Proactively inform users when there are updates available

[jimmylewis]

Functional impact

This is a new feature request based on discussion in #382. Currently the only way to determine which libraries have new versions available is to place the cursor on each one in VS and wait for the lightbulb to show up. It would be better if we can surface it in some way so users can get a better sense of what is or isn't up to date.

Minimal repro steps

libman.json file:

{
  "version": "1.0",
  "defaultProvider": "cdnjs",
  "defaultDestination": "Scripts/",
  "libraries": [
    { "library": "jquery@3.3.0" }
  ]
}

Expected result

Something should automatically inform me that there's an update available (in this case jquery@3.3.1)

Actual result

The only way to learn of the update from the IDE is to invoke the lightbulb on the jquery entry, and invoke the Check For Updates from there.

Further technical details

This feature would also need a way to suppress notifications. For example, if I have bootstrap@3.x, I want to be able to suppress notifications about bootstrap@4.x until I consciously make the switch. This could possibly be a new property on the library entry ("checkForUpdates": false?}.

[gbjbaanb]

Absolutery, TBH it needs to be a replacement for bower that was shipped with previous VS and used as the default client package manager. Libman is a poor replacement so far.

[CodeChief]

Any progress on this. Seems like a pretty basic feature to implement. Manually clicking the lightbulb over each version is a pain and will naturally lead to forgotten updates/code issues. Supporting "@latest" would be nice too, or just add a VS lightbulb at the root for "Check for updates" across all libraries.

Is this tool still in active development???