madskristensen / webessentials2013

Visual Studio extension

Web Essentials for Visual Studio 2013

Web Essentials extends Visual Studio with lots of new features that web developers have been missing for many years.

If you ever write CSS, HTML, JavaScript, TypeScript, CoffeeScript, LiveScript or LESS, then you will find many useful features that make your life as a developer easier.

This is for all Web developers using Visual Studio.

To get the latest nightly build, follow these instructions.

##Getting started To contribute to this project, you'll need to do a few things first:

1. Fork the project on GitHub
2. Clone it to your computer
3. Install the Visual Studio 2013 SDK.
4. Open the solution in VS2013.

To install your local fork into your main VS instance, you will first need to open Source.extension.vsixmanifest and bump the version number to make it overwrite the (presumably) already-installed production copy. (alternatively, just uninstall Web Essentials from within VS first)

You can then build the project, then double-click the VSIX file from the bin folder to install it in Visual Studio.

##Useful Links

• Getting started with Visual Studio extension development
• About Web Essentials features
• Inside the Visual Studio editor
• Extending the Visual Studio editor

webessentials2013's Issues

[jshint] fix strict:true/false rule not applying

Using version 3.0 on VS2012 when I set the jshint option 'strict' as true or false it seems to stay true regardless.

I get a violation message: JSHint (r10): Missing "use strict" statement.

setting a global ignore at the top of every file as:
/jshint strict: false/

Makes all violations go away.

Had a quick search in the codebase for the jshint rule for strict and it seems to be the same as all the rest which all work.

WebEssentials2013/EditorExtensions/Options/JsHint.cs

Line 39 in 3f133a6

Settings.SetValue(WESettings.Keys.JsHint_strict, JsHint_strict);

WebEssentials2013/EditorExtensions/Options/JsHint.cs

Line 108 in 3f133a6

JsHint_strict = WESettings.GetBoolean(WESettings.Keys.JsHint_strict);

WebEssentials2013/EditorExtensions/Options/JsHint.cs

Line 272 in 3f133a6

[LocDisplayName("Require 'strict mode'")]

Perhaps it's in the UI?
Using global as workaround

'Require strict mode:false' no global used

Add SASS to be a first citizen in Visual Studio 2013

Much like Less.
I prefer SASS because it has support for source maps, and it also support use variables on properties name, so the following can be achieved, for bi-directional layouts:

{
margin-#{$left}: 10px;
}

If it easier, you may only support SCSS over SASS, which will work for me.

Consider not throwing on non-XML .bundle files

Our solution uses .bundle files that are intended for this processor. They are not the same format as Web Essentials bundles, but share a file extension. On build, WE is (understandably) throwing:

Data at the root level is invalid. Line 1, position 1.
   at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.Throw(Exception e)
   at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.Throw(String res, String arg)
   at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.ParseRootLevelWhitespace()
   at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.ParseDocumentContent()
   at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.Read()
   at System.Xml.XmlLoader.Load(XmlDocument doc, XmlReader reader, Boolean preserveWhitespace)
   at System.Xml.XmlDocument.Load(XmlReader reader)
   at System.Xml.XmlDocument.LoadXml(String xml)
   at MadsKristensen.EditorExtensions.BundleFilesMenu.GetXmlDocument(String filePath)
   at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.Throw(Exception e)
   at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.Throw(String res, String arg)
   at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.ParseRootLevelWhitespace()
   at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.ParseDocumentContent()
   at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.Read()
   at System.Xml.XmlLoader.Load(XmlDocument doc, XmlReader reader, Boolean preserveWhitespace)
   at System.Xml.XmlDocument.Load(XmlReader reader)
   at System.Xml.XmlDocument.LoadXml(String xml)
   at MadsKristensen.EditorExtensions.BundleFilesMenu.GetXmlDocument(String filePath)

I’d love not to see this in the VS Output window. Would it be reasonable to wrap that code in a try-catch, or find some way to ignore .bundle files that don’t belong to WE?

JavaScript Bundle Doesn't Update .min File on Save

I have created a JavaScript bundle. When I save one of the files in the bundle. The bundle's js file updates with the new code but the .min.js doesn't.

Generics in code blocks in Markdown cause HTML warnings

The HTML language service in Markdown files needs to ignore text inside code blocks, to avoid warnings from Markdown like

then covariantly convert the `IStack<string>` to `IStack<object>` to pass

In large code blocks with lots of generics, this is even worse.

