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Rich Code Navigation2020-05-18T15:34:16-07:00

Rich Code Navigation

Instant high precision cross-repo navigation accessible from anywhere

Try it with Visual Studio 2019

Sign up for private preview
Rich Code Navigation screenshot

What is Rich Code Navigation?

Rich Code Navigation provides an instant cloud backed code navigation experience on par with the accuracy level seen in your favorite code editor, without the need to check out code or to clone locally. Developers will be able to perform navigation actions such as: “Find all references”, “Peek Definition”, “Go to implementation” on code or pull requests in any public repositories that Rich Code Navigation has indexed.

Rich Code Navigation - Improved productivity with large solutions screenshot

Improved productivity with large solutions in Visual Studio

Developers may notice as their codebases grow that it takes longer for navigation features in Visual Studio to become enabled when their code is initially loaded on startup. Rich Code Navigation will be able to help you navigate immediately by leveraging the pre-indexed data built against your repo. In addition, users who use solution filters as a way of working in large solutions will be able to navigate through unloaded parts of your solution and load the files you need to edit on demand.

Smart navigation beyond your code

Developers will be able to find examples of how to leverage external code capabilities by finding references to Rich Code Navigation indexed repositories directly from your code in Visual Studio, even if it is not yet on Rich Code Navigation. You can then continue to navigate through the Rich Code Navigation indexed code with editor like precision.

Smart navigation screenshot
Instant repo browsing screenshot

Instant repo browsing

Interested in learning more about a repo that you don’t have loaded locally? You will be able to browse and navigate through any repo indexed by Rich Code Navigation in your favorite web browser instantly. Furthermore, you can share what you are browsing with your friends and coworkers at a file level. All they need is a GitHub account!

Pull request navigation

Keep track of the pull requests you’re interested in from within their development environment (via the Visual Studio Code extension), and at any time, begin seamlessly navigating changes across remotely-hosted PRs, without needing to checkout those topic branches locally.

Pull request navigation screenshot

Supported clients:

  • Visual Studio
  • Visual Studio Code
  • Web Browser with GitHub authentication

Supported languages:

  • C#, C++, Java, JavaScript/TypeScript
  • More to come soon!

Q&A

Does it cost anything to use Rich Code Navigation?

There is no cost associated with browsing Rich Code Navigation indexed repos through Visual Studio, VS Code, and the browse during Private Preview.

We offer the ability to onboard your public repo onto Rich Code Navigation using a GitHub action. There will be no costs to leverage the Rich Code Navigation service. Costs associated with GitHub actions can be found here: https://help.github.com/en/github/setting-up-and-managing-billing-and-payments-on-github/about-billing-for-github-actions

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