Business Assistant

Language support for Business Assistant .ba files in VS Code.

A folder with ba.json is a Business Assistant project. .ba files describe pages, profiles, and role centers using unquoted field names, enums, and symbols. Strings must use single quotes. Double quotes wrap a symbol that is not a plain identifier.

Features

• Syntax highlighting for field names, enums, symbols, strings, and numbers
• Completions and hover docs for pages, profiles, and role centers
• Go to Definition on page names such as CardPage, DialogPage, SubPage, and DrillDownPage
• Snippets: page, profile, rolecenter, control, field
• Format Document
• From Json converts a JSON page, profile, or role center to BA and renames .json to .ba
• Convert All To BA converts matching JSON files in the project
• Rename Files names .ba files from kind, id, and name
• Package renames .ba files, then builds a {AppName}.app zip (includes ba.json and the pages, profiles, and role centers)
• Publish packages the app and uploads that .app file to your Business Assistant server
• Download Symbols fetches table metadata from the server into .bapackages for page completions, hover, and validation

Project settings

Create ba.json in the project root:

{
    "id": "98925f90-a0cc-4ad9-8d1d-d1153116dc99",
    "name": "Finance",
    "publisher": "Passioncloud",
    "version": "1.0.0.0",
    "homepage": "https://passioncloud.net",
    "idRange": [
        { "from": 1, "to": 5000 }
    ]
}

Put the API connection in .vscode/launch.json so credentials are not packed into the app:

{
    "baseUrl": "https://localhost:5001/api",
    "username": "admin",
    "password": "secret"
}

Then run Business Assistant: Download Symbols from the Command Palette, then Business Assistant: Package or Business Assistant: Publish.

id, name, publisher, version, and homepage are packed into {AppName}.app with the pages, profiles, and role centers. Page, profile, and role center Id values must fall in idRange. Publish sends that .app file to {baseUrl}/Publish.

Downloaded symbols and packaged apps are stored in .bapackages/ next to ba.json as zip files, not as readable JSON — for example Finance.app. The folder is hidden in VS Code by default. Add .bapackages/ to your project .gitignore. After symbols are downloaded, page SourceTable values and field names are completed and validated against the server tables.

Example

Page {
    Id: 30
    Name: 'Item'
    Caption: 'Item'
    PageType: Card
    SourceTable: Item
    PageActions: []
    PageControls: [
        {
            ControlType: Group
            Caption: 'Item'
            Fields: [
                { Name: No }
                { Name: Description }
            ]
        }
    ]
}

Table and field names (SourceTable, control Name, FieldName, RelatedFieldName) are symbols. Write SourceTable: Customer, or use double quotes when the name is not a plain identifier: Name: "No.". Page references use the page name the same way: CardPage: GLAccountCard or Page: "Chart of Accounts". Double quotes around a symbol are part of the name syntax, not a string. String properties such as Name and Caption use single quotes: Name: 'Item List'.

Press Ctrl+Space for completions. Hover a field for its documentation. Hover or Ctrl+Click a page name such as CardPage: GLAccountCard to see and open that page. Use Format Document to pretty-print BA. Format also rewrites older CardPageId / PageId keys to CardPage / Page, and double-quoted strings to single quotes.