expect to see highlighting on all errors throughout your file, but they do show up as you type if you keep your code error free.
I guess now all is left to do is get the elementMappings
over properly - solution 4 maybe? :-)
Whilst trying to research this I realised a simple way to work with jsx files in all versions of Visual Studio. It's not perfect but works for me.
Download the latest Visual Studio Code [ https://code.visualstudio.com/updates ] then right click a jsx file within whatever version of Visual Studio you have and select 'Open With...'. Select 'Add' and browse to your recently downloaded Visual Studio Code and make this your default.
Hope that helps people worrying about having to upgrade.
It is mentioned in the comments above by @TheQuickBrownFox, but hidden by default (needed to expand all to see it), so summarizing what I did to fix the issue in the latest Visual Studio 2015 Community Update 3:
100% from Solution 1 by Adam Weber: https://stackoverflow.com/a/34110461/1633913 (setting JavaScript Language Level in ReSharper to ECMAScript 2016, and check Enable JSX ... in the same window + disabling Show syntax errors in VS JavaScript IntelliSense options)
Solution 2 by Adam Weber: https://stackoverflow.com/a/34110461/1633913, but slightly modified; the target file where you should replace:
this: var transformed = reactTools.transformWithDetails(code, { elementMap: true });
with this: var transformed = reactTools.transformWithDetails(code, { elementMap: true, es6module: "--es6module", harmony: "--harmony" });
is indeed here: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0\Web\External\vs-task-server\react-commands.js
restart VS and you're done.