VSCode extension providing intelligent Silverstripe template (.ss) language support with PHPActor integration. There are lots of emojis and as you may have guessed, I didn't care about the code too much. It's an experiment to integrate PHPActor, Annotations & Cache into a VSCode plugin.

Features

✅ Syntax Highlighting: Rich syntax highlighting for .ss template files, including embedded JS and CSS
✅ Emmet Support: Full Emmet abbreviation expansion inside .ss files
✅ Go to Definition: Navigate from <% include MyTemplate %> to the template file
✅ Template Autocomplete: Suggests available templates when typing <% include %>
✅ Variable Completion: $Title, $Content, etc. — sourced from $db, $has_one, $has_many, @property docblocks, and PHPActor methods
✅ Dot-chain Completion: $Image.Fill(300,200). resolves the return type and offers its members
✅ Loop/With Scope Tracking: Completions reflect the correct class inside <% loop %> and <% with %> blocks
✅ $Up / $Top Navigation: Scope traversal completions across nested loops
✅ PHPActor Integration: Queries phpactor class:reflect for inherited and annotated methods
✅ Status Bar: Shows the mapped PHP class (FQN) for the active template file

For DDEV + Devcontainer Projects

This extension is designed to work within DDEV devcontainer environments.

Setup in Your Project

Clone into your project:

cd /var/www/html
git clone https://github.com/lerni/silverstripe-actor.git

Add to .devcontainer/devcontainer.json:

{
  "postCreateCommand": "cd /var/www/html/ss-vscode-actor && npm install && npm run compile",
  "customizations": {
    "vscode": {
      "extensions": [
        // ... other extensions
      ]
    }
  }
}

Reload devcontainer:
- Press Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + P
- Select "Dev Containers: Rebuild Container"

Open a workspace that includes both: Create a multi-root workspace file (e.g., myproject.code-workspace):

{
  "folders": [
    { "path": "." },
    { "path": "ss-vscode-actor", "name": "SS Extension" }
  ]
}

Press F5 when ss-vscode-actor folder is active to launch Extension Development Host

Development

Initial Setup

cd ss-vscode-actor
npm install

Build Commands

Compile Once

npm run compile

Compiles TypeScript to JavaScript in the dist/ folder.

Watch Mode (auto-compile on save)

npm run watch

Automatically recompiles when you save TypeScript files. Keep this running during development.

Debug/Test the Extension

Open the ss-vscode-actor folder in VSCode
Press F5 to launch Extension Development Host (runs the "Run Extension" launch config)
Open a Silverstripe project in the new window
Test with .ss files

The preLaunchTask will automatically compile before debugging.

Package for Distribution

npx vsce package

Creates: silverstripe-actor-0.1.0.vsix

Install Packaged Extension

In VS Code:

Press Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + P
Type "Extensions: Install from VSIX"
Select silverstripe-actor-0.1.0.vsix
Reload VS Code when prompted

Or via command line:

code --install-extension silverstripe-actor-0.1.0.vsix

Architecture

How it works

The extension combines three strategies for completions:

Direct PHP source parsing — reads $db, $has_one, $has_many, $many_many, $belongs_many_many arrays and @property/@method docblock annotations directly from the PHP file.
PHPActor CLI — calls phpactor class:reflect --format=json 'FQN' to enumerate inherited and annotated public methods. Results are cached per file with mtime invalidation.
Composer and Silverstripe module discovery — parses Composer metadata and mirrors Silverstripe's manifest rules (_config/, _config.php, and _manifest_exclude) to discover module template directories.

For template includes, the extension uses this Silverstripe-style manifest discovery to find templates in vendor packages and local modules, in addition to app and theme templates.

Template-to-class mapping follows Silverstripe conventions:

templates/App/Elements/ElementHero.ss → App\Elements\ElementHero
templates/Layout/Page.ss → Page (strips Layout/ sub-type)
templates/App/Includes/Header.ss → no class (includes are excluded)
ElementPage_produkt.ss → ElementPage (strips _suffix variants)

Project Structure

ss-vscode-actor/
├── src/
│   ├── extension.ts                         # Entry point, registers all providers
│   └── providers/
│       ├── templateDefinitionProvider.ts    # Go-to-definition for <% include %>
│       ├── templateCompletionProvider.ts    # Autocomplete for template paths
│       ├── templateClassMapper.ts           # Maps .ss file → PHP class FQN
│       ├── phpClassInspector.ts             # Reads PHP source + queries PHPActor
│       └── variableCompletionProvider.ts    # $Variable and dot-chain completions
├── syntaxes/
│   ├── silverstripe.tmLanguage.json         # Main grammar
│   └── silverstripe-injection.tmLanguage.json
├── dist/                                    # Compiled output (gitignored)
├── package.json                             # Extension manifest
├── tsconfig.json                            # TypeScript config
└── .vscode/
    ├── launch.json                          # Debug config
    └── tasks.json                           # Build tasks

Known limitations / still to do

PSR-4 cache is not invalidated when composer install/update runs (requires reload)
Signature help for methods not yet implemented

Customizing Syntax Highlighting

The extension provides rich syntax highlighting for Silverstripe templates using TextMate scopes. You can customize the colors to match your preferred theme.

Inspecting Scopes

Open any .ss file
Press Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + P → "Developer: Inspect Editor Tokens and Scopes"
Click on any Silverstripe syntax element to see its scope

Example Customizations

Add to your VSCode settings.json (Preferences → Settings → {} icon):

"editor.tokenColorCustomizations": {
    "textMateRules": [
        {
            // <% %> brackets
            "scope": "punctuation.definition.silverstripe",
            "settings": {
                "foreground": "#30afae"
            }
        },
        {
            // Keywords: if, loop, with, include, etc.
            "scope": "keyword.silverstripe",
            "settings": {
                "foreground": "#559ad1"
            }
        },
        {
            // Control structure names: end_if, end_loop
            "scope": "entity.name.type.silverstripe",
            "settings": {
                "foreground": "#C695C6",
                "fontStyle": "italic"
            }
        },
        {
            // Variables: $Title, $Content
            "scope": "entity.name.silverstripe variable.silverstripe",
            "settings": {
                "foreground": "#f6ac81"
            }
        },
        {
            // Method calls: .Fill(), .URL
            "scope": "entity.name.function.silverstripe",
            "settings": {
                "foreground": "#dcc665"
            }
        },
        {
            // Comments: <%-- comment --%>
            "scope": "comment.block.silverstripe",
            "settings": {
                "foreground": "#9E9E9E",
                "fontStyle": "italic"
            }
        }
    ]
}

Available Scopes

punctuation.definition.silverstripe - <% and %> delimiters
keyword.silverstripe - Control keywords (if, loop, include, etc.)
entity.name.type.silverstripe - Type names and end tags
entity.name.silverstripe - Variable names
entity.name.function.silverstripe - Method calls
comment.block.silverstripe - Template comments
string.quoted.double.silverstripe - Double-quoted strings
string.quoted.single.silverstripe - Single-quoted strings
punctuation.separator.silverstripe - Commas and separators

License

MIT

Silverstripe Language Support