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Please Read... M.I.A. The Short Story and Apology

From this extension's inception many years ago, to the time my beloved daughter and I were working on it together in 2022 and 2023 with her high hopes of it turning into a licensable product (i.e. "$$$" in her eyes), to the time life changed 4ever when I lost her in April of '23 and became undoubtedly 4everbroken, to now the present day... after the overwhelming pain of each and every day had started to normalize, what we had last worked on together I was finally able to pick back up and continue, and now the initial preview versions have started to be released. I sincerely apologize to all users for the absence of any development over the last few years.

Overview of Upcoming Licensing Changes

Note that this release and all upcoming "preview releases" are fully functionality and for all intents and purposes is what will eventually be the "licensed version" of this extension, once the licensing scheme goes into effect. Afterwards, a 30-day trial can be activated, and/or a 60-day trial can be activated by making a formal request through the website's contact page. Please consider obtaining a license if you find the extension useful on or around a day-to-day basis. You'll have full functionality including all feature additions in upcoming releases, and of course prioritized support... you'll also become a never forgotten part of piecing back together a 4everbroken father.
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Further detail on the upcoming licensing scheme can be found below @ Free vs. Licensed Usage.

Settings Migration from Version 2 to Version 3

Version 3 uses a entirely different settings/configuration schema as compared to Version 2 and migration of 'favorites', 'last tasks', enabled task providers, etc, will be at default upon v3 installation, and are non-transferrable across major versions. For the foreseeable future, v2 settings will not be deleted, thus if it were to be re-installed back over v3, it would be configured exactly as it was before the v3 update.

What's New in Version 3

Version 3 comes with significant performance enhancements, several fixes, and a handful of new features.
  • Significant performance enhancements
  • Several fixes including longtime pre-v2 bugs
  • TaskMonitor View | fullscreen task controls
  • ESLint static type task provider
  • NodeJS script type task provider
  • NPM task provider to replace the limited VSCode provider
  • Improvements running NPM tasks for both internal and VSCode provider
  • Typescript task provider to replace the limited VSCode provider
  • Laravel task provider (via collabarator)
  • Optional encrypted data persistence
  • Taskfile caching (optional) | lower startup times
  • Restoration of tasktree 'collapsed' or 'expanded' node states
  • Stats and Runtime Tracking
  • Stats and Runtime Quick Reports
  • Re-organized Settings with groups
  • Enhanced Sidebar View container
  • Improved grouping of multiple taskfiles in same project
  • Support for up to 15 tree grouping levels
  • Release Notes View
  • Improved logging for better support and faster resolution of issues

Free vs. Licensed Usage

TaskExplorer v3 featuring significant performance enhancements can of course be used for (gulp) cost.equals("free"), but, this.free_version != new (V3Features), and will have a maximum (yet reasonable) # of treenodes (or I could type"scripts" or "tasks" here, all the same) that can be displayed in the explorer views, i.e. Math.ceiling("# of parsed tasks") != Infinity. No worries or no need to grunt about it though, because the free-for-use functionality is probably enough for most jakes, and any current users won't have to bash anything too hard over losing anything that they had already been used to from v2.
But... please consider purchasing a license or subscription when the licensing scheme becomes active, or maybe even a whole batch of them for your entire team if you really want to go and make our day. The cost will be fair and c++heap, unlike most everything else these days, definitely not the equivalent of a ruby or a perl, and new RegExp ("cost").test("car payment") == false. I'd be sincerely gradleful for your support, in a way that really cant be described. The licensing scheme is estimated to go into effect mid-to-late-December, or in other words this.licensing.setEnabled("december")... just like a python hatching from it's powershell after a long awaited new Promise("ok ok, I'll stop now...").

Roadmap Version 3.x

  • TaskBuddyTM View / Widget
  • Additional performance enhancements
  • TaskMonitor View sorting and filtering
  • Configure additional/external task providers not implemented internally
  • TaskMonitor View 'All' Tab task control collapsible groupings by project
  • Drag and Drop TaskMonitor View Integration with TaskBuddy View and/or Reporting
  • NodeJS .bin type task provider
  • Run count competitions for taskfabulous prizes
  • Support for jsconfig.json files in Typescript provider
  • Additional Typescript static tasks, e.g. js/ts syntax checks, esm/cjs tests, etc
  • Configurable Glob Patterns to customize provider file matching
  • Support for level-1 task grouping by project in Favorites folder
  • Create inline or parallel ran "composite tasks" via treenode multi-selection
  • Static pre-defined sets and groups of 'super++ useful, sometimes' npm based tasks
  • Github static type task provider
  • Gitlab static type provider
  • Jenkins static type task provider
  • Telemetry | Usage Reporting
  • Webpack-Wrap task provider and integration | localized ci-like implementation
  • App-Publisher task provider and integration | localized ci-like implementation
  • Auto-detect project svg logos to display in Favorites folder groups
  • Web Portal providing account login and license assets / info
  • Integrated Web Portal pages providing settings configuration from a rich UI
  • Reactive Settings View - settings configuration from a rich, easy-on-the-eyes in-Vscode GUI
  • Visual Studio 2020+ Extension preview release
  • Eclipse Plugin preview release

Roadmap Version 4 (Preliminary)

  • ASR support - configurable voice recognition
  • TTS support - configurable audible notifications
  • Smarthome https/wss api service, where and if applicable
  • Smarthome device support, where and if applicable
  • Smarthome device control support, where and if applicable
  • Support multiple configurable instances of TaskBuddyTM View
  • * Github Issues integration
  • * Gitlab Issues integration
  • * MantisBT Issues integration
  • Integrated Web Portal pages providing task automation from a rich UI
  • VSCode Web browser build
  • JetBrains Plugin / Extension preview release

Preview Releases

Initial version 3 releases (v3.0.x) are "preview" releases, and users might expect to run across an issue or two... rest assured all issues reported in the issues|requests board will be worked on and resolved as soon as possible, and the licensing scheme will not go into effect until all relevant / significant issues have been addressed, target timeframe is mid-to-late December.
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Feedback

Your feedback is absolutely welcome, please use the available contact form on our website.
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