ALeX

This extension is a productivity tool for ALeX developers.

Features

Main extension features:

• Upload PHP actions and parts of XML files with a single key stroke.
• Snippets to speed up configuration authoring.

For more details see:

• Commands
• Snippets
• Editor title bar

The extension is activated once an XML or PHP file is opened or once a connection is selected.

Quick start

• Create connection ini file.
  • See ALeX: Connection: Select command.
• Select connection.
  • Use ALeX: Connection: Select command.
• Edit XML configuration file:
  • Put cursors inside an <alex-update> block and upload the block.
  • Select several <alex-update> blocks and upload them.
  • For both use ALeX: Upload selection command.
• Edit PHP action file and upload it.
  • See ALeX: Upload PHP file command.

Commands

Command	Description
ALeX: Connection: Select	Choose connection ini file.
ALeX: Upload selection	Upload XML selection to ALeX.
ALeX: Upload PHP file	Upload PHP action to ALeX.
ALeX: Upload XML file	Upload XML file to ALeX.
ALeX: Compile selection	Compile XML selection and save it to file.
ALeX: Compile XML file	Compile XML file and save it to file.
ALeX: Connection: Set password	Set ALeX endpoint password.
ALeX: Connection: Reset password	Reset ALeX endpoint password.
ALeX: Connection: Info	Print ALeX endpoint details.
ALeX: Make commands	ALeX build system.
ALeX: Create PHP metadata	Derive types for code completion.

ALeX: Connection: Select

Use ALeX: Connection: Select to select connection ini file that defines IS ALeX endpoint. IS ALeX endpoint is defined with

• url - ALeX base URL, e.g. http://localhost/ALeX/current
• db - ALeX database name
• user - ALeX user name, db owner or another powerful user is a good choice
• password - Optional password, define it for development environments only!

Connection ini file example:

url="http://localhost/ALeX/current"
db="alex"
user="root"
; Never store password for production systems.
;pass="mysecretpassword"

The command searches the path from the directory of the active document to the root folder looking for .*.ini and *.ini files. User is offered the list of connection files to select one.

Once you select a connection file, its endpoint details are printed to output. The selected connection file is then used for all commands that talk to ALeX server (like ALeX: Upload).

ALeX: Upload selection

Ctrl+Alt+U Cmd+Alt+U

Use ALeX: Upload selection to upload the selected part of your XML configuration file to ALeX.

The selected part is

• the current selection block, or
• the closest <alex-update> block surrounding the current cursor position, if the current selection is empty.

You can use multiple cursor positions to select several blocks.

Command requires a connection file with ALeX endpoint details. Use command ALeX: Connection: Select to select one.

ALeX: Upload PHP file

Ctrl+Alt+U Cmd+Alt+U

Use ALeX: Upload PHP file to upload the current PHP action file to ALeX.

Command requires a connection file with ALeX endpoint details. Use command ALeX: Connection: Select to select one.

ALeX: Upload XML file

Use ALeX: Upload XML file to upload the current XML file to ALeX.

Command requires a connection file with ALeX endpoint details. Use command ALeX: Connection: Select to select one.

ALeX: Compile selection

Ctrl+Alt+K Cmd+Alt+K

Use ALeX: Compile selection command to compile the selected part of your XML configuration file (see ALeX: Upload selection for definition) and save the result to a file.

Compiled XML is saved to build/part.file.compiled.xml if called from file.xml.

Command does NOT upload anything to ALeX server.

ALeX: Compile XML file

Use ALeX: Compile XML file command to compile the whole current file.

Compiled XML is saved to build/file.compiled.xml if called from file.xml.

Command does NOT upload anything to ALeX server.

ALeX: Connection: Set password

Use ALeX: Connection: Set password to set password if one is missing in connection file. Once password is set VSCode remembers it until workspace is closed or a different connection file is selected.

If password is set and connection file contains password too, the one set in VSCode is used.

ALeX: Connection: Reset password

Use ALeX: Connection: Reset password to unset password set with ALeX: Connection: Set password.

ALeX: Connection: Info

Use ALeX: Connection: Info command to print the current ALeX endpoint details to output.

ALeX: Make commands

Use a set of ALeX: Make commands to invoke alex make command from VSCode. There is a command for each of the most used targets.

Command	Meaning
ALeX: Make All	Asks whether to reset db. Then it builds and uploads configurations.
ALeX: Make Build	Builds configurations. Built configurations can be found in build folder next to alex.json.
ALeX: Make Config	Builds and uploads configurations.
ALeX: Make Test	Builds and uploads test configurations.

Invoke command in one of the following ways.

1. From context menu of alex.json file in file explorer.
2. As a usual command with Ctrl+Shift+P - it will ask you to select one of alex.json files VSCode will find on the paths from the active document to root.

More on alex.json in usage help of alex make command.

alex make --help

ALeX: Create PHP metadata

Run command ALeX: Create PHP metadata to create .metadata.php in a folder with your root alex.json file. The .metadata.php file provides your PHP classes with code completion.

How it works. The command derives PHP types for all your parameter groups and folders and it also injects type definitions into PHP actions in your projects. All type definitions are comments-only so they never break your existing code.

The code completion on nodes respects node type, parameter group and parameter types. So it offers the correct functions and properties as needed. It also tries to guess the correct types for childNodes() and parentNode().

Jump start

1. ALeX: Make: Build on your root alex.json file.
2. ALeX: Create PHP Metadata on your root alex.json file.
3. Check code completion in some of your PHP action classes.

