PowerBuilder IntelliSense (VS Code)
PowerBuilder language support extension for Appeon PowerBuilder 2022 and 2025
(switchable via the powerbuilder.version setting).
Features
- Full built-in catalogs scraped from the official Appeon docs: 914 (PB 2022) /
1,118 (PB 2025) system functions, 139 / 150 object events (with
pbm_* IDs),
2,235 / 2,446 object properties across 155 / 185 classes, ~70 enumerated
datatypes with their Value! lists, and the full DataWindow API from the
separate DataWindow Reference book — 253 / 254 methods (Retrieve, Update,
InsertRow, GetItemString, ...) and 57 DataWindow events
- Auto-completion for keywords, built-in functions and events, script locals
and parameters, instance/shared variables, workspace-wide globals, structure
members, and custom functions/events indexed across the workspace — ranked so
your own identifiers come before the 1,100-entry catalog, with documentation
resolved lazily for the highlighted item only
- Member completion after
. — resolves the receiver's type from local
declarations, indexed variables, or this/super, follows chains like
this.idw_main. and GetApplication(). through property types and function
return types, walks the inheritance chain, and offers workspace-defined
members plus the built-in functions, events, and properties of any built-in
ancestor (matched via the docs' Applies-to lists)
- Enumerated values floated to the top when the active call argument is an
enum (
MessageBox("t", "m", → Information!, StopSign!, ...)
- Event stub completion:
event offers the built-in events of the current
object's type and inserts a ready name; ... end event skeleton
- Embedded SQL host-variable completion:
: inside a SQL statement offers
every variable in scope
- DataWindow-aware completions: DataWindow controls, DataStores, and child
DataWindows offer their real API with signatures and docs (and win over
same-named PowerScript entries like RestClient's
Retrieve when the
receiver is a DataWindow); .srd exports are indexed for column names,
dw.Object. completes the bound DataWindow object's columns (bindings are
resolved across files, from assignments or exported control properties), and
DataWindow-typed receivers get Object/DataObject property items
- Rich hover documentation with per-parameter descriptions for built-in
functions and events, signatures for custom functions, variable types/scopes,
and type inheritance chains
- Signature help (parameter hints) while typing a function call, with the
active argument highlighted — multi-syntax built-ins (Open, Close, ...) show
every documented variant, and events documented per object type (Clicked,
DoubleClicked, DragDrop, ...) preselect the variant matching the enclosing
object or the receiver, so a window's Clicked shows
xpos/ypos while a
ListView's shows index
- By-reference arguments are marked throughout:
ref appears in signatures and
hover, and passing a literal where the documented syntax declares REF
(GetChild, FileRead, ...) is flagged, since PowerBuilder requires a
variable there
- Hover on properties through receiver chains (
this.Title) and on enumerated
values (Information! shows its enum and sibling values)
- Workspace-wide Go to Definition for custom functions, subroutines,
events, and object types — and DataWindow column names jump into their
.srd definition
- Find All References and Rename across the workspace (case-insensitive,
comment/string-aware, matching PowerScript semantics)
- Workspace symbol search (
Ctrl+T) across all PowerBuilder files
- Parser-based structural diagnostics that flag unmatched block terminators (
if/end if, for/next, do/loop, choose case/end choose, try/end try, function/subroutine/event/type blocks), ignoring keywords inside comments and strings
- Semantic call diagnostics (debounced while typing): unknown functions
(Information), too many arguments to a built-in (Warning), literal arguments
that cannot satisfy the declared parameter type (wrong enum, string where a
number is expected, ...), assignments to undeclared variables, and
version-availability warnings when a call exists only in the other PB
version — conservative around non-exported libraries, variadic and
multi-variant built-ins, member calls, and embedded SQL
- Syntax highlighting with proper embedded-SQL regions (SQL keywords and
:host variables highlight only inside SQL statements), enumerated Value!
constants, export headers, and line continuations
- Document outline/breadcrumbs and folding for all block constructs plus
variables/prototypes sections
- Server-driven semantic highlighting (known calls, variables, enum values,
types, properties) layered over the TextMate grammar
- Built for real exports, not just tidy samples:
& line continuations are
joined before parsing, multiple statements per line (event clicked;if ...)
are split, non-ASCII and punctuation identifiers (Greek menu names, m_-)
are handled, and encoding detection covers UTF-16LE/BE, UTF-8, and a
configurable ANSI codepage (powerbuilder.ansiEncoding)
- PowerBuilder: Generate OrcaScript command — writes a
.orca script that
rebuilds the workspace's PBLs from the exported sources on disk (the
documented scc refresh target offline pattern)
- Basic snippets for common code blocks
Supported File Extensions
.sra Application object.srw Window object.sru Custom user object.srm Menu object.srd DataWindow object.srf Global function.srs Structure.srp Data pipeline.srq Query.srj Project object
Settings
powerbuilder.version — target PowerBuilder version, 2022 or 2025
(default 2025). Selects which built-in catalog is used.powerbuilder.ansiEncoding — codepage for exports that are neither UTF-16
nor UTF-8 (default windows-1252; use e.g. windows-1253 for Greek). This
cannot be detected from the file itself.
Commands
- PowerBuilder: Switch Version (2022 ↔ 2025)
- PowerBuilder: Generate OrcaScript to Rebuild PBLs from Source
Documentation
Roadmap
- DataWindow expression functions that mirror runtime
dw.Object.<column>.<property>
chains for arbitrary column expressions beyond property completion (e.g.
validating property names against the bound .srd's actual column types)
- Cross-file "unused" analysis for instance variables (today's hint is
single-file only, so a variable used solely by a descendant class or another
object's direct access won't be seen)
License
MIT — see LICENSE.
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