How is this repo related to the vss-web-extension-sdk

[mkaszub]

I'm having some difficulties understanding how those repos are correlated. Official doku point to the vss-web-extension-sdk as SDK that should be used but on the other hand it looks like it is not maintained any more.
In vss-web-extension-sdk we had access to GUI control in this one no. What is the proper way of developing plugins? Can anyone here answer this question?

[MisinformedDNA]

I'm still new to this, but my understanding is the azure-devops-extension-sdk replaces vss-web-extension-sdk and the docs are out of date.

[acdvs]

This repo is another great example of Microsoft attempting to move to modern technologies and methodologies but failing to make anything usable without days worth of prior research and frustration.

The VSS SDK functionality was split into three parts: UI (azure-devops-ui), SDK (azure-devops-extension-sdk), and API (azure-devops-extension-api) -- the latter two being confusingly similar.

Before, everything was done with plain old browser scripts by adding the VSS SDK through a script tag. With these new packages, the official way to build extensions is with React, Webpack, and SCSS.

• The UI package includes predefined, configurable UI elements and helpers that you can very easily add into React components
• The SDK retrieves services in the same way the VSS SDK did (e.g., SDK.getService(...))
• The API is used for interacting with REST clients and the interfaces and enums usually only needed when writing TypeScript

This repo of samples can help you get started with the basic structure.

[pureliumy]

It's just soooo difficult to develop an Azure DevOps extension, whatever the old SDK and the new one, both of them can't work well, some upset things I met:

• documents are just messy and out of date, the links in documents are confusing
• azure-devops-extension-sdk can't save custom configuration
• azure-devops-ui is missing something, for example, Stack component
• The new SDK samples doesn't contain a dashboard widget sample, but the dashboard widget sample in official website used the old SDK
• ...

I want to know what's the best way to develop a dashboard widget extension with the new SDK.

[yunsii]

@pureliumy I think here is what you want: #17 (comment)

[htekdev]

@pureliumy, @yunsii checkout my comment over here: #22 (comment)

Just opened a PR for the integration between both since it's a reoccurring problem.
#51

[pureliumy]

@yunsii @htekdev Thanks a lot for your kind help, your solutions look great. But it was already a long time since I left that part of work, and I remember that it was finally resolved by using the old SDK.

And the way I describe the question was not proper and polite, a product needs time to be better, thanks for all your hard works behind.

[JamesSkemp]

Early/mid-2023 getting started experience:

1. Visit https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/extend/develop/add-hub?view=azure-devops (via search)
2. https://www.npmjs.com/package/vss-web-extension-sdk is used and referenced in the code.
3. Bounce over to https://www.npmjs.com/package/azure-devops-extension-sdk per the notice on the package and elsewhere.
4. Go to the following, via the README:
   1. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/extend/overview
      1. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/extend/develop/add-dashboard-widget?view=azure-devops references old plugin.
      2. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/extend/develop/add-hub?view=azure-devops is from step 1 above ...
   2. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/extend/get-started/node?view=vsts
      1. Uses the old SDK ...
   3. https://github.com/Microsoft/azure-devops-extension-sample
      1. Links over to https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/extend/overview?view=azure-devops&viewFallbackFrom=vsts (see 4.i.)
      2. Leaves you with the option to clone the samples repo and make sure you're not using docs that point to the old SDK.

Even the main README of this project points to the vss-web-extension-sdk using https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/extend/get-started/node?view=azure-devops&viewFallbackFrom=vsts ...

This makes me wonder if the azure-devops-extension-sdk is actually ready for production, or if it's still in some sort of rollout phase, which started sometime in 2019.