🎵 MTL DDEX Helper

MTL DDEX Helper is a VS Code extension that makes working with DDEX XML metadata (e.g. ERN, MLC, MWDR, Party ID) faster and easier.
It provides quick access to documentation, tag lookups, and metadata validation helpers — directly from your editor.

✨ Features

🔗 Jump to documentation — place your cursor on any XML tag (e.g. <PartyID>) and press Ctrl+Alt+D to open the official DDEX documentation in your browser.
⚙️ Namespace aware — works even with prefixed tags like <ddex:ReleaseList>.
📁 Customizable tag map — edit assets/ddex-map.json to define your own tag-to-doc mappings.
🧠 Schema-agnostic — works with ERN, MWDR, MLC, and any other XML-based DDEX message.
🪶 Lightweight — no network calls or heavy dependencies.
💡 Future-ready — architecture prepared for validation and auto-completion support.

Example

<NewReleaseMessage>
  <ReleaseList>
    <Release>
      <DisplayArtist>John Doe</DisplayArtist>
    </Release>
  </ReleaseList>
</NewReleaseMessage>

➡️ Place cursor on <ReleaseList> → press Ctrl+Alt+D → browser opens the ReleaseList documentation.

🧩 Requirements

Visual Studio Code 1.80.0+
Node.js 18+ for development
Internet access (for documentation links)

To build and run locally:

npm install
npm run compile
F5   # Launch Extension Development Host

⚙️ Extension Settings

Currently, there are no user-facing VS Code settings.
Tag-to-URL mappings can be edited directly in:

assets/ddex-map.json

Example:

{
    "tags": {
        "PartyID": "https://ddex.net/standards/party-id/"
    },
    "standards": {
        "ERN38": {
            "tags": {
                "ReleaseList": "https: //support.google.com/youtube/answer/3506114?sjid=9804191667439814450-EU",
                "TechnicalDetails": "https://service.ddex.net/dd/ERN38/dd/ern_TechnicalTextDetails.html"
            }
        }
    }
}

🧱 Roadmap

✅ Tag → Documentation mapping
🔜 XML Schema validation (ERN 3.8.3)
🔜 Hover tooltips with DDEX tag descriptions
🔜 CodeLens: “Open Docs” above tag definitions
🔜 Auto-completion for DDEX tag names

🐞 Known Issues

Namespaced tags with unusual prefixes may require manual mapping.
Documentation URLs are static and may change with new DDEX releases.

Report issues or contribute via MusicTech Lab on GitHub.

🧾 Release Notes

0.1.0

Initial release of MTL DDEX Helper
Added Ctrl+Alt+D command to open docs for XML tags
Included customizable tag map in assets/ddex-map.json

📚 Learn More

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.

Enjoy faster DDEX development. Built with ❤️ by MusicTech Lab.