AL Studio has a public API that is available for other VSCode extension developers. This API is provided even in the Free version and can be re-used by free/opensource extensions free of charge, without purchasing license.

API Interface:

Complete type definitions are available on GitHub: https://github.com/dynasist/ALStudio/blob/master/extension.d.ts

export interface IExternalAPIService {
    isWorkspaceScanned: boolean;
    onWorkspaceScanned: Function | undefined;
    getObjects(): Array<CollectorItemExternal>;
    getNextId(type: ALObjectType, projectNameOrFilePath: string): Promise<number>;
    getSymbolUri(type: ALObjectType, name: string, standardFormat: boolean): Uri | null;
    getALLanguageApiService(): IALLanguageApiService;
}

Properties

isWorkspaceScanned (Property)

Indicates whether the initial workspace scanning is finished.

Syntax

isWorkspaceScanned: boolean;

onWorkspaceScanned (Property)

Event fired when the initial workspace scanning is finished. You can subscribe to this event by assigning a simple function to it.

Example:

alStudioAPI.onWorkspaceScanned = () => {
    console.log('Workspace has been scanned!');
}

Syntax

onWorkspaceScanned: Function | undefined;

Methods

getObjects (Method)

Gets the complete set of objects collected from files and symbol packages. It containes Objects, EventPublishers and EventSubscribers as well. This list is automatically maintained by AL Studio, calling getObjects() will always return the latest, updated set.

Syntax

getObjects(): Array<CollectorItemExternal>;

getALLanguageApiService (Method)

Gets a simplified API reference for AL Language Extension itself.

Syntax

getALLanguageApiService(): IALLanguageApiService;

getSymbolUri (Method)

Gets generated preview URI for symbol objects. This can be used to manually show source code preview window of specific symbols.

Syntax

getSymbolUri(type: ALObjectType, name: string, standardFormat: boolean = false): Uri | null;

getNextId (Method)

Gets the next available object ID for the given object type in the specified Application name or file path. projectNameOrFilePath can be an:

1. App name exactly how it is defined in app.json, e.g. Base Application
   
2. Absolute filepath of any object within an app folder
   
3. Absolute filepath of the app folder
   
4. Absolute filepath of the app.json file
   

In latter case, the proper app.json will be implicitly search for.

Syntax

getNextId(type: ALObjectType, projectNameOrFilePath: string): Promise<number>;

Getting an AL Studio API reference in another VSCode extension:

See below example how to get our API reference in your extension. This sample is placed in the extension loading process, e.g. activate function in extension.ts. However, you may get a reference later on demand as well.

// extension.ts

import { extensions } from 'vscode';

export async function activate(context: ExtensionContext) {
    // you code...

    let alStudioAPI = await getAlStudioAPI();
}

async function getAlStudioAPI() {
    let alStudio: Extension<any> = extensions.getExtension('dynasist.al-studio')!;
    if (alStudio) {
        if (!alStudio.isActive) {
            await alStudio.activate();
        }

        return alStudio.exports;
    }
}

See Also

Visual Studio Code - Extension API

Visual Studio Code - Extension Get Started