

First, any new npm features debut in the CLI (command line interface) version of the tool so you can more easily take advantage of productivity enhancements. There are GUI tools such as Web Essentials Package Installer, but you may find these tools too simple to install packages the way you want.īeyond installing packages, there are other advantages to using the command line. Good Old Command LineĪs much as Visual Studio developers love having a UI for their tools, npm is still most easily used at the command line. If you don't see some of the described features below in your own installation, it's most likely because you don't have these tools installed. Furthermore, web developers should install Mads Kristensen's prolific Web Extension Pack to get the most current web tooling for Visual Studio. This post assumes you are using Visual Studio 2015. And while the command line is still currently the best place to use npm, there are some nice tricks to learn in Visual Studio as well. This post teaches you the npm basics from a Visual Studio perspective. NET libraries from Nuget, but get your web frameworks from npm. Likely, though, you understand there is a much bigger web development world outside of ASP.NET and Visual Studio – and this world uses npm. If you are a Visual Studio developer using Nuget through the years, this may be news to you.

The defacto package manager for JavaScript frameworks and tooling has become npm (node package manager).
