Quick tour of the VSCode Lightrun plugin¶
The majority of the work you do with Lightrun, such as troubleshooting, debugging, and performance testing, is performed directly from your integrated development environment (IDE) or the Lightrun CLI.
Using the Lightrun plugin, provided for a variety of popular IDEs (such as VSCode, IntelliJ, and PyCharm), you can insert Lightrun actions (Logs, Metrics, and Snapshots) anywhere within the source code of your running applications. Also, from within the Lightrun plugin for your IDE, you can view, in real time, the output of Lightrun actions.
And, thanks to Lightrun's comprehensive range of integrations with third-party logging tools, from the plugin, you also can route output from Lightrun Logs and Metrics to your usual logging framework (such as Logz.io and DataDog).
Scope of the quick tour¶
This quick tour article provides an overview of the main features and functionalities of the Lightrun Plugin for Visual Studio Code (VSCode). For detailed information on procedures for running Lightrun actions and managing configurations within VSCode, see:
Prerequisites
To follow this quick tour on your workstation, if not previously done:
- Authenticate it
- Attach at least one agent to your application
- Open the source code folder for your running the application in the IDE
The Lightrun sidebar layout¶
Upon clicking, in the VSCode activity bar, the Lightrun plugin icon , the Lightrun sidebar opens. Follow the on-screen instructions to authenticate.
If no agents are available in your organization, follow the on-screen instructions.
Once your application is running with the Lightrun agent attached, the VSCode plugin user interface appears similar to the annotated figure shown below.
View tabs¶
Selecting any of the three view tabs exposes additional menus and options, respectively for managing Agents, Tags, and Snapshots.
The Agents view tab¶
The Agents tab lists the live Lightrun agents and the respective tags associated with each agent. Under each agent there is a list of actions that are assigned for it.
In the example below, there is a Log and Snapshot actions running under the agent with "MacAir" name.
When clicked, the expand icon reveals a list of actions for the agent.
Clicking the Agent Options menu icon displays the AGENT OPTIONS menu.
.
The Tags view tab¶
The Tags tab list available tags with associated agents and actions.
Use the tags tab to see what actions are associated with each tag and add new actions to a multiple agents at once or to agents that are running serverless.
When clicked, the expand icon reveals two categories Actions and Agents for the associated actions and agents respectively. Click the expand icon again to drill into those.
The Snapshots view tab¶
The Snapshots tab list all available snapshots data that was captured.
Learn more about Snapshots in VSCode.
Dynamic search filter¶
From the dynamic search field, you can search for Logs, Snapshots, and Metrics attached to specific agents. As you begin typing, the list of relevant agents updates dynamically.
Tip
Dynamic search is particularly useful for finding specific dynamic Logs, when working with multiple agents.
Agents details¶
To view Agent details, in the Agents tab, under AGENT OPTIONS, select the Details option.
The Agent details table appears, similar to the following:
The following table summarizes the information displayed in the Agent details window.
Field | Description |
---|---|
Name | The agent's display name or host name if not specified |
Host | The name of the machine where the agent is running |
Environment | The runtime environment of the application with which the agent is running |
ID | A unique identifier, automatically generated for the agent |
PID | The process ID (on the machine where the agent is running) |
Start Time | The time at which the agent started running |
API Version | The version number of the server the agent is connected to |
Agent Version | The version number of the agent |
Log Routing | The configured routing method |
Tags | Next to Agent details, the names of tags that have been applied to the agent. If there are more than one tag, additional tags are displayed by clicking the ![]() |
Deleting Lightrun actions¶
Lightrun actions can be deleted using the UI or the Lightrun Command Palette.
To delete a Lightrun action from the UI:
- Under the Agents or Tags view, next to the relevant action identifier, click the More options
icon. The ACTION OPTIONS menu opens.
- Select Delete.
To delete a Lightrun action from the Lightrun Command Palette:
- Place your cursor at the code line where the Lightrun action is inserted.
- Right-click to open the VSCode context menu and select Lightrun....
The Lightrun plugin Command Palette opens. - Select Delete Current Line Action
Additional features¶
Clicking the More Options icon at the top of the plugin, opens the PLUGIN OPTIONS menu.
From here you can:
- Open, within VSCode, the Lightrun plugin extension settings window.
- Open the Lightrun documentation web page
- Open the Lightrun user feedback web page
- Refresh the user interface
- Navigate to Lightrun management portal
- Sign out from the current user