CDBVS

CDBVS is a desktop VS Code extension for editing CastleDB .cdb files.

Current baseline

Open a .cdb file in VS Code and choose CDBVS Editor if it does not open automatically. The editor currently supports:

• visible CastleDB sheet tabs;
• bottom-docked sheet tabs that remain available while the table is scrolled;
• a dedicated synchronized horizontal scrollbar immediately above the sheet tabs for wide sheets;
• removable filter/search/sort pills beneath the sheet controls, plus a left-aligned search box with an embedded clear button;
• a filter-only modal opened by a funnel icon, with per-column sort cycle buttons in each header (neutral, descending, ascending);
• uncluttered column headers containing only the sort control, column name, and edit control;
• high-contrast active states for the selected sheet, active view modes, applied view pills, sorting, search, and expanded nested cells;
• compact content-sized columns with usable text-field minimums, controls that fill their columns, truncated headers, and reduced list/nested-table widths;
• schema-aware text, numbers, booleans, enums, and references;
• expandable list cells backed by CastleDB sub-sheet schemas, including nested lists;
• column-header pencil editors for schema properties and deletion;
• explicit primary-ID controls in column and sheet editors; CastleDB stores this as the single column with type 0;
• primary-ID columns are pinned beside the row numbers while the rest of the sheet scrolls horizontally;
• column move and delete actions immediately refresh the table after updating the document;
• friendly column type dropdowns with separate argument fields for enums, references, custom types, flags, and layers, plus a raw fallback for unsupported types;
• sheet-tab pencil editors for sheet metadata, advanced properties, and deletion;
• row insertion/deletion from the sheet controls, expandable properties, custom-type editing, flags, and colors;
• row-number selection with whole-row highlighting, Insert Row below the selection, and Delete Row controls; expanded list rows use the same selection pattern;
• row selection updates locally without rebuilding the entire webview, with opaque layering for selected pinned columns;
• Ctrl/Cmd+Up and Ctrl/Cmd+Down move the selected main-sheet row while preserving separator positions;
• Ctrl/Cmd+C copies the selected row, Ctrl/Cmd+X cuts it, and Ctrl/Cmd+V inserts a cloned row below the selection;
• full-width separator rows for CastleDB sheet sections, including separator titles when present;
• sticky separator titles that remain visible during horizontal table scrolling;
• generic JSON editing for properties, custom values, and other advanced types without specialized controls;
• adding/deleting rows and columns, adding sheets, quick searching, per-column filtering, and sorting with removable view pills;
• raw JSON recovery/editing;
• CDBVS commands to open, validate, and format the current file.

The legacy level editor is intentionally out of scope.

Webview structure

The editor webview is split into small browser scripts: runtime/state, DOM helpers, CastleDB model operations, document actions, cell editors, modal editors, table rendering, and the bootstrap entry point. extension.js loads them in dependency order without requiring a build step.

Running locally

1. Open this folder in desktop VS Code.
2. Press F5 to launch an Extension Development Host.
3. Open test/fixtures/sample.cdb or another .cdb file.

The extension has no npm runtime dependencies. Automated extension tests are still planned; see plan.md.

Packaging a release

After installing Node.js 20 or newer:

npm install --global @vscode/vsce
vsce ls
vsce package

Install the generated .vsix in a clean desktop VS Code window and smoke-test it before publishing. To publish through the Visual Studio Marketplace, authenticate with vsce login <publisher-id> and run vsce publish. The publisher ID must match the publisher value in package.json.

Source reuse

The original CastleDB core sources are vendored in vendor/castledb/cdb. The JavaScript compatibility layer in src/cdbParser.js follows the type numbering and JSON conventions from CastleDB's Parser.hx and Data.hx.