Ever wanted to browse Github code like an IDE? Tired of cloning repos just to examine their code structure? If the answer to either of these questions is yes then you will welcome Insight.io.

Insight.io adds features such as jump to definition, find references, class hierarchy, directory tree and code search to Github browsing.These become available when you install its Chrome or Firefox browser extension and register for a free account at Insight.io.

The plugin goes hand in hand with the Insight.io indexing service. You can see that the plugin is enabled when its icon becomes visible at the top left corner of the web page you are currently looking at when you navigate to a repository that is indexed by the backend service.

If it isn't then you can always request for the repo to be indexed. Indexed sites are distinguishable from the 'insight.io' prefix which gets prepended to their Github urls as in https://insight.io/github.com/lambdalab-mirror/jdk8u-jdk/ .If you try to access a non-indexed site you'll encounter a '404 not found' error.

There are several great features but if there's one that could be singled out, it would be its directory/file tree because we all know what a pain it is to  navigate through Github's repos. The file tree presents repos in IDE fashion by grouping their files in folders, hierarchically.

It is important to note that the file tree functionality is active for all repositories, indexed or not, the latter marked with the "Insight.io|Not Indexed" label.

This is not the only indexing taking place, however, as you also get the file's source code broken down, again hierarchically, into its contained classes, functions and variables.  

Hovering over any symbol pulls its definition from the official docs, something especially useful when working with build-ins as in the JDK8 java.util.Collections case.

 (the corresponding entry in the official docs)

Further, clicking on the symbol brings up the lines of code which refer to it, together with the symbol's other references, "Inherit" and "Inherit By" .

Further, when you have a symbol name, such as a function's, but don't know to which repository it belongs to in order to look it up, you can also Search across repositories using the symbol's name.

To sum it up, with Github being the most popular place among developers and browsing or contributing having become an integral part of their daily work routines, there was a great need for a such a tool that would make their life that little bit easier. Now Insight makes it much easier.

More Information

Insight.io
Chrome plugin
Firefox

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