Enterprise Integration Debugger (Liquid/XSLT/DLL)

Line-by-line debugger for Liquid templates, XSLT maps, and .NET DLL extension functions.
Stop guessing. Step through. See every variable, every transformation, every value — in real time.

What it does

Enterprise Integration Debugger brings IDE-quality step-through debugging to three worlds that previously had none:

Every mode gives you: variable inspector, breakpoints, watch expressions, step over/into/out, real-time output, test suites, and a built-in searchable reference guide.

Quick Start

1. Install & Launch

Search Enterprise Integration Debugger in the VS Code Extensions panel and click Install, or:

code --install-extension SoubhikDevTools.dot-liquid-template-debugger

Click the Integration Debugger icon in the Activity Bar, or open the Command Palette (Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+P) and type Integration Debugger: Start.

2. Load Template & Data

Click Load Template and choose your mode:

• Liquid / XSLT tab — paste or drop your template and JSON / XML input data
• XSLT + DLL tab — drop your .xsl / .btm map, XML input, and any .dll assemblies
• Batch tab — run one template against up to 5 different data inputs at once

Liquid / XSLT mode

Browse built-in samples

3. Start Debugging

Click Start Debugging and use the step controls:

Start Debugging

Breakpoints — right-click for conditional expressions

4. Inspect Variables & Live Output

Every variable, scope, and value updates in real time as you step:

Features

Step Debugger

• Step Over (F10) — execute the current line and advance to the next
• Continue (F5) — run until the next breakpoint or end of template
• Step Into (F11) — step into DLL extension function bodies (XSLT+DLL mode)
• Step Out (⇧F11) — complete the current block and return to the caller
• Reset (Ctrl+Shift+F5) — restart from the beginning, preserving all breakpoints and watches
• Current line indicator — highlighted line with play arrow tracks execution position in real time
• Execution state — buttons and status badge reflect loading, running, paused, and complete states

Variables Panel

• Live variable tracking — every variable in scope shown with name, value, scope tag, and type
• Scope badges — color-coded: GLOBAL (green), ASSIGN (yellow), FOR (purple), CAPTURE (orange), INCREMENT/DECREMENT (cyan)
• Type display — String, Double, Integer, Boolean, Hash, Array
• Expand / collapse — click any row to see the full VALUE section, origin, transformation chain, and history
• Formatted VALUE — nested objects rendered with indentation; arrays shown item-by-item
• Variable origin — shows source path and format (e.g. assign (json))
• Transformation chain — for computed values (e.g. price | Times: qty), each filter step shown with before → after values and color-coded pill badges
• Change history — per-line history of old → new values as execution advances
• Search / filter — searches variable names AND deep-searches inside rawValue objects recursively
• Changed indicator — glowing dot marks variables modified on the last step
• Float precision — IEEE-754 display noise eliminated everywhere (e.g. 299.96999999999997 → 299.97)

Inspector Panel — Watches

• Add watch expressions — pin any Liquid or XPath expression to monitor throughout execution
• Live value updates — each watch shows current value and type, updated on every step
• Transformation detail — expand any watch to see its full filter chain with before/after values
• Remove watch — × button on each watch card
• Count badge — section auto-expands when the first watch is added
• State preserved — watch input text survives accordion collapse/expand

Inspector Panel — Breakpoints

• Toggle breakpoint — click the gutter dot on any line to set or clear
• Right-click conditional breakpoint — set an expression that must be true to pause (e.g. item.price > 100)
• Enable / disable — toggle individual breakpoints without removing them
• Hit count — displays how many times each breakpoint has fired
• Auto-expand — Breakpoints section automatically opens when execution pauses on one
• Expression evaluations — expanding a breakpoint row evaluates all expressions on that line and shows results

Inspector Panel — Evaluate

• Ad-hoc evaluation — type any expression and run it against the current execution context
• Pipeline stitching — if the expression shares a base variable with a watch, transformations are merged for richer context
• Typo hinting — if a variable is not found, suggests the closest match from current scope
• Result display — value, type, and full transformation chain

Inspector Panel — Problems

• Real-time template linting — errors and warnings annotated per-line in the template gutter
• Severity levels — error (red) and warning (yellow) with gutter color bars
• Problem list — each item shows line, message, and severity; section auto-expands when problems exist

