Web Essentials 2012

Free

Adds many useful features to Visual Studio for web developers.

(148) Review
Visual Studio
"12", 2012
Download (429,361)
5/5/2013
2.7
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Description
Reviews (148)
Q and A (246)
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by Jacco M | Sat 10:02 AM

Great tool. Esspecialy Less support! Thanks!

by D. Chatterjee | Fri 10:28 PM

I try to download this but an error shows "The extension manifest is Invalid"

by Fduch | May 14 2013

This "thing" pollutes the context menu for the non-web projects by adding a top menu item where the "Build" item used to be.

Why do some developers think that their shiny gizmo needs to jump at the user at every click?

Uninstalling.

by christensen.rob | May 10 2013

Love this extension!

by Allco | May 07 2013

GREAT, simplesmente, GREAT!!!!!

by EdSF1 | May 01 2013

Pretty awesome! Particularly cool with TypeScript!

by casper_wilkes | April 21 2013

Love this extension!

by Sebastian Hösl | April 18 2013

Absolutely essential for web-development in Visual Studio!

by WPCoder | April 07 2013

Unfortunately, it causes crashes nearly every time I start to debug the web project. I've tried the latest version and have the latest update to VS 2012. (When this is installed, can't debug, and VS2012 crashes, when it's not, everything works smoothly).

by Marcel Raad | April 05 2013

by GlobeCoder | March 31 2013

In theory this plugin would easily earn 5 stars, but it seems there are some issues with the js bundle plugin/minifier and JSHint.
Two things:
1.) The minified version doesn't seem to work all the time (I mean it might be something I could fix if I would "optimize" the JS code a bit more, but for small web project I just want something that works out of the box). One thing it "broke", e.g. was the jQuery plugin jTruncate.
2.) While it seem to compress better than YUI, Google Closure Compiler seems to make a better job even with the Simple optimzations. So maybe Web Essentials could use GCC and allow a new preference, something like "advanced=true" to achieve even better minification.
3.) And possibly the most important thing: JSHint should become more customizable. E.g. there is this other VS Extension JSLint that imo does a much better job (though I don't really want another VS extension installed): You can set your custom namespaces, it is possible to check a single file on save (much better than checking all files on build, which can get really annoying if you work on big JS projects).
Anyway, thanks for this quite helpful extension and up the good work.

by Altuğ Duygulu | March 27 2013

Good extension. Thanks.

by Lyamine | March 14 2013

so nice

by RichardKeller | March 08 2013

Very useful extension!
It helps productivity a lot and turn viable to use LESS in Visual Studio.
I'm looking forward for sass full integration too.

by Richard D | March 07 2013

Hi Mads,

Today I saw your session on Techday 2013 in Den Haag and you've made some really cool stuff!! The CSS hell is mitigated thanks to the Web Essentials 2012.

Many thanks.

Richard.

by Anita Malmö | March 07 2013

I've installed Web Essentials 2012 and Web Tools 2012.2 Update.

In my VS2k12, I don't see Web Essentials as in this picture
http://madskristensen.net/image.axd?picture=image_55.png

What gives? Can anybody advise?

by Jafin | March 06 2013

Thank you for elevating Visual Studio from out of the dark ages!! Awesome stuff.

by Jitbit1 | March 05 2013

No more LESS support in the latest version. But "LESS" is there on the product page, there's even a LESS-settings tab in the options. Thanks for ruining our work process.

This extension is #1 result in Google for "Visual Studio LESS".

PS. the new "ASP.NET and Web Tools 2012.2" only highlights LESS code, but does not compile it!!

Mads Kristensen March 05 2013
| Edit |
Delete

Web Tools 2012.2 provides the LESS editor. WE provides the compiler and additional features. You need both

by Tarek Ayna - Apexa | March 01 2013

by Keith5150 | March 01 2013

1 - 20 of 148 Items   
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  • @importing several files fails (thread bombs)
    2 Posts | Last Post Mon 11:26 PM
    • I have a couple of .less files that do no more than facilitate the inclusion of smaller less files -- such as a responsive grid LESS file that sets up media queries and then imports each break, in a total of 6 @import calls (one for grid setup, one for design, for Desktop | Mobile | Tablet). 
      
      When I try to save these files I notice a cscript.exe thread getting up to about 2GB of RAM and then breaking. Is there anyway I can debug this extension to give a better understanding of where this breaks? I get an empty error that simply states 'LESS: '
    • I'm a dummy. The issue I was having was from not using @import-once. I believe @import-once is removed in the latest version of LESS so that's probably why I decided to remove them from my code.
  • @import of files outside current project fails with 404
    12 Posts | Last Post Mon 10:32 PM
    • Hi!
      
