OpenEdge ABL language support for Visual Studio Code

This extension provides rich OpenEdge ABL language support for Visual Studio Code. Now you can write and run ABL procedures using the excellent IDE-like interface that Visual Studio Code provides.

Features

• Syntax highlighting
• Syntax checking
• Run
• Debugger
• Auto-complete (tables, fields, methods)

Using

Prerequisites

You need to have a local OpenEdge installation, and the DLC environment variable should point to the installation directory (usually C:\Progress\OpenEdge).

Config file

You can create a local config file for your project named .openedge.json, with the following structure:

{
    "workingDirectory": "${workspaceFolder}\\Home",
    "proPath": [
        "c:\\temp",
        "${workspaceFolder}"
    ],
    "dlc": "C:/Progress/OpenEdge", //optional override
    "proPathMode": "append", // overwrite, prepend
    "parameterFiles": [ // -pf
        "default.pf"
    ],
    "startupProcedure" : "${workspaceFolder}/vsc-oe-startup.p",
    "dbDictionary": [
        "myDatabaseForAutoComplete"
    ],
    "format": {
        "trim": "right" // none
    }
}

dlc, startupProcedure, proPath and workingDirectory are optional. Default values:

• dlc: uses environment variable $DLC
• startupProcedure: ''
• proPath: workspaceRoot (of VSCode)
• workingDirectory: folder of active source code
• dbDictionary are the logical names of database files for the auto-complete option (command: ABL Read Dictionary Structure)
• format are formatter options

Parameter "startupProcedure"

The optional Startup Procedure for OpenEdge can be used to execute 4GL code before a check syntax/debug/run operation. Can be used to create Database aliases or instantiate Singleton Classes. The Procedure is executed everytime the IDE starts a check syntax/debug/run operation.

Debugger

You can use the debugger to connect to a remote running process (assuming it is debug-ready), or run locally with debugger.

You first need to create the launch configuration in your launch.json file, 2 templates are available, one for launch and the other for attach).

{
    "version": "0.2.0",
    "configurations": [
        {
            "name": "Attach to process",
            "type": "abl",
            "request": "attach",
            "address": "192.168.1.100",
            "port": 3099
        }
    ]
}

To attach to a remote process, it needs to be debug-ready. The easiest way to achieve that is to add -debugReady 3099 to the startup parameters (.pf file) of your application server.

The debugger supports basic features

• step-over, step-into, step-out, continue, suspend
• breakpoints
• display stack
• display variables
• watch/evaluate basic expressions

You can map remote path to local path (1 to 1) using localRoot and remoteRoot. This is useful when debugging a remote target, even more if it only executes r-code. localRoot is usually your ${workspaceRoot} (current directory opened in VSCode). remoteRoot may remains empty (or missing), in this particular case, the remote path is relative, and resolved via the PROPATH by the remote.

You can also map different remote path to local path via source mapping sourceMap. This is useful if you don't have all the source code in a unique project (ex dependencies).

Unit tests

Based upon the ABLUnit framework (need to be installed locally), you can specify launch parameters to find and execute test files

{
    "test": {
        "files":[
            "tests/*.test.p"
        ],
        "beforeEach": {
            "cmd": "%ProgramFiles%\\Git\\bin\\sh.exe",
            "args": [
                "-c",
                "echo starting"
            ]
        },
        "afterEach": {
            "cmd": "%ProgramFiles%\\Git\\bin\\sh.exe",
            "args": [
                "-c",
                "echo done"
            ]
        }
    }
}

Greetings

Largely inspired by ZaphyrVonGenevese work (https://github.com/ZaphyrVonGenevese/vscode-abl). Also inspired by vscode-go and vscode-rust extensions.

Thanks to all the contributors: mscheblein

License

Licensed under the MIT License.