vscode debug ES6 application

Question

I have VSCode 0.5.0. I set the compilerOptions flag to \"ES6\" and the editor started recognizing my ES6 code as correct. I have babel installed. My Mocha tests use the bab

Answer 1

There are two ways of doing it:

First Option using npm command prompt

In package.json file create build command that will execute babel

{
  "scripts": {
    "build": "babel src --out-dir dist --watch --source-maps"
  },
  "devDependencies": {
    "babel-cli": "^6.23.0",
    "babel-preset-es2015-node6": "^0.4.0",
    "eslint": "^3.16.0"
  }
}

In launch.json Enter following code:

{
  "configurations": [
    {
      "name": "Launch",
      "type": "node",
      "request": "launch",
      "program": "${workspaceRoot}/src/index.js",
      "stopOnEntry": false,
      "args": [],
      "cwd": "${workspaceRoot}",
      "runtimeArgs": [
        "--nolazy"
      ],
      "sourceMaps": true,
      "outFiles": [
        "${workspaceRoot}/dist/**/*.js"
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Open your cmd window, navigate to your package.json file and execute:

npm run build

Open your VS Code and run your code. It will run and it will stop at all your breakpoints. The reason it works because source maps are generated and VS knows how to map them to your code.

Second option using VS Code task:

In VS Code add following task (Ctrl + Shift + P) and type 'Tasks: Configure Task Runner':

Add following code to tasks.json file

{
  "version": "0.1.0",
  "command": "${workspaceRoot}/node_modules/.bin/babel",
  "isShellCommand": true,
  "tasks": [
    {
      "taskName": "watch",
      "args": [
        "src",
        "--out-dir",
        "dist",
        "--watch",
        "--source-maps"
      ],
      "suppressTaskName": true,
      "isBuildCommand": true
    }
  ]
}

Now execute task, but pressing Ctrl + Shift + B (build command) and now you can run and debug your code. VS Code doing the same as what npm is doing in step one.

You will also need to configure babel in .babelrc (located in the root of the project) file like this:

{
  "presets": [
    "es2015-node6"
  ]
}

and jsconfig.json (located in the root of the project)

{
  "compilerOptions": {
    "target": "ES6"
  },
  "include": [
    "src/**/*"
  ]
}