VSCode Custom Variables in Launch Settings? - visual-studio-code

Question

Is there a way to add custom variables that I can use in my launch.json settings for debugging in VSCode? Currently, the only way I have found is to add them to my workspace settings and refer to the from the ${config} predefined variable.
I'd like to define variables/properties in the launch.json and use them. Here's an example of what that might look like if I wanted to add myCustomVar to all my URLs:
{
"version": "0.2.0",
"myCustomVar": "my_value",
"configurations": [
{
"name": "Page 1",
"type": "chrome",
"request": "launch",
"url": "http://localhost/page1.html?customVar=${myCustomVar}",
"sourceMaps": true,
"webRoot": "${workspaceFolder}/dev"
},
{
"name": "Page 2",
"type": "chrome",
"request": "launch",
"url": "http://localhost/page2.html?customVar=${myCustomVar}",
"sourceMaps": true,
"webRoot": "${workspaceFolder}/dev"
}
}

Answer 1

Input variables might work?
Command variables are already powerful but they lack a mechanism to configure the command being run for a specific use case. For example, it is not possible to pass a prompt message or a default value to a generic "user input prompt".
This limitation is solved with input variables which have the syntax: ${input:variableID}. The variableID refers to entries in the inputs section of launch.json and tasks.json, where additional configuration attributes are specified. Nesting of input variables is not supported.
The following example shows the overall structure of a tasks.json that makes use of input variables:
{
"version": "2.0.0",
"tasks": [
{
"label": "task name",
"command": "${input:variableID}"
// ...
}
],
"inputs": [
{
"id": "variableID",
"type": "type of input variable"
// type specific configuration attributes
}
]
}
Otherwise, you should be able to add custom settings to your VS Code settings.json file (it will warn you about "Unknown Configuration Setting") and insert them using ${config:myCustomVar}.