Source Links
Connect comment substrings to external applications and websites, such as bug trackers, case managers, documentation, and source code control systems.
Simple Link Patterns
Define simple keyword-value patterns that turn existing comment substrings into active hyperlinks. The links include the values from the comments.
![Simple pattern as a link](/Presentation/WholeTomato/Assets/Images/features/sourceLinks/sourceLinksExample.png)
Complex Link Patterns
Extract values from complex comment substrings using regular expressions that include a specially named group.
![Complex pattern as a link](/Presentation/WholeTomato/Assets/Images/features/sourceLinks/sourceLinksRegex.png)
Connect to FogBugz, Jira, and GitHub
Configure links to applications and websites that require authentication, and store user credentials with each link definition. Plug-ins also determine contents of hovering tooltips. Default plug-ins are included for connecting to FogBugz, Jira, and GitHub.
![Connect to GitHub](/Presentation/WholeTomato/Assets/Images/features/sourceLinks/sourceLinksPluginTooltioGitHub.png)
Preview Files
Configure a default, File-Viewer plug-in to preview files whose paths appear in source comments. Preview-able formats include HTML, XAML, RTF, text, and image formats such as jpg and png.
![Preview files](/Presentation/WholeTomato/Assets/Images/features/sourceLinks/fileViewerTomato.png)
Open Hyperlinks in an External Browser
Configure a default plug-in to open hyperlinks using your default, external browser. The plug-in also activates website addresses missing an http or https protocol.
![Open Hyperlinks in an External Browser](/Presentation/WholeTomato/Assets/Images/features/sourceLinks/sourceLinksUrlExampleNoProtocol.png)
Custom Plug-ins
Create a custom plug-in for your own application or website that requires authentication. Begin with the source code for a sample plug-in hosted at GitHub, and then tell Visual Assist where it can find your plug-in.
![Specify path to custom plug-in](/Presentation/WholeTomato/Assets/Images/features/sourceLinks/sourceLinksPlugInDirectories.png)