Red Hat Extensions for Microsoft Visual Studio Code receive 3.8 million installs

Since the introduction of open source more than 20 years ago, software development has undergone significant shifts. Open source development has enabled new programming languages (see Go, Rust, etc.); and as a result, IDEs that are designed to be used with multiple languages are increasingly useful. In addition, enterprises can feel mounting pressure to compete in the digital economy, which can increase developer requirements to produce more microservices and cloud-native applications - and doing it faster. The ability for developers to optimize use of their favorite tools can be essential towards improving developer productivity.

To help address these application development challenges while enabling freedom of choice, Red Hat has developed key extensions for Microsoft’s Visual Studio (VS) Code IDE, which was recently ranked the most popular development environment among respondents. These Red Hat extensions leverage VS Code’s extensibility model and further enable developers to improve efficiency and build the extra applications that need to get done. With two of Red Hat’s extensions having a combined 3.8 million installs, these two Red Hat extensions for Microsoft’s VS Code are listed among the most popular in the Marketplace.

We want to help developers interact with our products in a way that helps them be more successful, and makes development more enjoyable in an IDE they may already be familiar with. Here are a few of the tools we’ve developed to help you improve productivity in Visual Studio Code:

• Java - The Red Hat Language Support for Java extension is built on the Language Server Protocol, and provides language support for Java through the Eclipse JDT Language Server. It makes Java application development easier with VS Code.
• XML and YAML - Our extension, YAML Support for Visual Studio Code, makes reading and editing YAML easier and more organized - important for Kubernetes and Red Hat OpenShift application development. Our XML Language Support extension is useful for configuration work, especially with Red Hat Fuse (or Apache Camel).
• New OpenShift and Server Connectors - The OpenShift Connector enables container native “inner loop” development and direct interaction with a Red Hat OpenShift cluster or a local instance. The Server Connector is a faster, more convenient way to develop and interact with your application server such as Wildfly, EAP and Minishift.
• New Extension Packs - If you’re focused on Java development on OpenShift, you should look at the OpenShift Extension Pack for Java, which is an easier way to get the tooling for Java development and Red Hat OpenShift deployment.
• New Dependency Analytics - Our Dependency Analytics extension is a service that checks your Maven or Node dependencies, can flag some known security vulnerabilities (CVEs), and tries to suggest a remedial version. It can also show Github popularity metrics, latest version available for your chosen package, and licensing information to help you choose a license for your project.

Due to the expansion of application development, Red Hat Developer is focused on supplying the current and future generations of developers with the best tools available to create cloud-ready applications using frameworks including Quarkus, Red Hat OpenShift, and Kubernetes. We've worked to do so through acquisitions like Codenvy, delivering cloud-native platforms such as Red Hat CodeReady Workspaces and Red Hat CodeReady Toolchain, and now we're enabling VS Code users with our extensions. With more than 3.8 million installs for two of our extensions, Red Hat extensions for VS Code can offer development teams the ability to code in an environment they feel comfortable, and helping them to more confidently meet demand.

Check out the VS Code offerings from Red Hat to see which extensions may be right for your development needs.