Prerequisites

• Extension PHP Intelephense installed
• Extension PHP Language Features disabled

Class names

Class names for derived types:

Class	Description
NodeByPg_<pginfix>	Class for a parameter group.
NodeByPrefix_<prefix>	Class for a node defined by its prefix. Useful for base folders. The slashes in prefix are replaced by double underscore __, e.g. folder with prefix /invoices/all will have a class NodeByPrefix_invoices__all.
NodeByType_<nodetype>	Class for a node defined by its type. These are usually used only internally or for more types that cannot be derived from XML.

Explicit type

Usually, traversing ALeX nodes in PHP API should provide correct types for code completion. However, if traversing ALeX nodes in PHP API does not end up with a proper code completion, you can explicitly define the type you need.

// The following line sets class `Node_invoice_item` as the class for variable `$node` for code completion.
// Use it if the $node has PG `invoice_item`.
/** @var NodeByPg_mypg $node */

Node by id or prefix

For the types to work well, always provide type when you get node by its id or prefix.

foreach ($ids as $id) {
    /** @var NodeByPg_invoice_item $node */
    $node = $env->getNodeById($id);
    // ...
}

A good idea is to provide a single static helper function on some common PHP action to provide typed nodes by prefix.

class Action_invoice_folders {

    /**
     * @param Environment $env
     * @return NodeByPrefix_invoices__all
     */
    public static function GetInvoicesAll($env) {
        return $env->getNodeByPrefix('/invoices/all');
    }
}

Then from your PHP action class you get your folder with all invoices like this, passing in the environment with $env:

// This will have the type of folder
$invoices = Action_invoice_folders::GetInvoicesAll($env);
// Child nodes in folder will be typed correctly
foreach ($invoices->childNodes() as $inv) {
    // $inv provides invoice attributes code completion
    $inv->inv_ // If you type this then code completion offers inv_arrival, inv_amount, etc.
}

This way you refer to /invoices/all prefix at only one place in your project. Everywhere you need that folder you get it with the GetInvoicesAll() function, thus you always get it it with the proper type and code completion works automatically.

Tuning: Type derivation source

By default, all types are derived from complete project's XML. Therefore ALeX: Make: Build has to be run first. We prefer this way for current projects.

Alternatively, it is possible to derive the types from an existing database. This can be helpful when XML definition is incomplete.

To derive types from db, set the following in alex.json in your root configuration directory.

"php_metadata": {
    "source": "db"
}

As long as the above is set in your alex.json configuration file, the command ALeX: Create PHP Metadata will derive all types from db only.

You can also create your PHP metadata explicitly from the selected source by calling ALeX: Create PHP metadata from db or ALeX: Create PHP metadata from XML.

Tuning: Avoid memory limit issue

Deriving types can be a memory intensive task on your ALeX server, especially for large databases. If you encounter Allowed memory ... exhausted error, try to set a larger memory limit for the PHP metadata request by setting the memory limit in your root alex.json file.

"php_metadata": {
    "memory": "512M"
}

If setting the memory limit does not help, it may be caused by non-rewritable memory limit set in your Apache / HTTP server configuration.

Snippets

Document initialization

Abbreviation	Description
aus	Basic XML settings for ALeX XML configuration and <alex-update-sequence> root element

Update blocks

Abbreviation	Description
au	General <alex-update> block
auj	<alex-update> for jobs
aup	<alex-update> for parameters
aupg	<alex-update> for parameter groups
auphp	<alex-update> for PHP actions
aur	<alex-update> for a role

Universal blocks

Abbreviation	Description
an	<alex-node>
aa	<alex-attribute>
al	<alex-link>

Parameter group blocks

Abbreviation	Description
pg	<alex-node> for a parameter group
ad	<alex-display>
adf	<alex-display> block with flags
ap	<alex-link> to a parameter
aacpa	ALeX actions custom panel - set custom actions
aacpo	ALeX actions custom popup - set custom actions
act	<alex-action>
call	<call> in action definition
aapa	ALeX actions panel - modify standard actions
aapo	ALeX actions popup - modify standard actions
aaxi	<xi:include> to modify standard actions

Parameter blocks

Abbreviation	Description
p	<alex-node> for a general parameter
pdat	<alex-node> for a date parameter
pmulti	<alex-node> for a multicatalog parameter
pref	<alex-node> for a catalog parameter
pstr	<alex-node> for a string parameter
ptab	<alex-node> for a table parameter

Rights blocks

Abbreviation	Description
aur	<alex-update> for a role
ar	<alex-right>

PHP

Abbreviation	Description
php	<alex-node> for a PHP action
classa	class Action_ template (for PHP)
trigger	Trigger method template (for PHP)

Jobs blocks

Abbreviation	Description
ajf	<alex-node> for a filtering job
ajp	<alex-node> for a PHP job

Filter blocks

Abbreviation	Description
af	<alex-filter>
afc	<alex-condition>

Editor title bar

An upload action is displayed in editor title bar (in top-right corner) in XML and PHP files. For XML files it uploads the current selection.

If Alt is pressed, then compile action is available instead upload in XML files.

Requirements

This extension requires command alex to be installed.

Extension Settings

Path

Set path to alex executable, if it is not on path including alex, alex.bat, or alex.php.

On Windows it's better to set path to alex.php.

{
    "alex.path": "/path/to/bin/alex",
    // or
    "alex.path": "C:\\mypath\\alex.php"
}

PHP

If path to alex.php is set in alex.path, you can set path to PHP binary to run it, otherwise php is expected on path.

{
    "alex.php": "/path/to/bin/php"
}

This setting is ignored if alex.path is not set to a path to alex.php but e.g. to alex or alex.bat.

Known Issues

• Check you have the latest alex-tools installed.