Guide: Live Collaboration

We use Visual Studio Code: Live Share for live collaboration and pair programming.

  • You should have Visual Studio Code installed and configured.

  • You’ll also need a GitHub or Microsoft account to login. (Create one now if necessary.)

Note

In our experience, Live Share works well even on 200 Kbps internet connections.

The first time you start or join a session with Live Share, you will be prompted to login to GitHub or Microsoft. Follow the prompts to do so.

Settings

Before using Live Share for the first time, you should check your Settings in Visual Studio Code. Open up File ‣ Preferences ‣ Settings. From the left pane of Settings, select Extensions ‣ Visual Studio Code Live Share configuration.

I recommend the following, although you are encouraged to adjust these according to your own preferences:

  • Account: (Leave as is)

  • Account Provider: (Leave as is)

  • Allow Guest Debug Control: No

  • Allow Guest Task Control: No

  • Anonymous Guest Approval: prompt

  • Auto Share Terminals: Yes

  • Code Lens: Yes

  • Comments: Yes

  • Connection Mode: auto

  • Diagnostic Logging: No

  • Feature Set: stable

  • Focus Behavior: accept

  • Guest Approval Required: Yes

  • Increased Guest Limit: No

  • Join Debug Session Option: Automatic

  • Keep Alive Interval: 20

  • Allow Guest Command Control: No

  • Name Tag Visibility: Activity

  • Populate Git Co Authors: always

  • Presence: Yes

  • Publish Workspace Info: Yes

  • Shared Terminal Height: 50

  • Shared Terminal Height: 120

  • Share External Files: Yes

  • Show In Status Bar: always

  • Show Read Only Users In Editor: always

  • Show Verbose Notifications: Yes

Starting A Session

To start a session, in which you are the host, open the Live Share pane by clicking its icon on your Activity Bar at left.

Select Start collaboration session… to start a new session. Once the session is started, a link will automatically be copied to your clipboard. Provide it to whomever you wish to have join the session.

If you have previous collaborators under Contacts on your Live Share pane, you can also invite them directly. However over the name of someone you wish to invite, and click the Invite Contact icon.

When you’re done, you can stop the session from the Live Share pane. Hover over Session Details at the top of the pane, and select Stop Collaboration Session.

Joining A Session

To join a session hosted by someone else, you must have the Live Share URL they provided to you, or else you must be invited directly through Visual Studio Code.

Open the Live Share pane by clicking its icon on your Activity Bar at left.

Select Join collaboration session… to join a session. If you’ve already copied the URL for the session to your clipboard, it will automatically be pasted in the box that pops up. Press Enter to confirm.

It will take a few moments to join.

When you’re done, you can leave the session from the Live Share pane. Hover over Session Details at the top of the pane, and select Leave Collaboration Session.

Live Share Tools

Through Live Share, guests can view and edit files (unless they’re read-only), control debugging sessions you’ve started, and even use the terminal (if you’ve granted permissions). Since they’re working through their own instance of VS Code, they can even use their own keyboard shortcuts and (most) extensions while editing, without touching your configuration.

There are a number of other tools available to you through Live Share.

Text Chat

You can chat with the other people on the session. In the Live Share pane, click Chat Channel.

Inline Comments

You can leave comments inline on the code by hovering over the line numbers on a file, and clicking the + button that pops up wherever you want to start a comment thread.

Every line which has a comment will show a dot to the right of the line number. Click the dot to view the comment. (Don’t confuse this with breakpoints, which are red dots to the left of the line numbers).

Warning

All of the inline comments will be deleted as soon as the session ends! Any comments you want to keep should be written as actual code comments in the file itself, not as Inline Comments.

Following

If you want to watch what another participant is doing, right click their name under Participants at the top of the Live Share pane. Then, click Follow Participant to have VSCode automatically scroll and open files as the participant does.

Alternatively, if you want to follow someone without losing your own place, select Follow Participant to Side. This will split the VSCode view in half horizontally, and show what the other person is doing on the right.

To stop following a participant, select Stop Following from that same menu.

About Pair Programming

At MousePaw Media, we encourage pair programming using Live Share. This is a technique where two developers work together on the same code. It provides an amazing opportunity to exchange knowledge, build communication skills, and to get a fresh perspective on your code.

The Driver is the programmer doing most of the actual typing. The Navigator is the programmer reviewing the code as it is typed, and providing live feedback.

The pair can work on either the driver or navigator’s code, although they should determine well in advance whose code sector to work on.

To make the most of your next pair programming session, I recommend reading 7 Ways To Get The Most Out Of Pair Programming

Happy collaborating!