      Just upgraded from 2.5.1 to 2.6, and all our cross-project imports stopped working. Like this:
      
      @import "../../../../Themes/MiP.Theme/Styles/mip-mixins.less";
      
      This worked before but now gives the following compiler error:
      LESS: Couldn't load themes/MiP.Theme/Styles/mip-mixins.less (404)
      
      Can you fix this please? :) Or tell us what we're doing wrong. Or provide some kind of workaround. We are not very keen on duplicating all our less files... :)
      
    • Has this been addressed, or is there a workaround?
    • Same problem here.
    • The interesting thing is that LESS is supposed to be handled by Web Tools now since 2.5. Reverting back to the 2.5.1 download from http://vswebessentials.com/changelog fixed my problem. I imagine both Web Tools and Web Essentials have some conflicting dependency for path resolution. 
    • Reverted to 2.5.1 also and all seems well... for now.  Just wish I knew if this is a bug in 2.6 or an intentional change.
    • I am seeing this issue in 2.6 inside of the same project - rolling back to 2.5.1 has not resolved the issue.  Think there may be a remnant lurking somewhere after the uninstall.
    • 3 cycles of uninstall and reinstall later - 2.5.1 now functioning as expected.
    • See this thread for the description of the issue and for a possible workaround: http://forums.asp.net/p/1900852/5371528.aspx/1?p=True&t=635022256782196589
    • Alternatively you can just downgrade the less compiler from v1.3.3 to v1.3.1 which fixes the issue. See here:
      
      http://stackoverflow.com/questions/15691713/less-compiler-and-relative-import-references-not-working-in-web-essentials-2012
    • The "Replace with original 1.3.0" workaround here http://forums.asp.net/p/1900852/5371528.aspx/1?ASP+NET+and+Web+Tools+2012+2+bug+in+resolving+imports+in+LESS+files+workaround+included worked for me.
      
      It looks like the problem is really with Web Tools. I imagine that Web Tools or Web Essentials or both fiddles with the scripts in that directory so reveting to 2.5 reverts the 1.3.3 script to 1.3.0
    • This bug remains in Web Essentials 2.7 as the LESS version is still 1.3.3 and has not been reverted (though the script file name is less-1.3.0.js).
    • Reverting to v1.3.0 in Web Essentials 2.7 doesn't work for me. Instead, it just keeps creating threads that go to compile the LESS but just consume memory.
  • JSDoc and IntelliSense
    2 Posts | Last Post Sun 4:09 PM
    • Is there some magic setting to get JSDoc comments to be parsed for IntelliSense?  I can't seem to get this working in 1.7.  I have a simple test file with the following:
      
      /**
       * Does something.
       * 
       * @param {string} myParam
       */
      function doSomething(myParam) {
      
      }
      
      Inside the function, myParam seems to have no type information.  Outside, inline documentation just spits out the whole unformatted comment block for doSomething.  Anyone have any ideas how to get this to work?  Thanks!
    • I am having the exact same problem.  JSDOC does *NOT* work as described.  Am I missing something?  I am using the exact same format as dornif:
      
      /**
       * Does something.
       * 
       * @param {string} myParam
       */
      function doSomething(myParam) {
      
      }
      
      But when attempting to use 'doSomething', Intellisense just dumps out the entire comment block (/* ... */) above the function instead of providing the intellisense I expect for each parameter.
  • Compile Jade to Html
    1 Posts | Last Post May 11, 2013
    • Jade is a really nice alternative to typing Html manually. The best Jade engine is in node, but to get to use it for non-node apps aswell using it as a pre-processor would be a nice alternative. WebStorm already does this http://stackoverflow.com/questions/15492624/auto-compile-jade-in-webstorm-on-windows 
  • SCSS/SASS support?
    2 Posts | Last Post May 06, 2013
    • Hello , 
      
      Do you plan on bringing a SCSS/SASS support any time soon ? there is another plugin for that , but it doesn't feel as polished as yours and it brings a ton of other features that i don't really need.
      
      Thanks!
    • I would like to echo the sentiments of Aviatrix. I use the "other" plug-in and it doesn't feel as polished as this (and I pay for it). I don't like LESS as much as SCSS (a.k.a. SASS) and that other plug-in is the only one of it's kind to work with visual studio.
  • css files not showing nested under less file.
    1 Posts | Last Post April 28, 2013
    • I have WE 2.6 installed on my work and home PC's, both with VS 2012.2. The css files show linked under the less file on my home PC, but not on my work PC. Both MVC 4.0 apps. Is there a setting I'm missing?
  • Rename page codebehind bug
    2 Posts | Last Post April 28, 2013
    • I have noticed that when I rename an aspx file, the code behind drops the .aspx part and visual studio does not nest the file. Through trial and error I managed to find out that it is Web Essentials 2012 that is causing the issue and with the Plugin disabled it doesn't occur.
    • I can confirm the bug and it's REALLY annoying one :(
  • CSS bundle crash VS2012
    1 Posts | Last Post April 25, 2013
    • Hi,
      
      Making a CSS bundle crashes VS2012 if one of the CSS files do NOT belong to the project.  On a whim, I added the CSS to the project and the error no longer occurred.
      