I have no idea how to do this, though.

Intellisense misses some mixins

When editing a LESS file which has Bootstrap's 3 mixins imported, a few of the mixins are being overlooked - not available in the Intellisense dropdown of the file we are editing.

Specifically the mixins missing are: .make-xs-column, .make-sm-column, .make-md-column and .make-lg-column, while the others for instance .make-lg-column-offset are being picked up and available in intellisense.

LESS relative imports are broken!

I can confirm this nasty bug.
See here

When you fix it, please make sure also paths relative to the project are working - with or without tilde ~

Fix CSS color picker

I don't know where to give feedback on this (for christs sake.. why is that so hard? Is that the place to givve VS2013 HTML tooling feedback? How would I know if it's Web essentials or vanilla VS? How can I know that the feedbakc reaches Mads on the right channel? Narf!).

Anyway, here's the bug, whether it's Web Essentials 2013 or not:
When hitting Ctrl+space on a color link, the color list appears, but there seems to be no way to pick any color (with keyboard): first, one has to use down arrow key even though a color is selected (unintuitive), but worse: there is no (not Enter, not space, not Tab) way of picking the color, as it is immediately overriden by some -webkit completion.

Really weird behavior right now.

VS/webessential keyboardhook makes OS freeze on breakpoint

Working on a relatively large TS-project (60+ scripts) using WebEssentials for VS2012.

Problem:
Often when VS breakpoints due to error condition the following will happen:

• If you only use mouse to continue everything is fine.
• If you press any key in any application then keyboard and mouse input (except mouse pointer can be moved) will freeze for a certain amount of time. If you press many keys it will freeze even longer. This applies to the whole OS. So if you accedentially wrote a whole sentence in a Skype Window and didn't notice VS-breakpoint then you are in for a very long wait. The letters you typed (in VS or otherwise) will show up one by one very slowly.

It seems that VS has a lock on OS keyboard hook and/or does something that takes a lot of time in the callback from OS. One good clue on this is that if you type too much or click around with the mouse too much then you will get the "input buffer full" beep-sound (which was a bit more common back in ye old DOS days).

Confirmed repeatedy (constantly) on own computer + colleagues computer.

The project I'm working on: https://github.com/knreise/KNappen
Same happens on our fork: https://github.com/KernelNO/GeoKultur/
Same does not happen in any kind of way in C# code programs.
Last version confirmed on: WebEssentials 2.8

Please let me know if more info is needed.

Add command for adding _references.js

does web essentials support .jshintignore file?

I would like to skip some files on jshint check (like select2, etc.). I know you cannot do that unless you have .jshintignore file where you specify everything you want to ignore.

[Bug] Unable to edit markdown(.md) files, syntax highlighting also do not work

Plugin version 3.1
Visual Studio version 2012 with update 3.

I tried to reinstall plugin but this did not help.

[enhancement] allow project-wide .jshintrc

doing a lot of work with github & co, seems like the proper way is to distribute .jshintrc, .gitattributes, etc .. files with a project so that ppl working on the project can share the same configuration

Would be nice if WE can detect a .jshinrc in the root of a project folder and apply those settings instead of storing them in the VS interface

[jshint] add which rule is being violated in messages

Would it be possible to add which jshint rule is being violated in messages to help figure out which option is being violated. This would help the user to figure out if they want to turn it off if its not important or lookup the reason why the specific rule is being violated.

As a fairly new user to jshint I find it hard to sometimes know what rules certain messages are violating in the setup options.

Basically turn this:

Into this:

If jshint just feeds these messages back then I suppose it might not be possible but I think it would help users understand and therefor utilize jshint more often.

Microsoft.Less.Core is not in the project

I recently cloned this to my local machine but was unable to compile because it references a Microsoft.Less.Core which is a) not a namespace in the solution. b) not a referenced or included dll and c) not a dll anywhere on my machine, which is confusing because it would seem to indicate that neither web essentials 2012 nor the released version of 2013 uses it.

Support for LESS 1.3.x

dotLESS doesn't yet have a 1.4 compatible release. Is it practical to have an option to use the 1.3.x compiler still so the dev experience is still available?

Missing references

Hi,

Could you please let us know Where can we locate the Microsoft.VisalStudio.Web.BrowserLink and Microsoft.VisualStudio.Web.PageInspector.Package dll?