Inspector Panel — Timeline

• Step history — every execution step recorded with line, duration, output length, and variable snapshot
• Duration bars — relative bar widths visualize hotspot lines
• Variable change tracking — changed variables highlighted per step

Template Panel

• Syntax highlighting — full colorization for Liquid / XSLT / XPath; hover any expression token to evaluate it live
• Live edit with syntax highlighting — transparent textarea overlaid on the viewer; syntax colors stay visible while typing
• Editable after failed load — Edit button remains active even when the last load failed so you can fix errors in-place
• Line numbers — always visible; current execution line highlighted with accent color and play marker
• Breakpoint gutter — clickable dots; right-click for conditional breakpoints
• Lint gutter bars — red/yellow bars on lines with validation errors
• Code folding — Fold All / Unfold All; per-line handles for {% for %}, {% if %}, {% capture %}, and nested JSON blocks
• Find toolbar — search with match counter (3/12), previous/next navigation (Enter / Shift+Enter)
• Replace bar — Replace first or Replace All with live match count
• Undo / Redo — Ctrl+Z / Ctrl+Shift+Z; step count shown in button tooltip
• Copy — full template to clipboard with confirmation
• Hover tooltip — evaluate any {{ expr }} or XPath select/match/test attribute on hover; arrays shown with per-item breakdown
• AI Explain — AI-powered explanation of the entire template in plain English
• AI Fix — AI suggests a corrected template on error; one-click Apply Fix
• Scroll sync — textarea and viewer always scroll together; cursor never drifts

Input Data Panel

• Syntax-highlighted viewer — JSON / XML / CSV / text colorized with line numbers and folding
• Live edit with syntax highlighting — same transparent overlay technique; full highlighting while typing
• Editable after failed load — if JSON/XML is invalid and load fails, Edit button stays active to fix and retry
• Format (Beautify) — auto-indent and pretty-print JSON or XML
• Tree view — structured JSON/XML as an interactive tree with expand/collapse; falls back to raw on syntax error
• Find toolbar — searches the live editContent (works during editing)
• Replace bar — Replace / Replace All
• Undo / Redo — Ctrl+Z / Ctrl+Shift+Z
• Code folding — collapsible nested blocks
• Scroll sync — textarea scroll synced to viewer

Output Panel

• Real-time output — rendered result grows line-by-line as you step
• JSON / XML / Text mode switching — change view format on the fly
• Tree view — interactive structured tree
• Format (Beautify) — pretty-print output
• JSON Validate (Check) — validate output is well-formed JSON
• Find toolbar — search in output with match navigation
• Compare — diff current output against a saved baseline
• Copy — copy to clipboard; dropdown for copy-as-JSON, copy-as-XML, copy-as-text
• Code folding — collapse/expand nested output blocks
• Expand All / Collapse All in tree view

Load Template Dialog

• Liquid / XSLT tab — paste or drop template and data; format selector (JSON / XML / CSV / Text / Key=Value)
• XSLT + DLL tab — drop XSLT / BizTalk map, XML input, and .dll assemblies
• Batch tab — run one template against up to 5 data inputs simultaneously; results shown as tabs with timing badges; "› Debug" loads any result into the step debugger
• Browse Samples — load built-in sample templates (Liquid and XSLT)
• Drag and drop — drop .liquid, .xsl, .btm, .dll, .json, .xml, .csv, .txt anywhere in the window; auto-populates the correct fields
• Recent sessions — last 8 loaded sessions as quick-access cards
• XSLT Custom Library Mocks — configure mock functions for XSLT custom extension libraries

Test Suite

• Named test suites — create, rename, and delete suites containing multiple cases
• Test cases — each stores: name, mode (liquid / xslt), template, data + format, expected output
• Run suite — execute all cases in one click; pass / fail / error result per case
• Result detail — actual output shown for failing cases; duration per case
• Summary — pass/fail/error counts and total run time
• Persist — suites saved in VS Code workspace state; survive restarts

