Introducing Vonage for Visual Studio Code
Published on March 31, 2021

We're always working to make building with our APIs easier for all developers. With our new Vonage for Visual Studio Code extension, we're bringing our APIs closer to your development experience. Vonage for VS Code gives you control of your Vonage applications & numbers and provides code snippets to make building your app faster than ever.

Let's review what you can do.

Installing the Extension

You can find the Vonage for VS Code extension in the Visual Studio Marketplace. Click install to add the extension to your editor.

Alternatively, you can manually install the plugin:

  1. See the latest Releases for the Vonage/vscode GitHub project.

  2. Download the release.vsix file from the latest release. The link is listed under the Assets section of the release.

  3. Run code --install-extension <path to release.vsix> from your terminal.

Authenticate Your Account

With the extension installed, click the Vonage logo in the activity bar. Then you'll be prompted to authorize the extension with your account. Click the Provide API key & secret button to authenticate. Once you've logged in, your account information will begin to populate in the window.

Example of logging into the extensionExample of logging into the extension

Numbers

The Unassigned Numbers view contains a listing of numbers you own that aren't assigned to applications. You can right-click any numbers in the view to see additional options for that number, including copying the number to the clipboard or assigning it to an application. It's also possible to cancel a number using the context menu.

Purchasing a new number is fast. By pressing the button in the title bar of the view, you'll be prompted to select the country, type, and pattern (i.e., starts with 12) for your new number. Then choose the number you want, and the extension will handle purchasing it.

Quick view of some of the features for managing numbersQuick view of some of the features for managing numbers

Applications

We're aiming for 100% self-service with the Applications view. Start by creating an application using the button in the title bar of the view. The extension will prompt you for a name and optional public key.

The right-click context menu on each application allows you to add, edit or remove capabilities quickly. This includes the ability to update webhooks for any of the capabilities. On the right of each application is a link to view the application in the Vonage API Dashboard or delete the application.

Each application is a tree item that can be expanded to show all the numbers assigned to the application. Here you can remove the number from the application and manage the number as you would in the numbers view.

Quick view of some of the features for applicationsQuick view of some of the features for applications

Account

Currently, the Account view provides a quick way to view your account balance. In the future, we hope to provide some additional capabilities here, including the ability to top-off your account. Are you giving a presentation, screen-sharing, live-streaming? For privacy, click your current balance to toggle its visibility.

Animated gif of the Account viewAnimated gif of the Account view

What's Next?

We've included a few snippets in the initial release, but our next major focus will be adding code snippets for several popular languages. Is there a killer feature that we're missing? Perhaps something small that would improve the user experience? The extension is in public beta, and we are eager to hear your feedback. We can't wait to see what you build!

Michael JolleyVonage Alumni

Michael is the bald, bearded builder. Using his 20 years experience in software development and DevOps, this follicly challenged developer spends his days focused on helping others succeed.

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