redb extension for VS Code

1 New project

The redb: New Project command in the Command Palette, or the button in the redb view, opens a page that creates a project from the redb templates through dotnet new.

• Status. The top of the page shows the installed .NET SDKs and both template packages, redb.Templates and redb.Tsak.Templates, with an Install button for a missing package and an Update button when nuget.org has a newer version.
• Templates. Every template of the installed packages is a card in one of three groups: redb.Route XML modules, redb.Tsak hosts and applications.
• Form. The chosen template's form is built from the template's own parameters: project name, database, target framework and others. A framework with no SDK on this machine is marked, and a location where a folder of that name already holds files is refused.
• Create. Create runs dotnet new and, when the project carries a local tool manifest, dotnet tool restore. The output shows on the page and in the redb Route output channel, and a running step can be cancelled. When it is done, the project opens in this window, in a new window or is added to the workspace.

The cards and the form come from the templates themselves, so a new template in the redb packages appears without an update of the extension.

The same templates without an editor: Quick Start.

2 XML routes in the editor

• Schema completion and validation. Every element and every connector's typed options, aware of consumer versus producer. The schema is bound by the namespace urn:redb:route:1.0, not by the file name, and is regenerated with each release.
• Skeletons. Completion inserts composite skeletons for <route>, <choice> and <tryCatch>; the list depends on the place in the document, so there is no <choice> under <routes>.
• Bean references. Typing # in a value lists the document's <bean name> declarations.
• Routes view. The redb button in the Activity Bar opens a tree of *.route.xml and *.redb-route.xml files: the route id and its from endpoint; a click opens the file at the line.

3 Route graph

The same file as a graph: Open With → redb Route Graph, or the graph button in the editor title. The graph is editable, and changes go into the XML text.

• Insert a step from the palette at +, delete, drag to reorder or to move into and out of containers.
• A properties panel: the URI is split into scheme, path and options with lists of allowed values; sensitive options are masked.
• Left to right or top to bottom layout, folding, zoom.
• {{key}} placeholders show the value from context.sample.json and config/*.json, resolved the way Tsak resolves them.

4 Install and requirements