MDS Explorer

Browse, search, and open files stored in an Oracle MDS (Metadata Services) repository directly from VS Code — without opening JDeveloper.

MDS is the metadata store used by Oracle SOA Suite, Oracle Service Bus, and Oracle BPM Suite to persist artifacts such as WSDLs, XSDs, XSLTs, DVMs, and BPEL processes.

Features

• Browse your MDS repository as a file tree — partitions → folders → documents
• Open files with syntax highlighting (WSDL, XSD, XSLT, XML, BPEL, DVM, BPMN, …)
• Search across all file paths in the repository with a live QuickPick search
• Multiple connections — connect to several MDS schemas simultaneously
• Always shows the latest version — uses PATH_HIGH_CN IS NULL to resolve the current live version of every artifact
• Single click opens a preview tab; double click or Open in New Tab pins it permanently
• Tree auto-expansion — opening a file from search automatically expands and selects it in the tree
• Loading indicators — status bar progress and per-node spinner while content is fetching
• 60-second timeout with a clear error message if a file takes too long to load
• Copy oramds:/ path to clipboard from any file or folder
• No Oracle Instant Client required — connects via JDBC using your existing JDeveloper ojdbc8.jar

Requirements

Java

A JDK (not just JRE) is required to compile and run the JDBC bridge.

• JDK 8 or later (java and javac must both be available)
• The extension auto-detects Java from, in order:
  1. The MDS Explorer: Java Path setting
  2. JAVA_HOME environment variable
  3. MW_HOME / ORACLE_HOME environment variables (JDeveloper bundled JDK)
  4. Common JDeveloper 14c install paths (C:\Oracle\Middleware\Oracle_Home\oracle_common\jdk)
  5. System PATH

Oracle JDBC driver (ojdbc8.jar)

No Oracle Instant Client is needed. The extension uses JDBC, which supports Oracle Native Network Encryption (NNE) — required by most enterprise Oracle databases.

• The extension auto-detects ojdbc8.jar from common JDeveloper 14c paths
• Or set the MDS Explorer: Ojdbc Jar Path setting explicitly

Typical location in a JDeveloper 14c install:

<JDev install>\oracle_common\modules\oracle.jdbc\ojdbc8.jar

Getting Started

1. Open the MDS Explorer panel in the Activity Bar (database icon)
2. Click the + button in the panel title bar to add a connection
3. Enter:
   • Display name — a label for this connection (e.g. DEV MDS)
   • JDBC URL — e.g. jdbc:oracle:thin:@hostname:1521:DBSID
   • Username — the MDS schema user (e.g. DEV_MDS)
   • Password — stored securely in VS Code's secret storage
4. Click the connection to connect
5. Expand partitions and folders to browse, or right-click the connection and choose Search Documents

Extension Settings

Commands

All commands are accessible via the MDS Explorer tree view context menus.

JDBC URL Formats

All standard Oracle JDBC URL formats are supported:

# SID format
jdbc:oracle:thin:@hostname:1521:DBSID

# Service name (EZConnect)
jdbc:oracle:thin:@//hostname:1521/service.domain

# TNS descriptor
jdbc:oracle:thin:@(DESCRIPTION=(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=TCP)(HOST=hostname)(PORT=1521))(CONNECT_DATA=(SERVICE_NAME=service)))

Known Issues

• Documents are read-only — the extension is a viewer only; writing back to MDS is not supported
• Very large decomposed XML files (type-0 content stored in MDS_COMPONENTS) may take longer to reconstruct
• Auto-detection of Java and ojdbc paths covers JDeveloper 14c on Windows; other layouts may require manual settings

How It Works

The extension spawns a small Java helper (MdsBridge.java) as a child process, compiled on first use from your local JDK. Communication uses a simple tab-delimited, Base64-encoded line protocol over stdin/stdout. This avoids any dependency on Oracle Instant Client and works transparently with Oracle Native Network Encryption.

Following extension guidelines

Ensure that you've read through the extensions guidelines and follow the best practices for creating your extension.

• Extension Guidelines

Working with Markdown

You can author your README using Visual Studio Code. Here are some useful editor keyboard shortcuts:

• Split the editor (Cmd+\ on macOS or Ctrl+\ on Windows and Linux).
• Toggle preview (Shift+Cmd+V on macOS or Shift+Ctrl+V on Windows and Linux).
• Press Ctrl+Space (Windows, Linux, macOS) to see a list of Markdown snippets.

For more information

• Visual Studio Code's Markdown Support
• Markdown Syntax Reference

Enjoy!