Regards

LESS: @Import works, but breaks image url's

I have a master less file which imports several other less files from subdirectories.

The final css used to contain this (vendor is a subdirectory:
background-image: url("vendor/../../../Content/img/uniform.default.sprite.png");

but now the endresult is:
background-image: url("../../../Content/img/uniform.default.sprite.png");

Which breaks all my backgrounds

Uncaught TypeError: Cannot set property 'contentEditable' of undefined, when in Design Mode.

Steps to reproduce the error:

1. Open Microsoft Visual Studio 2013 RC,
2. File > New > Project... > ASP.NET Web Application > Empty
3. File > New > File... > HTML Page (call it index.html)
4. Edit web.config and add
   <system.webServer>
   
   </system.webServer>
5. Press CTRL + SHIFT + S (to save all)
6. Press CTRL + F5 (to start without debugging)
7. Edit index.html in Visual Studio
8. Press CTRL + SHIFT + S (to save all)
9. Press CTRL + ALT + ENTER (to refresh page)

The page will be refreshed by browser link.

But when I click on Design Mode and select a element in the Google Chrome browser an error is logged to the browser console:

Uncaught TypeError: Cannot set property 'contentEditable' of undefined, when in Design Mode.

In the browserLink javascript file on line 134:

inspectOverlay.click(function () {
inspectOverlay.hide();
current.contentEditable = true;
current.focus();
$(current).keydown(typing);
});

Selecting text in Js preview window for Coffee script crashes VS

Web Essentials 2012 and 2013 crashes visual studio when you try to highlight\select any text in the javascript preview window when working with coffee-script files.
Sometimes just clicking in the preview window crashes visual studio too.

Usually I get the message box appears saying

"Microsoft Visual Studio 2012 has stopped working"

But sometimes I get a different message box that contains a link to a generated xml file with the error inside it. I have created a gist with this error xml here

Go to the very last for the actual error message. Hope that helps.

Installation error.

I am trying to install Web essentials 2013 with Visual Studio Ultimate 2013 Preview and getting following error. Am I missing anything?
...

7/8/2013 4:40:21 PM - Microsoft VSIX Installer
7/8/2013 4:40:21 PM - -------------------------------------------
7/8/2013 4:40:21 PM - Initializing Install...
7/8/2013 4:40:22 PM - Extension Details...
7/8/2013 4:40:22 PM - Identifier : 5fb7364d-2e8c-44a4-95eb-2a382e30fec8
7/8/2013 4:40:22 PM - Name : Web Essentials 2013 Preview
7/8/2013 4:40:22 PM - Author : Mads Kristensen
7/8/2013 4:40:22 PM - Version : 0.1.8
7/8/2013 4:40:22 PM - Description : Adds many useful features to Visual Studio for web developers.
7/8/2013 4:40:22 PM - Locale : en-US
7/8/2013 4:40:22 PM - MoreInfoURL : http://vswebessentials.com/
7/8/2013 4:40:22 PM - InstalledByMSI : False
7/8/2013 4:40:22 PM - SupportedFrameworkVersionRange : 4.5
7/8/2013 4:40:22 PM -
7/8/2013 4:40:22 PM - Supported Products :
7/8/2013 4:40:22 PM - Microsoft.VisualStudio.Pro
7/8/2013 4:40:22 PM - Version : 12.0
7/8/2013 4:40:22 PM -
7/8/2013 4:40:22 PM - References :
7/8/2013 4:40:22 PM - 7/8/2013 4:40:22 PM - Identifier : Microsoft.VisualStudio.MPF.11.0
7/8/2013 4:40:22 PM - Name : Visual Studio MPF 11.0
7/8/2013 4:40:22 PM - Version : 11.0
7/8/2013 4:40:22 PM - MoreInfoURL :
7/8/2013 4:40:22 PM - Nested : No
7/8/2013 4:40:22 PM -
7/8/2013 4:40:22 PM -
7/8/2013 4:40:22 PM - Searching for applicable products...
7/8/2013 4:40:22 PM - Found installed product - Global Location
7/8/2013 4:40:22 PM - VSIXInstaller.NoApplicableSKUsException: This extension is not installable on any currently installed products.
at VSIXInstaller.App.InitializeInstall()
at System.Threading.Tasks.Task.InnerInvoke()
at System.Threading.Tasks.Task.Execute()

Install error - less files are quarantined during install

When I installed Web Essentials on a domain machine, Microsoft IT quarantined the less files stored in the extensions directory. I've attached a screen shot.