AI Mapper

• Generate templates — describe the transformation; AI generates a Liquid or XSLT template
• Structured input — prompt, expected output sample, field mapping table, output format
• Multi-turn continuation — long templates that exceed one model response are auto-continued and stitched
• AI Explain — explain the current template in plain English
• AI Fix — detect errors and generate a corrected template; one-click Apply
• Model selection — model list fetched live from the Gemini API; default gemini-2.0-flash
• Secure key storage — API key in VS Code SecretStorage; never written to settings files or logs
• Opt-in only — all non-AI features fully functional without an API key

Built-in Guide

• Liquid reference — all filters, tags, operators, theory; live code examples with input/output
• XSLT reference — all xsl: elements, XPath axes and functions, common patterns (Identity Transform, Muenchian Grouping, Lookup Tables, Recursive Accumulation)
• XSLT+DLL reference — .NET extension function signatures, AddExtensionObject, msxsl:script, userCSharp:, C# patterns (Date Formatting, Currency Rounding, Regex, Base64, Node Splitting)
• Full-text search — across all sections simultaneously
• Technology switcher — one-click switch between Liquid, XSLT, and XSLT+DLL
• Detail drawer — click any entry for syntax, I/O examples, and Pro Tips

Settings

• Themes — 9 premium themes: Dark Default, Midnight, Cool Blue, Warm Wood, Glass Dark, Light Clean, Iceberg, Seashell, Glass Light
• Accent colors — 7 presets (Indigo, Violet, Blue, Cyan, Emerald, Orange, Rose) + custom hex color picker
• AI configuration — enable/disable, API key, model selector
• Language — pick from 10 supported UI languages; auto-detected from your VS Code locale on first launch
• Persist — theme, accent, and language saved to VS Code globalState

Multi-Language Interface

The entire UI is fully translated into 10 languages — every panel, tab, button, tooltip, modal, error message, and onboarding tour step:

Auto-detection: On first launch, the extension reads your VS Code UI language (vscode.env.language) and sets the matching language automatically. No configuration needed.

Manual override: Open Settings → Language and click any language to switch instantly. The choice is remembered across sessions.

Arabic RTL support: Switching to Arabic automatically applies dir="rtl" to the entire interface, mirroring the layout for right-to-left reading.

Liquid Engine

• Full DotLiquid dialect — Azure Logic Apps content.* variable scoping compatible
• All standard filters — Upcase, Downcase, Strip, Truncate, Replace, Split, Join, First, Last, Size, Times, Plus, Minus, DividedBy, Modulo, Round, Floor, Ceil, Abs, Date, Escape, Append, Prepend, Remove, and more
• All standard tags — assign, capture, if/elsif/else, unless, case/when, for/break/continue, tablerow, comment, raw, increment, decrement, cycle
• Transformation tracking — each filter application recorded with before/after values
• Format support — JSON, XML, CSV, Key=Value, plain text input

XSLT Engine

• Version auto-detection — reads version="1.0", "2.0", or "3.0" from stylesheet
• XSLT 1.0 — .NET XslCompiledTransform with full DLL extension support
• XSLT 2.0 / 3.0 — Saxon-HE: xsl:for-each-group, xsl:function, sequences, maps, arrays
• Step through — xsl:template, xsl:for-each, xsl:if, xsl:choose, xsl:call-template, xsl:apply-templates
• XPath hover evaluation — evaluate select, match, test attributes on hover
• xsl:message — captured and shown in debugger output
• BizTalk Maps (.btm) — format auto-detected; compiled XSLT extracted and stepped

XSLT + DLL Engine

• Extension function tracing — pauses on every helper:SomeMethod() call; shows source, arguments, and return value
• DLL Source Peek — ILSpy decompiles C# assemblies to readable source without PDB files
• userCSharp: support — BizTalk Scripting functoid inline C# shown and stepped
• Broad DLL compatibility — .NET 8/9/10/11, .NET Standard 2.0+, .NET Framework (MetadataLoadContext)
• Self-contained runner — SDK needed once to compile the runner; all future runs are SDK-free
• SDK auto-detection — detects .NET 8, 9, 10, 11+; uses the highest available

