Development

The extension is written in TypeScript and bundled with esbuild. It has two completely separate runtimes — the extension host (Node.js, src/) and the webview (browser IIFE, webview/) — that communicate only via postMessage.

Build & test

Clone the repository and install dependencies with npm install, then:

npm run compile      # dev build — bundle extension (dist/) and webview (media/)
npm run watch        # rebuild on change
npm run package      # production build (minified, no source maps)
npm test             # parser unit tests (node:test) against repo fixtures
npm run typecheck    # tsc --noEmit

esbuild owns all emit

tsc is only for type-checking and test compilation. Do not run tsc to build the extension.

Press F5 in VS Code to launch an Extension Development Host, then open any .mdpa file (for example the fixtures under example/).

To run a single test file:

npm run build:tests && node --test out/test/mdpaParser.test.js

Source layout

Path	Purpose
src/extension.ts	Activation, command + custom-editor registration
src/mdpaEditorProvider.ts	Custom editor for .mdpa: parses the document, hosts the webview
src/vtkEditorProvider.ts	Custom editor for .vtk: discovers sibling files, manages timeline, merges subparts
src/parser/	mdpaParser, vtkLegacyParser (ASCII VTK → MdpaModel), vtkFileGroup (filename grammar → timeline tree), geometryMap, meshQuality, isoSurface, types
webview/	main.ts (VTK scene), meshBuilder.ts, outline.ts, timeline.ts (VTK playback bar), qualityPanel.ts, fieldPanel.ts, fieldData.ts, fieldRender.ts, quiver.ts, colormaps.ts, orientationCube.ts (cube + axis arrows), navControls.ts (orbit/pan/zoom/fit/center panel), gridAxes.ts, style.css
syntaxes/	TextMate grammar for highlighting

The Kratos type name → VTK cell-type table mirrors the core kratos/input_output/vtk_definition.cpp and kratos/sources/kratos_application.cpp.

Build outputs

Path	Contents
dist/extension.js	Extension host bundle (CJS, Node 18 target)
media/webview.js	Webview bundle (IIFE, ES2021, browser)
media/style.css	Copied from webview/style.css by an esbuild plugin

media/ is the only allowed localResourceRoots for the webview.

Contributing

Issues and pull requests are welcome on GitHub. The extension is released under the GNU AGPL-3.0-or-later (it bundles the AGPL-3.0 Flowgraph editor).