To fix the problem, I simply copied the source files from the project to the extensions directory.

Even when I start VS 2013 as Administrator, the problem exists. Again - there is an easy work around.

The remedy is likely a note in the documentation. Not sure there is anything that can be done during the installation process.

Source Mapping Syntax Old

The current syntax for the source mapping URL is a bit old (and apparently causes issues with some versions of IE):

http://www.html5rocks.com/en/tutorials/developertools/sourcemaps/

The current syntax WE uses is:

//@ sourceMappingURL=jquery.event.swipe.min.js.map

But the new one should be:

//# sourceMappingURL=jquery.event.swipe.min.js.map

LESS errors in VS 2012 causes crash while debugging

When debugging a WinJS app using LESS files, if I modify a LESS file while the app is running and the modification results in a LESS compilation error, Visual Studio crashes.

This happens every single time, not just occasionally.

It's a pretty big deal for us. It's really slowing us down.

Browsers unable to read gzip'ed files

Browsers are unable to ungzip content that has been gzipped.

Browsers are reporting that the compression method is invalid or the file is corrupt.

iced coffee-script

although I generally love web essentials. The Iced Coffee script "await" keyword does not appear to be working. I had a .coffee file using Iced-coffee syntax that compiled fine with web essentials 2012. I opened it in vs 2013 preview with web essentials installed and made sure that I selected "true' in the options under Iced coffee. I made an unrelated change and await was treated as a function with no deferrals, etc.

"The parameter is incorrect" error messages appear in output window after build

Running VS2012 on Win 7, and get strange messages in the output window after every build. I'm assuming that WebEssentials is the cause due to the MadsKristensen namespace. The projects being built have no web components to them at all (WindowsForms)

The following error appears four times during a build:

02/10/2013 10:11:51: The parameter is incorrect. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80070057 (E_INVALIDARG))
   at EnvDTE.Properties.Item(Object index)
   at MadsKristensen.EditorExtensions.ProjectHelpers.GetRootFolder()
   at EnvDTE.Properties.Item(Object index)
   at MadsKristensen.EditorExtensions.ProjectHelpers.GetRootFolder()

8-4 release missing Typescript AMD

The ability to generate AMD modules is now missing from the configuration.

@import issue @media only screen (WebEssentials2012 & visual studio 2012)

Hi

I still have issues with '@import' in my less file. The css file can't be generated.
An older version (2.6 I think) does work and has no issues with @imports.

Any thoughts?

some extra info:
There is a "grid.less" file which will be imported. In this "grid.less"-file there are specific lines for specific screensizes:
example: @media only screen and (min-width: 768px) and (max-width: 959px) {
width: 768px;
}

some remarks:
@media --> unexpected '@' block in style rule
width --> isn't a valid HTML tag
768px --> Expected a selector for the style rule
; --> Missing an opening brace ('{') after the selector in the style rule

Kind regards,
Dennis

GetProjectRelativeFolder should be a recursive function or the folder might not be found.

file: WebEssentials2013/EditorExtensions/MenuItems/BundleFiles.cs

GetProjectRelativeFolder should be a recursive function or the folder might not be found.

I have generated all my .js files with TypeScript and nested the .js files below the .ts files.

If I try to create a bundle, the project relative folder will not be found because the parent of all items is a .ts file and never a folder.

private static string GetProjectRelativeFolder(ProjectItem item)
{
    object parent = item.Collection.Parent; // never a folder
    ProjectItem folder = parent as ProjectItem; // .ts file
    Project project = parent as Project; // null

    if (folder != null)
    {
        return folder.FileNames[1]; // the name of the .js file
    }
    else if (project != null)
    {
        return project.FullName;
    }

    return null; // this will be returned
}

This stops the execution of the "private void CreateBundlefile(string extension)"

dir = GetProjectRelativeFolder(items.ElementAt(0)); //will always be the name of the first .js file

if (Directory.Exists(dir)) // will resolve to false because the .js file is not a folder..
{
  // create the bundle
}
// no else, so nu bundle file is created

Because of that the bundle file is never created.

As a workaround I create an "empty" bundle.js file in the folder that contains the .ts files and write a version comment in it. If I want to create a bundle I select that file first. Everytime I update any of the .ts files I also update the version inside the bundle.js file in order to update the bundle.