Global UI

• Zoom-responsive — all sizes derived from VS Code font size; correct at any zoom level
• Multi-language UI — 10 languages; auto-detected from VS Code locale; manually switchable in Settings → Language; Arabic flips the entire layout to RTL
• Global drag-and-drop — drop files anywhere; auto-routed to the correct field
• Onboarding tour — interactive first-run walkthrough; re-launchable via Integration Debugger: Reset Onboarding Tour
• Toast notifications — success, error, info toasts with auto-dismiss
• Resizable panels — drag dividers to resize Template, Data, Output, and Inspector panels
• Export session — export current template + data + output as a JSON file
• Keyboard shortcuts — F5, F9, F10, F11, ⇧F11, Ctrl+Shift+F5

XSLT + DLL — BizTalk Maps & XSLT 2.0/3.0

XSLT Version Support

The debugger auto-detects the XSLT version from the version="..." attribute — no configuration needed:

BizTalk Maps & DLL Extension Functions

1. Click Load Template → XSLT + DLL tab
2. Drop your .btm or .xsl, XML input, and .dll assemblies
3. Click Start Debugging

When a helper:SomeMethod() extension call executes, the debugger pauses and shows:

• Decompiled C# source of the method via ILSpy — no PDB files or source upload needed
• Arguments passed to the function
• Return value in the variable inspector

First run: A self-contained runner is compiled once using the .NET SDK on your machine (supports .NET 8, 9, 10, 11+). After that, no SDK or runtime is required for any subsequent session.

Supported DLL Assemblies

Variable Inspector & Watch Expressions

Variable state tracking — every scope, every step

Real-time watch expressions

AI Mapper

Generate production-ready Liquid or XSLT templates from plain-English descriptions using Google Gemini. Describe your mapping, click Generate — the template loads directly into the debugger for immediate validation.

AI Settings — API key & model

AI Mapper — describe your transform

Generated template loaded for debugging

AI features:

• Generate — describe the mapping in plain English; get a working template back
• Explain — plain-English explanation of any loaded template
• Fix — AI detects errors and proposes a corrected version; Apply in one click
• Multi-turn continuation — very long templates are auto-continued and stitched across multiple model responses
• Model selection — choose any available Gemini model; defaults to gemini-2.0-flash
• Strictly opt-in — the extension is fully functional without an API key; AI features are disabled until you enable them

Built-in Integration Guide

A fully searchable reference — no browser tab needed. Switch between Liquid, XSLT, and XSLT+DLL with a single click.

Themes, Languages & Accent Colors

Nine premium visual themes — all UI sizes scale with VS Code's font size setting:

Themes: Dark Default, Midnight, Cool Blue, Warm Wood, Glass Dark, Light Clean, Iceberg, Seashell, Glass Light

Accent colors: Indigo, Violet, Blue, Cyan, Emerald, Orange, Rose — plus a custom hex color picker

Languages: English, 中文 (简体), 中文 (繁體), Español, Français, Deutsch, 日本語, 한국어, Português (Brasil), العربية — auto-detected from VS Code locale, manually switchable in Settings → Language

🔒 Security & Privacy

• Everything runs locally — All template evaluation, XSLT transformation, and DLL reflection happen inside the VS Code extension host process. No remote servers or cloud execution.
• No client data leaves your environment — Your templates, input data, and output are processed entirely on your machine and are never transmitted anywhere.
• Safe for sensitive business transformations and enterprise workflows — Perfect for production data, customer records, PII, financial figures, and proprietary business logic.

Safe for sensitive enterprise workflows — Liquid maps, XSLT transformations, BizTalk Maps, and DLL assemblies that contain business-critical logic can be debugged without any risk of data exposure.

Supported Files

Requirements

launch.json Examples

Liquid:

{
  "version": "0.2.0",
  "configurations": [
    {
      "type": "liquid",
      "request": "launch",
      "name": "Debug Liquid Template",
      "template": "${file}",
      "data": "${workspaceFolder}/data.json",
      "format": "json"
    }
  ]
}

XSLT:

{
  "version": "0.2.0",
  "configurations": [
    {
      "type": "liquid",
      "request": "launch",
      "name": "Debug XSLT Map",
      "template": "${file}",
      "data": "${workspaceFolder}/input.xml",
      "format": "xml"
    }
  ]
}

Support

• Bug reports & feature requests: GitHub Issues
• Source code: GitHub Repository

Built with ❤️ by Soubhik and Bob — enterprise integration developers who debug XSLT and Liquid for a living.