      Trace...
      System.NullReferenceException was unhandled
        HResult=-2147467261
        Message=Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
        Source=WebEssentials2012
        StackTrace:
             at MadsKristensen.EditorExtensions.FileHelpers.RelativePath(String absPath, String relTo)
             at MadsKristensen.EditorExtensions.BundleFilesMenu.WriteFile(String filePath, IEnumerable`1 files, String extension, String output)
             at MadsKristensen.EditorExtensions.BundleFilesMenu.<>c__DisplayClasse.<CreateBundlefile>b__a()
             at System.Windows.Threading.ExceptionWrapper.InternalRealCall(Delegate callback, Object args, Int32 numArgs)
             at MS.Internal.Threading.ExceptionFilterHelper.TryCatchWhen(Object source, Delegate method, Object args, Int32 numArgs, Delegate catchHandler)
             at System.Windows.Threading.DispatcherOperation.InvokeImpl()
             at System.Windows.Threading.DispatcherOperation.InvokeInSecurityContext(Object state)
             at System.Threading.ExecutionContext.RunInternal(ExecutionContext executionContext, ContextCallback callback, Object state, Boolean preserveSyncCtx)
             at System.Threading.ExecutionContext.Run(ExecutionContext executionContext, ContextCallback callback, Object state, Boolean preserveSyncCtx)
             at System.Threading.ExecutionContext.Run(ExecutionContext executionContext, ContextCallback callback, Object state)
             at System.Windows.Threading.DispatcherOperation.Invoke()
             at System.Windows.Threading.Dispatcher.ProcessQueue()
             at System.Windows.Threading.Dispatcher.WndProcHook(IntPtr hwnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wParam, IntPtr lParam, Boolean& handled)
             at MS.Win32.HwndWrapper.WndProc(IntPtr hwnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wParam, IntPtr lParam, Boolean& handled)
      
  • Build TS on save options crashes web essentials
    3 Posts | Last Post April 16, 2013
    • Hi,
      
      with build typescript on save checked, whenever I now build my project the output from web essentials (ver 2.6 vs2012) contains the following exceptions ;
      
      15/04/2013 15:54:01: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
         at MadsKristensen.EditorExtensions.ProjectHelpers.GetRootFolder()
         at MadsKristensen.EditorExtensions.ProjectHelpers.GetRootFolder()
      15/04/2013 15:54:01: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
         at MadsKristensen.EditorExtensions.ProjectHelpers.GetRootFolder()
         at MadsKristensen.EditorExtensions.ProjectHelpers.GetRootFolder()
      15/04/2013 15:54:01: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
         at MadsKristensen.EditorExtensions.ProjectHelpers.GetRootFolder()
         at MadsKristensen.EditorExtensions.ProjectHelpers.GetRootFolder()
      
      Any ideas, I've uninstalled and reinstalled without any success.
      
      Thanks,
    • sorry that should have been 'with compile on build' switched on, this is an mvc 4 application.
    • This seems to be related to out web project, which contains the typescript files, being contained in a solution folder. 
      
      remove it from the solution folder and place at the root of the solution, and it works fine.
      
      
  • Version 2.6 crashes VS2012
    1 Posts | Last Post April 16, 2013
    • Hi,
      
      we've just started using Web Essentials with VS2012 for a new project and thus also started building our CSS from the ground up using LESS.
      
      Unfortunately, we've then been scratching our heads as to why rebuilding our solution didn't also recompile all the LESS files even though exactly that was configured in the LESS options page.
      
      I then threw Reflector and another instance of VS2012 at it and found out that our web app being in a solution folder instead of the root of the solution was the culprit - could you perhaps add recursing into solution folders when looking for projects to compile?
      
      Also, while doing that I found that VS crashes with a "file not found" exception at LessProjectCompiler.MinifyFile when compiling the LESS files during building when the associated minified file is missing and minification is activated. I assume if the file doesn't exist it should just be created... :)
      
      (The reason for that was that we didn't want to check the generated files into our Subversion repository so after a fresh checkout those files will always be missing, and having to touch each of them once to have the minified files generated is iffy...)
      
      Hope this helps.
      
      Kind regards
      
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