MetaEd is a technology framework that uses an Ed-Fi-aligned domain specific language (DSL) to auto-generate software, database, and Ed-Fi Data Standard artifacts.
The Visual Studio extension supports MetaEd development by providing:
- Linting (detecting and flagging errors)
- Running the MetaEd build process
- Running the MetaEd deploy process
This application can be used by both the core Ed-Fi Data Standard team as well as all community members who are developing extensions.
The build and deploy actions can be triggered by the buttons at the upper-right of an open editor tab. Build output will go to a MetaEdOutput folder at the root of the last folder in the workspace. Any issues with the build will appear as notifications on the lower-right corner.
The MetaEd IDE comes bundled with all supported Ed-Fi Data Standard versions. They are stored along with this Visual Studio Code extension. You must have a single data standard project in your Visual Studio Code workspace to use the MetaEd IDE.
A shortcut to finding the location of the Data Standard projects is to trigger a build without one, either from the upper-right button on an editor tab or via the Command Palette. Hit Ctrl-Shift-P, start typing "metaed" and select "MetaEd:Build". This will of course fail, but the error notification in the lower right will include the file system path of the bundled Data Standard projects.
The IDE settings include a dropdown for selecting the target ODS/API version. MetaEd will indicate if there is an ODS/API version and Data Standard model mismatch in a lower-right notification. The notification will include the bundled location of the correct Data Standard model.
Open File -> Preferences -> Settings and search on "metaed" to find these settings:
- Target Ods Api Version: The target Ed-Fi ODS/API version.
- Ods Api Deployment Directory: Full path to root folder for the Ed-Fi ODS/API source code. The folder this points to should contain Ed-Fi-ODS and Ed-Fi-ODS-Implementation folders.
- Suppress Delete on Deploy: Stop deployment from deleting the SupportingArtifacts API folder. For advanced users only.
- Telemetry Consent: Select whether you are willing to submit anonymous usage information to the Ed-Fi Alliance servers. Broadly, we send things like performance metrics and exceptions, allowing us to more easily triage any bugs encountered in the field.
- Accepted License: Usage of the MetaEd IDE requires acceptance of the Ed-Fi License agreement. Check the box to accept the license terms.
- Alliance Mode: For Alliance users only, this makes core files editable. Non-Alliance users must leave this setting disabled to avoid dangerous and costly mistakes.
Please report support issues in Ed-Fi Tracker.
"Big" integer support, Drops Data Standard 2.x support.
Includes missing plugins for changequery functionality.
Supports MetaEd 4.0; first version on Visual Studio Code. For more details, see What's New in Tech Docs.
Copyright © 2023, Ed-Fi Alliance, LLC.
Please see LICENSE.md for full details of the Ed-Fi License Agreement.