Root RBrowser
This extension allows you to open an RBrowser directly inside vscode. It is meant to complement the popular ROOT File Viewer extension that provides a more integrated, yet incomplete experience. This extension allows one to use the full functionality of an RBrowser, including features like running ROOT commands.
It works locally and remotely, e.g. via SSH.
Note: RBrowser is the web-based ROOT7 replacement for TBrowser. Since it is web-based, it is significantly more responsive over SSH than a TBrowser which is accessed with X forwarding.
Important: ROOT >= 6.30 must be installed, and available when vscode opens a terminal. If an .sh file needs to be sourced to make ROOT available, e.g. thisroot.sh, this can be specified in the extension settings. See Requirements section below for more instructions.
How to use
Open a ROOT file and press the Open ROOT RBrowser that appears in the top right of the vscode tab.
Open ROOT RBrowser command
Press F1 and type Open ROOT RBrowser and run the corresponding command.
Requirements
This extension works by opening a terminal in vscode and running the root command with the relevant options and inputs to open a RBrowser. As such, the root command must be available. Furthermore, for RBrowser to be accessible, version >= 6.30 of ROOT is required.
Note: ROOT versions 6.26 and 6.28 had RBrowser as an experimental feature and as such, these versions may also work with this extension, possibly already and possibly with some further developments. This has not been tested yet.
If you have ROOT installed, but it is not immediately available in the terminal, you can use the root-rbrowser.sourcePath extension setting to specify a .sh file to be sourced before the extension tries to run root. For example:
/path/to/thisroot.sh/cvmfs/sft.cern.ch/lcg/views/LCG_108/x86_64-el9-gcc15-opt/setup.sh
Tip: You can use this setting to point to a ROOT installation that is different to the one you normally use, e.g. one with a version compatible with RBrowser and this extension. This is made easy with LCG releases (see the second .sh example).
Known Issues
- Progress bar not entirely reflective of opening process.
- Probably missing some error catching/handling edge cases.
- When working via SSH, every opening of an RBrowser opens a port which does not close automatically. You may want to occasionally close unused open ports.
- You can see the extension's terminal commands in your shell history.
- Sometimes opening an RBrowser fails on the first attempt.
