Version 2023.11.301

Welcome to the November 2023 release of nRF Connect for VS Code.

Read below for the summary of the most important changes.

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SDK management

• Install SDK

  • The location selection selects the full SDK installation path instead of just the parent directory.

• Status Bar

  • Added status item message when the SDK is out of sync.
  • Now indicates the scope of the SDK and Toolchain selection.
  • Now displays the SDK versions with v.

• SDK detection

  • Added the Refresh SDKs button that refreshes the SDK listed next to the Manage SDKs action.
  • Improved the detection of changes to the SDK's VERSION file.

• Manage SDKs actions

  • SDKs are now sorted in descending version order.

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West workspace management

• Added the Create New West Manifest and West Update actions to Manage west workspace menu.
• Improved the detection of available west manifest files.
• When creating a new west workspace, VS Code checks if the directory is already open before asking whether to open it.
• Added an error in the Status Bar if the west manifest is invalid.

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Toolchain management

• The active Toolchain is now inferred from the active build instead of marking the build stale.
• Toolchains are now sorted in descending version order in the Manage Toolchains actions.
• Fixed an issue with the toolchain validation, which now runs automatically whenever the active toolchain changes.

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Application index

• Applications can now be created from the entries in the Application Index
• Added handling of the Application Index's "Open in VS Code" URL.

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Create new application

• Application directory selection has been reduced to a single step.
• Fixed several git errors that would cause the new application workflow to fail.
• Fixed the incorrect project name in the initial commit.
• Fixed the incorrect project name in CMakeLists.txt.

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Debugging

• General behavior

  • Internal Zephyr kernel functions are now skipped by default.

  • This can be disabled by setting nrf-connect.debugging.justMyCode to false in application settings.

  • Added peripherals as virtual symbols in the Visual Studio Code's Debug Console.

• Peripherals View

  • Now hiding the CLR and SET registers if a corresponding normal register exists.
  • Started bundling serialized SVD files to improve debugger setup time.

• Custom launch configurations

  • Fixed an issue with the debugger not stopping at runToEntryPoint if main is undefined.
  • Added the missing preLaunchTask to the debug configuration properties.
  • Added a check for verifying if request is set to a valid value.

• nRF Debug Panel View

  • The nRF Debug panel will no longer disappear at the end of the debug session.

  • Thread Viewer

    • All user options are now listed in Thread Viewer tooltip.
    • You can now hover over the pause icon to display the symbol for which the blocked threads are waiting.

  • Memory Explorer

    • Added grouping of bytes by words in Memory Explorer.
    • Added the close button to the explorer tooltips.

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Add Build Configuration page

• Added snippet selection menu.
• Added a warning when the build directory already exists.
• Reinstated the warning about the usage of boards with a variant that allows to build firmware with Cortex-M Security Extensions.
• Updated the generation process to use the EXTRA_DTC_OVERLAY_FILE and EXTRA_CONF_FILE variables when supported.
• The page now always shows the Devicetree overlay section.

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CMake presets support

• Added the usage of CMake preset's binaryDir to populate the build directory name.
• Added the evaluation of the ${sourceParentDir} variable when parsing CMake presets.

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Details View

• Fixed an issue with the stale build warning not refreshing after a successful build.
• Fixed an issue with the devicetree files not being displayed until the nRF DeviceTree extension is activated.
• Addressed performance of Kconfig file tree.

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Building

• Build terminal no longer prints a separate line for each ninja build status.
• Removed type-annotation in CMake arguments passed to west build.

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Flashing

• Added the runner parameter to task binding parameters that can be uses to bind tasks to the flash action.
• Added task binding parameters for default values of softreset, erase and recover when flashing.

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nRF Util

• Updated the bundled versions of the device command to v2.0.0 and the toolchain-manager command to v0.14.1.
• Moved nRF Util output to a dedicated output channel.
• Added the nRF Util launcher version to support info object.

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Other improvements

• Added the usage of the default shell to query environment variables instead of assuming bash on Mac and Linux.
• Moved all custom icons to the icon font, which fixes inconsistent coloring and delayed loading in codespaces.
• Added YAML validation schema for twister files.
• Added support for nRF52840 QFAA variant in the Create a new board workflow.
• Cleaned up settings scopes and removed unused settings.
• Improved performance of the file watcher for west manifests and build configurations.
• Fixed an issue with the missing scrollbar on partition report layout.