Fluid IDE for Accela

Stop editing EMSE scripts in a browser textarea.

Fluid IDE brings your Accela Civic Platform environments into VS Code — real editing, real diffs, real version history, and one-click deploys across dev, test, QA, UAT, and production.

Why it exists

Accela script development normally means a browser admin page, no diff, no history you can trust, no search across scripts, and a lot of copy-paste between environments. Fluid IDE replaces that loop with the editor you already use.

Features

🔌 Multi-environment projects

Define every environment for an agency in a single project file and connect to any of them from the sidebar. Switch between dev, test, QA, UAT, and production without reconfiguring anything.

📜 AA Scripts

Browse, filter, and search every EMSE script on the server. Open one and it behaves like a normal file.

• Compare with server before you touch anything
• Pull the server copy down, Push your copy up
• Version history with diff against any previous revision
• Run test script — execute and automatically roll back
• Execute & commit — run for real when you mean it
• Live output in a dedicated AA Script Output panel

🧮 Expressions

The same workflow for expressions, plus a docked Expression Properties panel and refreshable lookups. Create new expressions directly from the Record Types tree.

🔄 Sync view

A source-control-style view of everything that differs between your working folder and the server. Review each change, compare it, then push or discard — individually or all at once.

🗂️ Record Types explorer

Navigate record types, ASI groups, subgroups, and custom fields, and jump straight from a field to the expression that drives it.

🔎 Search

Full-text search across all server-side scripts and all expressions. Find the one place that sets that fee before you go looking through 400 files.

📊 Server logs

Stream Accela server logs into a panel inside VS Code, or open the raw log file in the editor.

🧭 Script Outline

A symbol outline for EMSE scripts, docked in the secondary side bar so it sits alongside your trees instead of replacing them.

🗄️ Database Explorer (read-only)

A filterable browser for tables, views, stored procedures, and functions, with a re-runnable result grid. Every query is validated server-side and restricted to reads.

📓 Interactive scripting guide

A built-in notebook (.emse-notebook) that teaches EMSE scripting with runnable cells, plus an interactive UTILS.ASIT API reference.

Getting started

1. Install the extension.
2. Run Accela IDE: New Project... from the Command Palette (Ctrl+Shift+P / Cmd+Shift+P).
3. Follow the wizard to name your project and add your first environment.
4. Open the Accela IDE view in the Activity Bar and click the plug icon to connect.
5. Expand AA Scripts and open one.

The extension activates only in a folder that contains a settings.fluid.conf file, so it stays completely out of your way in every other project.

Requirements

• Visual Studio Code — see the Requirements section on this extension's Marketplace page for the exact minimum version.
• Network access to your Accela Civic Platform environment.
• An Accela user account with permission to view and modify EMSE scripts.

Self-signed certificates

Accela development, test, and staging environments very often use self-signed TLS certificates. Fluid IDE can connect to these.

⚠️ Security notice Relaxing TLS certificate validation removes protection against interception and machine-in-the-middle attacks. Enable it only on trusted networks, and prefer keeping it off for production environments. You are responsible for this choice. See Section 6 of the license.

Your data

Fluid IDE is a local tool. Your credentials, scripts, expressions, configuration, and log data are processed on your own machine and sent only to the Accela environments you configure.

Nothing about the contents of your scripts, your database queries, or your server logs is sent anywhere else.

Pricing

Fluid IDE is free through 1 October 2026. Everything is unlocked — no account, no sign-in, no activation step.

From 2 October 2026, actions that write to an Accela server need an activation code:

Nothing you have already written is ever locked away — your scripts stay on disk and stay readable.

Activation works offline

There is no licence server. An activation code is a signature your copy of Fluid IDE checks by itself, so it works on restricted and air-gapped networks with no outbound access.

1. Run Accela IDE: Copy Machine ID from the Command Palette.
2. Send that ID to us.
3. Run Accela IDE: Enter Activation Code and paste the code you get back.

Run Accela IDE: License Status at any time to see what is active on the machine.

Known issues

• Machine identity is derived from the VS Code installation, so reinstalling VS Code, or using a portable install, may register as a new machine.
• Remote-SSH, Dev Containers, and GitHub Codespaces are not yet verified. Local workspaces are the supported configuration for now.
• Very large log files can take a moment to load in the log panel.

Found something else? Please open an issue.

Support

• 🐛 Bugs and feature requests: GitHub Issues
• 📧 Email: [SUPPORT EMAIL]
• 📄 Changelog: CHANGELOG.md

License

Commercial software. See LICENSE.txt for the full End User License Agreement.

Trademark notice

Fluid IDE for Accela is an independent third-party product. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, sponsored by, or officially connected to Accela, Inc. or Microsoft Corporation.

"Accela" and "Accela Civic Platform" are trademarks or registered trademarks of Accela, Inc. "Visual Studio Code" is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation. These names are used solely to describe what this extension interoperates with.