How do you get JavaScript/jQuery Intellisense Working in Visual Studio 2008?

StackOverflow https://stackoverflow.com/questions/59766

Question

I thought jQuery Intellisense was supposed to be improved with SP1. I even downloaded an annotated version of jQuery 1.2.6, but intellisense will not work in a separate jscript file. I have the jQuery library referenced first on my web page in the <head> tag. Am I doing anything wrong?

Was it helpful?

Solution

At the top of your external JavaScript file, add the following:

/// <reference path="jQuery.js"/>

Make sure the path is correct, relative to the file's position in the folder structure, etc.

Also, any references need to be at the top of the file, before any other text, including comments - literally, the very first thing in the file. Hopefully future version of Visual Studio will work regardless of where it is in the file, or maybe they will do something altogether different...

Once you have done that and saved the file, hit Ctrl + Shift + J to force Visual Studio to update Intellisense.

OTHER TIPS

There is an officially supported jQuery documentation JavaScript file for Visual Studio 2008. This file is only an interim fix until Microsoft releases a hotfix that will more adequately address the issue.

Embedded in ASPX:

<% if (false) { %>
    <script src="jquery-1.2.6-vsdoc.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
<% } %>

Embedded in JavaScript:

/// <reference path="jquery-1.2.6-vsdoc.js" />

Pick it up here: jquery-1.2.6-vsdoc.js

References:

You'll want to look at this link:

http://blogs.ipona.com/james/archive/2008/02/15/JQuery-IntelliSense-in-Visual-Studio-2008.aspx

UPDATE: There is a new HotFix for Visual Studio 2008 and a new jQuery Intellisense Documentation file that brings full jQuery Intellisense to VS'08. Below are links to get these two:

http://blogs.msdn.com/webdevtools/archive/2008/11/07/hotfix-to-enable-vsdoc-js-intellisense-doc-files-is-now-available.aspx

http://blogs.msdn.com/webdevtools/archive/2008/10/28/rich-intellisense-for-jquery.aspx

For inline JavaScript, use:

/// <reference path="~\js\jquery-vsdoc.js"/>

Note the back slashes.

This will not work:

/// <reference path="~/js/jquery-vsdoc.js"/>

You shouldn't need to actually reference the "-vsdoc" version. If you put the jquery-1.2.6-vsdoc.js in the same directory as jquery-1.2.6.js then Visual Studio will know to covert a jquery-1.2.6.js reference to jquery-1.2.6-vsdoc.js.

I think that will actually work for any file.

Hmmm... that gives a good workaround for another question on this site...

Edit: This feature only works with VS2008 Service Pack 1.

If you are including the annotated jQuery file in your source solely for intellisense, I recommend leveraging preprocessor directives to remove it from your view when you compile. Ala:

<% #if (false) %>
  <!-- This block is here for jquery intellisense only.  It will be removed by the compiler! -->
  <script type="text/javascript" src="Scripts/jquery-1.3.2-vsdoc.js"></script>
<% #endif %>

Then later in your code you can really reference jQuery. This is handy when using the Google AJAX Libraries API, because you get all the benefits Google provides you, plus intellisense.

Here is a sample of using the Libraries API:

<script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.google.com/jsapi"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
   google.load("jquery", "1.3.2", { uncompressed: false });
</script>

If you want to pick up the Intellisense file from the Microsoft CDN you can use:

/// <reference path="http://ajax.microsoft.com/ajax/jQuery/jquery-1.4.1-vsdoc.js" />

Make sure you're not using a minimized jQuery file.

Use Ctrl + Shift + J to make it work after adding JavaScript files to the project.

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