LESS editor shows error for new :extend() syntax (compilation to CSS works)

Less 1.4 adds a new :extend pseudoclass. Using it shows up as an error in the editor, but when compiled the statement works as expected.

Note: I can find almost no documentation about this pseudoclass. I'm trying to contact the LESS team to fix that.

Recursive (?) import not working in 2.8

We have a mixins.less (which unsurprisingly contains mixins), a nav.less and a main.less.

nav.less calls a mixin, and main.less includes mixins.less and then nav.less. This used to compile recursively, but now since 2.8 it's throwing an error, saying that the mixin can't be found.

We've rolled back to 2.7 for the meantime.

Message window not clearing

When launching successive jshint analyses, previous messages stay in the output window (are not cleared even though error was corrected).

Reproduction:
simply launch on a folder, do some corrections, then check various individual files, do some corrections, and relaunch on folder or individual files.

less file with relative @imports

Hi

The latest version of WebEssentials 2012 for VS 2012 should have fixed this issue. So I installed it this morning. Sadly it's not working at all. Other .less files are working.

example:
////
// Imports
////
@import '../Default/reset';
@import '../Default/library';
@import 'settings';
@import '../Default/css3';
@import '../Default/grid';

After saving my .less file my .css file is empty.

kind regards,
Dennis

JsHint ignore files /Scripts/** causes VS2013 to crash

Compile error : mixin undefined

Hi,

First of all, I would like to thank you guys for the nice work on WebEssential, it's help a lot.

So I have some issue, I updated WebEssential from 2.6 to 3.0 today (I waited because of the relative path issue with the 2.8), and unfortunately it's broken again.

When I use a mixin in a less file from another file, it will always give me a compile error, saying that the mixin is undefined.

The code is same as under 2.6 and worked well, I checked the LESS website in case of syntax mistake, but it's ok too.

Thanks for the help.

Web Essentials 2013 RC interferes with Razor editor

With the latest version of Visual Studio 2013 RC + Web Essentials 2013 RC, the Razor editor for .cshtml files is almost completely unusable. The cursor jumps around and the text is reformatted after you write Razor code. Disabling Web Essentials fixes the problem.

Integration with TFS build?

is it on the road map? would be happy to submit a PR with some help from you guys :)

Bundle doesn't find files relative to project root.

Using WE version 0.2.2 and VS 2013 Preview.

I have a .js.bundle file that worked nicely before but not since I upgraded something (was it WE itself or during the move to VS 2013, I can't tell).

It breaks during builds by saying that does not exist.

By experiment and using sysinternals process monitor I came to the following conclusion:

1. Using a relative file path is always relative to the active file (at the time of build or when saving) in VS editor. Which is totally useless since it is completely unpredictable. This should probably be raised as an error, e.g. "relative paths are not allowed". Or maybe make it relative to the bundle file itself, which would be ok.
2. Using a path relative to the project root -- e.g. /MyFolder/MyScript.js -- was working before but is broken in 0.2.2. Looking at process monitor, WE tries to open C:\MyFolder\MyScript.js. So obviously it doesn't get the correct project root folder.

Less compilation renders NaN

Bootstrap contains the following less/css:

font: 0/0 a;

https://github.com/twbs/bootstrap/blob/master/less/mixins.less#L107

This gets translated by Web Essentials to:

font: NaN a;

This is the first time I have seen this because up until 2.8.1, Less compilation in Web Essentials was failing for me.

Bundle Error: the file xxx doesn't exist

#28 Still broken in WebEssentials 2013 v0.6

On a site that looks like this:

Root project path in VS
\\devstore01\net$\Dev\www\chat.tchatche.com\mvc\chat.tchatche.mvc

So the full path for a js file would be
\\devstore01\net$\Dev\www\chat.tchatche.com\mvc\chat.tchatche.mvc\Content\js\extensions\head.js

..which from inside VS works out to a root path of
/Content/js/extensions/head.js

A bundle.config sitting inside the /content/js/ folder and trying to bundle a file from /content/js/extensions/head.js

using either /content/js/extensions/head.js or extensions/head.js as the <file> path ...both fail

---

The code i posted previously #28 (comment) works, and for now i reverted to my custom implementation of WebEssentials

The quick fix that was suggested of mapping the DFS store to a local drive name is not something we can do. We are a big company and cannot just tell all developers when they check a solution out of TFS (oops ..forgot to tell you ..you need to map this or that path for it to actually work). So all solutions are checked in with the actual paths to the project files.

