Tools for writing templates

Templates are written as JSON documents. The syntax, or the schema, is easy to learn. A good way to start is examining the examples (folder examples) from the FX_Reports folder.

Using the Online-Editor

Our Online-Template-Editor serves as a comfortable way to create templates with a graphical interface.

Tip
Paste one of the examples into the JSON field to the right and click “Update Form”.

Using VS Code

With VS Code comes the option to define a schema for certain files or directories. This means we can add our schema for template files. Either we give all our templates a unique file extension or we just assign the schema to all files with a .json extension in a specific folder where we save our templates.

Configure VS Code

We need to edit the settings.json for that and there are 2 ways to open the file:

  1. Using the mouse
    • open Settings UI with ⌘ Command + , / Strg + , or via app menu
    • in Extensions/JSON/JSON: Schemas click Edit in settings.json
    • the file opens
  2. Using keyboard shortcuts
    • open commands with F1
    • search for Open Settings (JSON)
    • the file opens

Inside the outermost curly brackets, at the last position (with a comma after the preceding entry, because now comes a new one), we add the following:

"json.schemas": [
    {
        "fileMatch": [
            "examples/**/*fxrpxl.json",
            "custom/**/*fxrpxl.json"
        ],
        "url": "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/fmgarage/fx-reports/main/schema/fxrp-xl-v2-2-0.json"
    }
]

In the fileMatch array, we name the filename pattern and - when necessary - the path, where the schema should be used. The mask for the name can be choosen freely. When done, save the file.

Now, when we edit a json file matching that pattern, the valid keys and values are shown inside the doublequotes.