Share My Creation VS Code Extension for B4X development

Hi Everyone,

As promised, I have just published my b4x extension in VS code marketplace for everyone, and make my extension project MIT license and public my repo for anyone who want to alter it for their own use. Below is the project's GitHub page: B4X-Language-Support; also, you can find the extension on the VS code marketplace as well. The name is B4X-VSCODE; alternatively, you can also download the attachment here, it is the read-to-use extension file v0.1.0.

Please feel free to try it out, and let me know your thought. If you find any bugs, feel free to let me know as well, always happy to make my own project better. This is my first open source project, so please go gentle on me.

The features on the extension are still limited; but for light programming on the go, I am kind of happy. But I am constantly maintaining the project to make it more feature-rich as well; so stay tune.

 

[jtare]

This is awesome! I'm curious on how does the work flow goes, you code on vs-code and then open the b4x IDE to compile, read logs, use the designer?

I wonder if would be possible to run a NON UI B4X so maybe you can fully work on vs-code, or my case, Cursor.

Edit: I was literally thinking if this was possible to do last week

 

[jtare]

Unfortunately is not compatible with my version of Cursor, or maybe any version of Cursor.

Edit: Got it to work by modifying the package.json, also added b4a, b4i and b4j file extensions

 

[Jansen611]

This is awesome! I'm curious on how does the work flow goes, you code on vs-code and then open the b4x IDE to compile, read logs, use the designer?

I wonder if would be possible to run a NON UI B4X so maybe you can fully work on vs-code, or my case, Cursor.

Edit: I was literally thinking if this was possible to do last week

I am using the an extension call "code runner" to do compiling and sending release app to Android device over wifi using the tools built by Erel, B4ABuilder and BridgeCLI. If you do a search in the forum, you can find example on how to use them.

 

[Jansen611]

Unfortunately is not compatible with my version of Cursor, or maybe any version of Cursor.

Edit: Got it to work by modifying the package.json, also added b4a, b4i and b4j file extensions

Good to know. I haven't really do any testing on curser; as I am using viscose + continue combo for the AI needs. But I have been hearing story about how great Cursor is. Do you mind let me know what you have change to make it curser compatible? I can add those changes in as well so people can use it for their curser environment.

 

[jtare]

Good to know. I haven't really do any testing on curser; as I am using viscose + continue combo for the AI needs. But I have been hearing story about how great Cursor is. Do you mind let me know what you have change to make it curser compatible? I can add those changes in as well so people can use it for their curser environment.

It was a version issue. Latest version of Cursor is based on vs-code 1.96.2 and the B4X extension you created requieres minimum vs-code 1.97.0, so by just changing that it was accepted and works fine. Other than I added .b4a, .b4i and .b4j file extensions to be recognized and added some rules to correctly highlight "wait for" and the "#if", "#end if", "#region", etc. lines that are unique to the B4X IDE.

 

[Jansen611]

Just FYI everyone, the latest version v0.1.4 is now available in the public repo. Feel free to try it out, and I hope you would find it useful.

I have added support to some B4X base classes/methods and fixed some bugs thanks to @jtare.

If you found any bugs to would like to have any changes implemented. Please let me know here or submits an issue in the GitHub issue page in the repo. Thank you.

 

[Mashiane]

Hey VSCode Master

Thank you so much for coming back and maintaining this. I see 2 weeks ago you pushed the best updates. I'm so glad because people are looking for these features. All us fellow b4xers have been granted our wishes.

Extracted from the ReadMe...

GitHub - Jansen611/b4x-language-support: An opensource VS Code Extension for B4X Language

An opensource VS Code Extension for B4X Language. Contribute to Jansen611/b4x-language-support development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

Visual Layout Designer & Language Server​

• Features:
  • Visual Layout Designer with drag-and-drop support for .bjl/.bal files
  • Property grid panel for editing view properties
  • Multi-screen variant support
  • Custom view library loader
  • Layout scripting engine
  • JSON schema validation for layout files
  • Code completion, hover, go-to-definition, and signature help
  • Syntax highlighting for B4X (B4A/B4i/B4J) .bas files
  • Code snippets for common B4X structures
  • CLI tools for layout file conversion (to-json/from-json)

Brilliant Stuff - congratulations. Love this!

Kind Regards

Mashy

PS: Guys, I vibe coded my extension as you know!!! you ask this guy here!!!! ha ha ha

His b4x last seen is June 2025 though... , this exodus eish...

Thank you so much for sharing your work so that people like me can also learn.

 

[byz]

Does it support inline Java syntax highlighting? If it does, I would be happy to contribute.

 

[Mashiane]

Does it support inline Java syntax highlighting? If it does, I would be happy to contribute.

As the OP was last seen here in June 2025, perhaps raise the issue via Github, as he updated that 2 weeks ago.

Im not sure about java, but it does not seem so. I could be wrong. I am still checking it out and will also be updating the one I made by next week.

 

[byz]

As the OP was last seen here in June 2025, perhaps raise the issue via Github, as he updated that 2 weeks ago.

Im not sure about java, but it does not seem so. I could be wrong. I am still checking it out and will also be updating the one I made by next week.

great

 

[Jansen611]

Hi Erel,

I maintain B4X Language Support - VS Code extension that provides syntax highlighting, autocompletion. And more recently added a visual layout designer for B4X. Currently it supports .bal (B4A) and .bjl (B4J) only.

I intentionally excluded .bil support because B4I is not an open source application from anywhere software, and the binary format was not publicly documented — I didn't want to overstep.

But I noticed that in the forum, you've released JsonLayouts in this thread, which I believed you now officially exposes all three layout formats (.bal, .bil, .bjl) to JSON, I'd like to ask: would you be okay with me adding .bil support to the designer?

Happy to respect your decision either way. Thanks for building B4X.

Best, Jansen

 

[Jansen611]

Hey VSCode Master

Thank you so much for coming back and maintaining this. I see 2 weeks ago you pushed the best updates. I'm so glad because people are looking for these features. All us fellow b4xers have been granted our wishes.

Extracted from the ReadMe...

GitHub - Jansen611/b4x-language-support: An opensource VS Code Extension for B4X Language

An opensource VS Code Extension for B4X Language. Contribute to Jansen611/b4x-language-support development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

Visual Layout Designer & Language Server​

• Features:
  • Visual Layout Designer with drag-and-drop support for .bjl/.bal files
  • Property grid panel for editing view properties
  • Multi-screen variant support
  • Custom view library loader
  • Layout scripting engine
  • JSON schema validation for layout files
  • Code completion, hover, go-to-definition, and signature help
  • Syntax highlighting for B4X (B4A/B4i/B4J) .bas files
  • Code snippets for common B4X structures
  • CLI tools for layout file conversion (to-json/from-json)

Brilliant Stuff - congratulations. Love this!

Kind Regards

Mashy

PS: Guys, I vibe coded my extension as you know!!! you ask this guy here!!!! ha ha ha

His b4x last seen is June 2025 though... , this exodus eish...

Thank you so much for sharing your work so that people like me can also learn.

Sorry, mate. Wasn’t very active in maintaining the project, will look into it more often. Thanks for the likes.