Live-share: Consider providing a changelog in the VS UI

[TomasHubelbauer]

Hello, please consider providing an actual change log which VS Code will pick up and display in its UI like most extensions do as opposed to just putting there a link. One of the reasons I recommend this is that the current release doesn't have a corresponding entry in the Releases tab so I don't know what fixes and new features I have available after the update. I realize that at some point it will show up in the Releases tab as well but at that point I am not coming back to check, I'd rather know right there and then in the update extension experience. Updating the changelog before release can be a useful CI check, too.

[lostintangent]

@TomasHubelbauer This is a good suggestion, and something we'll start doing with our next release. Thanks for reaching out!

[lostintangent]

Today’s release now includes an integrated changelog, and we’ll keep that up to date moving forward 👍 Thanks again for the feedback here!

[neico]

That is all good and such, but VSCode currently only shows the most recent release listed there, other extensions also add the entire version history, which live share doesn't do. (I'd expect to have at least the last 5 releases there, not everyone updates for each release and has a chance to look at the changelog)
Not to mention that VS2017 doesn't even have the ability to display such info (not sure if VS2019 is able to),
meaning that I'm pretty sure that I missed quite a few changes by now as they aren't propagated anywhere else. (Which I imagine could lead to duplicated and outdated reports over time?)

I'd have expected that docs.microsoft.com at least would show them like it does for VS201* (even VS2019 which is in preview is listed there with changes), only to be redirected to this repo's releases page which doesn't offer all changes for every release (seems only more or less major change releases get a spot there)

[daytonellwanger]

Thanks for the feedback @neico! This (including multiple releases in the change log) is definitely something we can and will improve on in the VS Code extension starting with the next release.

I'm not sure if we have such a clear path for keeping VS users up-to-date with what has changed version-to-version. It sounds like you were able to find the release notes on this repo, but didn't find them sufficiently detailed or published frequently enough?

[neico]

Well I've been following this repo's releases page since it went open beta, so getting updates without seeing new changes here always felt a bit odd. (so yes the frequency seems a bit off at times, which is what was also originally mentioned by OP)

And VS extensions do support having a "Release Notes" link at least, which also isn't offered currently (I guess VS could improve on that by opening a dialog with the changes instead of opening a link), so that might increase the workflow a bit already to have that. (or a More Information link that goes to the docs page)

[daytonellwanger]

So the ideal VS experience for you would be the "Release Notes" link that ships with the extension being up-to-date, with each release having linked release notes?

[neico]

I wouldn't say ideal but a step in the right direction at least. When an update arrives it's usually easier to click on that link than opening the browser yourself and entering the URL.

Having it as part of the extension release like VSCode is able to would be a plus. (I guess VSCode simply parses the info from the marketplace, VS could do the same, it does have a embedded browser widget, be it as editor tab or a new window dialog is more of a design choice in the end)

Imo it's hard to make it as fluent as it is on VSCode with the current VS extension manager, something that I'd wish VS2019 would improve upon as it's essentially marketed as a new UI version. But this really goes beyond this repo's scope, just specifying on what I'd see as more appropriate.

[daytonellwanger]

Thanks for the feedback! We'll try to address this in the next release, and I'll reach back out then to get your thoughts.

[aletsdelarosa]

Live Share in Visual Studio now has a link to the release notes.