Classic ASP Language Support

Classic ASP Language Support for VSCode

📸 See It In Action

Using Catppuccin Theme

Formatting Before & After	SQL Syntax Highlighting

🚀 Quick Start

✨ Features

Applies to .asp and .inc files.

🎨 Smart Formatting

• Multi-language — VBScript, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and SQL in a single keystroke
• VBScript — smart indentation across all control structures and multi-block <% %> regions
• HTML/CSS/JS — formatted by Prettier, fully configurable
• Keyword casing — your choice of PascalCase, UPPERCASE, or lowercase
• Format Selection — Ctrl + K Ctrl + F formats just the selected lines, exactly as Format Document would format them
• Preview Formatting — run Classic ASP: Preview Formatting from the Command Palette to see what Format Document would change, side by side, without applying it

💡 IntelliSense & Auto-Completion

• Context-aware — correct suggestions whether you're in ASP, CSS, JS, or HTML
• COM object tracking — type rs. after Set rs = Server.CreateObject("ADODB.Recordset") to see all methods and properties, or just . inside With rs … End With
• HTML attribute values — inside type="", target="" and the like, the values the attribute takes, as in a .html file
• Cross-file IntelliSense — variables and functions from #include'd files appear in suggestions automatically
• File paths — live browsing inside #include and href/src/action attributes

🔍 Hover, Definition & Navigation

• Hover docs — inline documentation for keywords, functions, constants like vbCrLf, Response and the other ASP objects, COM members, HTML tags and attributes, and CSS properties
• Go to definition — F12 across the current file and all included files
• Find All References — Shift + F12 on a VBScript name, over the same scope rename uses
• Rename symbol — F2 on a VBScript variable, constant, Sub or Function; locals stay inside their own body, globals are renamed across the include graph, and a member like obj.total is left alone
• Update #include paths — rename or move a file in VS Code and it offers to fix every #include that pointed at it
• Parameter hints — signature help for VBScript's built-in functions (Mid, InStr, Replace…), your own Subs and Functions, and JavaScript in <script> blocks
• Linked editing — with editor.linkedEditing on, editing a tag name edits its closing tag too, ASP between them or not
• Outline & breadcrumbs — Subs, Functions, Classes and Consts (plus JavaScript functions) in the Outline view and Ctrl + Shift + O
• Workspace symbol search — Ctrl + T finds VBScript symbols across every .asp / .inc in the workspace
• Document links — Ctrl + Click navigation on #include paths and local file attributes, including root-relative (/images/logo.gif) ones

🌈 Syntax Highlighting

• ASP regions — toggleable background colouring for <% %> blocks, light and dark themes
• Semantic colouring — user-defined functions and sub names
• Smart SQL — highlights SQL inside strings; plain strings are left untouched

🔴 Diagnostics

• HTML — mismatched structural tags flagged with orange squiggles
• VBScript — unmatched control blocks (If/End If, Sub/End Sub, For/Next, etc.) and unbalanced <% %> tags
• Missing Set — an object assigned without Set, like rs = conn.Execute(sql), with a one-click quick fix
• Missing includes — an #include whose file does not exist, which IIS refuses to run
• VBScript checks — a name declared twice, an undeclared name under Option Explicit, and a call with the wrong number of arguments; a Dim never used and code after Exit Sub are shown faded
• CSS — errors and warnings inside <style> blocks and style="" attributes as you type
• JavaScript — real errors inside <script> blocks via the TypeScript language service (noise from missing project context is suppressed)
• Void elements — invalid closing tags caught with a one-click quick fix

⌨️ Smart Key Handling

• Context-aware Enter/Tab — correct indentation inside <% %> blocks automatically
• Auto de-indent — closing keywords (End If, Next, etc.) de-indent as you type
• Auto-close — HTML and ASP comment blocks close automatically

📝 Snippets

🔌 Compatibility

	Extension	Status	Notes
	Prettier	✅ Integrated	Already bundled — no separate install needed
	Error Lens	✅ Compatible	Displays diagnostics inline
	GitLens	✅ Compatible	Git blame, history, and code insights
	Indent Rainbow	✅ Compatible	Colour-coded indentation levels
	Lorem Ipsum	✅ Compatible	Quick placeholder text insertion
	Color Highlight	✅ Compatible	Highlights CSS colour values inline
	Better Comments	✅ Compatible	Colour-coded comment annotations
	Inline Bookmarks	✅ Compatible	In-editor bookmark tracking
	HTTP Status Codes	✅ Compatible	HTTP status code reference on hover
	ASP HTML Tag Matcher	✅ Compatible	Highlights matching HTML tags in ASP files
	Auto Rename Tag	⚠️ Partially Compatible	Rename opening/closing HTML tags together
	HTML CSS Support	⚠️ Caution	May conflict with built-in HTML completions — but may be fine
	ASP Classic Support	❌ Incompatible	Already integrated into this extension
	Classic ASP Syntaxes & Snippets	❌ Incompatible	Already integrated into this extension

💡 Bracket pair colourisation works natively with ASP files — enable it via editor.bracketPairColorization.enabled and editor.guides.bracketPairs in VS Code settings.

⚙️ Configuration

📋 Known Limitations

• ASP blocks must be properly closed (<% ... %>) for formatting and diagnostics to work correctly
• Format Document and Format Selection are refused while a file has structure diagnostics. Fix the orange squiggles first — formatting a file with unbalanced tags or blocks would rearrange the wrong things
• Complex mixed HTML/ASP structures may occasionally require manual adjustment after formatting
• #include virtual="..." and root-relative href/src paths resolve from classicAsp.virtualRoot, or the first workspace folder root when that is empty
• Syntax highlighting breaks for a <%= %> that emits an HTML tag inside a JavaScript event-handler attribute — e.g. onclick="alert('<%= Replace(x, vbCrLf, "<br>") %>')". VS Code's built-in HTML and JavaScript grammars own attribute-value parsing, so an extension cannot re-scope it. The code still runs correctly; only the colours are wrong. (For the same reason the closing " of a style="" value is coloured as CSS — that affects plain HTML files too.)
• Smart Enter/Tab indent follows the editor's editor.tabSize, while Format Document follows classicAsp.prettier.tabWidth. Set them to the same value if you want typing and formatting to agree

🛠️ Development

git clone https://github.com/ashtonckj/Classic-ASP-Language-Support.git
cd Classic-ASP-Language-Support
npm install
npm run compile
# Press F5 in VS Code to launch the Extension Development Host

npm run test:unit         # fast, vscode stubbed
npm run test:integration  # real Extension Host (Enter/Tab, commands)
npm run lint

🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! If you have ideas, bug reports, or want to improve the extension:

1. 🍴 Fork the repository
2. 🌿 Create a feature branch (git checkout -b feature/amazing-feature)
3. 💾 Commit your changes (git commit -m 'Add amazing feature')
4. 📤 Push to the branch (git push origin feature/amazing-feature)
5. 🎉 Open a Pull Request

🙏 Acknowledgements

This extension wouldn't be possible without these amazing projects:

• Prettier - HTML, CSS, and JavaScript formatting engine
• Zachary Becknell ( ASP Classic Support ) - ASP region highlighting implementation
• Jintae Joo ( Classic ASP Syntaxes and Snippets ) - Snippets inspiration and reference