Get Acquainted with the User Interface for the InterSystems VS Code Extensions

The InterSystems extensions add additional capability to the VS Code user interface to support development in ObjectScript. These additions are based on the standard VS Code UI, which is described in the section User InterfaceOpens in a new tab in the VS Code documentation.

Explorer View Container

Select the Explorer view button File explorer icon in the Activity Bar to open the view.

The Explorer view is a standard VS Code view. InterSystems extensions add the following items to context menus in the this view:

Add Server Namespace to Workspace... in the context menu of folders
Import and Compile in the context menu of folders and files when you are connected to an InterSystems server
Import Without Compilation in context menu of folders and files when you are connected to an InterSystems server

InterSystems Tools View Container

The InterSystems Server Manager extension supplies an InterSystems Tools view container. Select the InterSystems Tools view container button Tools icon in the Activity Bar to open the view.

Viewing Server Resources

This view shows server resources in a tree format, as illustrated in the following screenshot:

This view groups servers into a variety of folders: servers currently in use, user-defined favorites, and servers which have been recently used. Within the view, you can perform operations on the servers. When you move the cursor over a server listing, command buttons appear which let you mark the server as a favorite, open the server’s Management Portal in a VS Code tab in the built-in Simple Browser, or open its Management Portal in an external browser, as illustrated below

popout icon with open mp in external browser tooltip

Notes About the VS Code Simple Browser

Only one Simple Browser tab can be open at a time, so launching a second server’s Management Portal replaces the previous one.

If the server version is InterSystems IRIS 2020.1.1 or later you need to change a setting on the suite of web applications that implement Management Portal. The Simple Browser is not be permitted to store the Portal’s session management cookies, so the Management Portal must be willing to fall back to using the CSPCHD query parameter mechanism.

To do so:

In Management Portal, select System Administration > Security > Applications > Web Applications.
Enter /csp/sys in the filter field to find the web applications which have paths beginning with /csp/sys.
For each application:
1. Select the link in the Name column to edit the application definition.
2. In the section labeled Session Settings, change the value of Use Cooke for Session from Always to Autodetect.
3. Select Save to save the change.

This change should not affect the use of session cookies on ordinary browsers.

Viewing and Editing Source Code on the Server

To view and edit source code on a server, expand the target server in the tree view, then expand its Namespaces folder. Hover over the target namespace to reveal its command buttons, as illustrated in the following image:

Select the edit (pencil) button to add an isfs://server:namespace/ folder to your VS Code workspace which corresponds with that namespace.
Select the view (eye) button to add an isfs-readonly://server:namespace/ folder to your VS Code workspace which corresponds with that namespace.
Hold the Alt or Option key while selecting the edit or view button to add a folder that also gives you access to server-side web application files (such as .csp files).

If you want to add a folder that shows only a single project’s contents, expand the target namespace and the Projects folder to reveal the projects in the target namespace. Hover over the target project to reveal its command buttons, as illustrated in the following image:

Select the edit (pencil) button to add an isfs://server:namespace/?project=projectName folder to your VS Code workspace.
Select the view (eye) button to add an isfs-readonly://server:namespace/?project=projectName folder to your VS Code workspace.

Once you have added a server-side namespace to the workspace, VS Code opens the Explorer view showing the added namespace. In the following image, the workspace includes the Sample and User packages in the src folder on the client, and the Sample and User packages in the USER namespace on the server, with read-only access:

Sample workspace with server-side content

To learn more about using isfs and isfs-readonly folders, see Server-Side Editing.

Important:

If you are already doing client-side editing of your code (for example, to manage it with Git) be sure you understand the consequences of also doing server-side editing using isfs. If in doubt, limit yourself to isfs-readonly by only using the eye icon.

Adding a Server

You can use the plus sign (+) in the title bar of the server resource explorer pane to add a server as described in the section Configure a Server.

Server Context Menu

Servers listed in the InterSystems Tools view provide a context menu which includes options to refresh the server, edit the settings.json specification for the server, and set the color of the icon for the server in the tree view, as illustrated in the following image:

Import Server Connections

On Windows, the Server Manager can create connection entries for all connections you previously defined with the original Windows app called InterSystems Server Manager. This action is available by selecting Import Servers from Windows Registry from the ... (ellipsis) menu in the title bar of the server resource explorer pane, as illustrated in the following image:

ObjectScript View

The InterSystems ObjectScript extension supplies an ObjectScript view container. Select the ObjectScript view container button generated description: objectscript button in the Activity bar to open this view.

This view container contains two views: the ObjectScript Explorer and the Projects Explorer. For more information about the Projects Explorer, see the Working with Projects page.

When a VS Code workspace is not connected to an InterSystems IRIS server, the ObjectScript Explorer provides a button that lets you select a server and namespace. Once the workspace is connected to an InterSystems IRIS server, the ObjectScript Explorer shows files on the server, grouped by type of file.

If the workspace is configured for server-side editing, the ObjectScript Explorer is not available. In this configuration, the Explorer view lists files on the server, not on the local machine, making the ObjectScript view irrelevant.

The ObjectScript Explorer provides the following items:

Compile — Compiles files on the server
Delete — Deletes files from the server
Export — Exports files to the workspace on the client
Server Command Menu... — Allows you to select a command from menus which are configured on the server.
Server Source Control... — Allows you to select a command from menus which are configured on the server.

The InterSystems IRIS documentation section Extending StudioOpens in a new tab describes how to configure menus for source code control and other purposes. Entries from menus named %SourceMenu and %SourceContext appear in the Server Source Control menu provided the source control class does not disable the entry. For example, the source control class may disable checkout if the file is already checked out.

Views and View Containers

Technically, the InterSystems Tools and ObjectScript entities described above are what VS Code calls view containersOpens in a new tab. The InterSystems Tools view container has a single view called Servers. The ObjectScript view container has two views: Explorer and Projects.

When a VS Code container has only a single view in it the view header merges with the container header, with the two names separated by a colon.

Views can be dragged between containers. This means, for example, that you could move the Explorer view out of its ObjectScript container and onto the InterSystems Tools container. By the same token, you could move the Servers view into the ObjectScript container, or move any of these views into VS Code’s main Explorer container.

Server Connection Status Bar

The connection status of the current server can be seen in the VS Code status barOpens in a new tab. If the server connection is active, the connected server and namespace will be shown in the status bar. If the server connection info is defined in the intersystems.servers settings object, the name of the server and namespace appears:

Otherwise, the host, port, and namespace appear:

Hover over the status bar item to see more detailed connection information, like a full connection URL and the username of the connection. Click on the status bar item to open the Server Actions menu. You can add custom entries to this menu.

If the server connection is inactive, the status bar displays the connection info or the word ObjectScript will be shown, along with an error or warning icon:

Hover over the status bar item to see more detailed error information. Click on the status bar item to open a menu that will help you activate your connection.