All our developer PC's are setup to get solutions from a centralized TFS, no local IIS, IIS express, or Cassini is allowed, all Dev/Preview/Production IIS instances are hosted out of the reach of the developer, the code of those sites are not hosted on IIS itself either, but on DFS storage with fail-overs, and developer PC's work on DFS with fail-overs too.

Developer PC's usually do not have the same firewall rights as the IIS instances setup, and i'm pretty sure plenty of other companies work with a similar setup of hosting files on distributed or networked filesystems, so as long as this is an issue i see this as a problem for adoption.

Knowing you come from a pretty big company too, this kind of setup is something i think you can easily understand.

Hope to see a fix for this,

Thanks for reading,
Robert

"Fixed TypeScript compiler issue" explanation

I had very serious typescript 0.9 problems, causing VS to hang very often. The August 4 version has "Fixed TypeScript compiler issue" in the changelog. I cannot find any changeset, issue or comment on what this fix was about. Could you please clarify?

thx

warnings and messages. not my code

hello! i <3 web essentials, but this is annoying me..
Suddenly, my error list window is totally unusable for me because it shows 1000 warnings of not used css properties and some messages about javascript, but only two refer to MY code. every other warning/message is from some lib i'm using. I can't rely anymore on the warning and message tab because its a mess.
Am I doing something wrong?

Make Ctrl+Enter (BrowserLink Refresh) save document first

Again, don't know if that's the right place, if it's not, please point me to it.

This is easy: love browserlink, but it's unacceptable that this good feature is diminished by the cumbersome manual save, hardly a "continous" experience. Please fix that.

Doesn’t understand hsl calculation

I am not sure if this is a validation issue or if the parser in fact rejects this syntax, but a calculated hsl seems not to be recognized as valid for border-color. See image. Cheers and thanks.

Add support for .jshintrc files

JSHint can be configured via a .jshintrc file which is a really good way for teams to share JSHint settings.

WebEssentials should be able to use .jshintrc files instead of requiring users to specify JSHint settings via Options > Web Essentials > JSHint.

Stackoverflow when compiling Glyphicons.less

We have included the less Files for the pro Version of glyphicons into our project and now we are getting a stack overflow message when trying to compile those files with web essentials. This error only occurs when the minification of the created css files is enabled.

It seems like the following code caused the issue:
// OPERA BUG SVG FIX v9.5 - v12
_:-o-prefocus, &{
background-image: url(../images/glyphicons.png);
}

The stack trace is shown below:

Bundle Error: the file xxx doesn't exist

Hi,

Default action create bundle, or even trying to change paths in bundle config always same result .. Bundle Error: the file xxx doesn't exist.

Worked fine in VS2012 ..any ideas ?

Environment:VS 2013 fresh install
Company PC with Win8pro 64bit

Solution build output appends 'Object reference not set to an instance of an object. MadsKristensen.EditorExtensions.ProjectHelpers.GetRootFolder()'

After building a solution with WebEssentials enabled I get the following (benign) output;
========== Rebuild All: 10 succeeded, 0 failed, 0 skipped ==========
30/08/2013 14:19:08: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
at MadsKristensen.EditorExtensions.ProjectHelpers.GetRootFolder()
at MadsKristensen.EditorExtensions.ProjectHelpers.GetRootFolder()
30/08/2013 14:19:08: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
at MadsKristensen.EditorExtensions.ProjectHelpers.GetRootFolder()
at MadsKristensen.EditorExtensions.ProjectHelpers.GetRootFolder()

I'm not that good with GitHub so I thought I'd describe where I think the problem is, at least there is one there, not sure if it is the same one.

File: https://github.com/madskristensen/WebEssentials2013/blob/92f23d4bb731811d00daa1f2b399a29de7204c64/EditorExtensions/Helpers/ProjectHelpers.cs

Replace line 22;
Project activeProject = null;
with
Project project = GetActiveProject();

and follow that up with;
if (project == null)
return string.Empty;

I suspect it is failing on line 35 where the active project has not been checked for null.
return activeProject.Properties.Item("FullPath").Value.ToString();

Signature UTF8 and LESS

If the file .less saved with the signature UTF8 (default on Visual Studio), then it is not compiled. You can make friends with WebEssentials LESS processor and signature-based files?