Data Factory Extension

The Product-Live VS Code extension is the main development tool for creating, validating, and packaging Data Factory jobs. It provides real-time diagnostics, autocompletion, XSLT transformation capabilities, and a visual workflow editor directly within VS Code.

Installation

Requirements

• Visual Studio Code installed.
• Java (64 bits) installed (required for XSLT transformations).

1. Open VS Code and go to the Extensions panel (Ctrl+Shift+X).
2. Search for Product-Live and install the extension, or install it directly from the Visual Studio Marketplace.

Commands

The extension provides the following commands, accessible via the Command Palette (Ctrl+Shift+P) or the context menu:

Command	Shortcut	Description
Create Job		Creates a new job from a template in the selected folder. Generates a job.json file along with the standard job structure (assets/, tests/, .jobignore, CHANGELOG.md, README.md).
Package Job	Ctrl+Alt+P (Cmd+Alt+P on Mac)	Packages the current job folder into a ZIP archive ready to be uploaded to Product-Live. Files listed in .jobignore are excluded from the archive. Works from the context menu or directly from the keyboard when a job.json file is open.
Run XSLT/XSD	Ctrl+Enter (Cmd+Enter on Mac)	Runs the XSLT transformation or XSD validation configured in the status bar.
Visualize Workflow		Opens an interactive visual representation of the job workflow.

Customizing keyboard shortcuts

VS Code lets you change any keyboard shortcut, including those provided by the Product-Live extension.

1. Open File > Preferences > Keyboard Shortcuts (or press Ctrl+K Ctrl+S, on Mac Cmd+K Cmd+S).
2. In the search bar at the top, type the command title (e.g. Package Job) or its identifier (e.g. extension.packageJob).
3. Hover the matching row and click the pencil icon on the left.
4. Press the new key combination, then press Enter to confirm.

To remove a shortcut, right-click the row and select Remove Keybinding.

To restore the default, right-click the row and select Reset Keybinding.

Features

Real-time Validation

The extension continuously validates your job.json files against the Data Factory schema. Errors, warnings, and suggestions are displayed directly in the VS Code Problems panel, enabling you to catch configuration issues before packaging.

The validation engine covers 65+ task types and checks:

• Required and optional task parameters
• Parameter types and allowed values
• Task reference name uniqueness
• File path references within assets

Autocompletion

Press Ctrl+Space inside a job.json file to get context-aware autocompletion for:

• Task types and their parameters
• Job properties (schema, key, title, icon, etc.)
• Allowed enum values (icons, task types, protocols, etc.)

Inline Task Documentation

When hovering over a task name or parameter in your job.json, the extension displays inline documentation describing the task behavior, expected input parameters, and output parameters.

This feature can be toggled via the productlive.inlineTaskDocumentation setting.

Code Lenses

The extension adds clickable links above tasks in your job.json that open the corresponding documentation page on learn.product-live.com, enabling you to quickly access detailed task reference documentation.

Code Actions

Quick-fix actions are available for common issues detected by the validation engine. When the editor highlights an error, click on the light bulb icon or press Ctrl+. to see available fixes.

XSLT Transformation

The extension includes a built-in XSLT engine, allowing you to apply XSLT transformations to XML files directly within VS Code.

• Use the status bar controls to select input, XSLT, and output files.
• Press Ctrl+Enter (Cmd+Enter on Mac) to run the transformation.
• Choose the output format: XML, JSON, or XSLT.
• View the transformation result and a detailed performance report (duration, CPU/memory usage) in the Output panel.
• XSD validation is also supported for validating your XML files against Data Factory schemas.

Job Status Tree View

A dedicated tree view in the VS Code Explorer sidebar displays the status of your jobs. It provides a quick overview of your job structure and allows you to navigate between job files.

Workflow Visualization

The Visualize Workflow command opens an interactive canvas that renders your job structure as a visual graph.

• Task nodes display the task type, description, and reference name.
• Control flow structures (loops, switches, forks) are visually represented with dedicated node styles.
• Click on a task to open a detail panel showing its input parameters and output parameters.
• Navigate to source by clicking on a task node to jump to its definition in the job.json file.

.jobignore Support

The extension supports .jobignore files that specify which files and folders should be excluded when packaging a job into a ZIP archive. This works similarly to .gitignore files.

When packaging a job without a .jobignore file, the extension will prompt you to create one (configurable via settings).

Default .jobignore content:

*.job.zip
.jobignore
assets/TESTS/*

Example — excluding additional files:

*.job.zip
.jobignore
assets/TESTS/*
*.log
*.tmp
documentation/*

Each line is a glob pattern. Matching files are excluded from the ZIP archive produced by the Package Job command. The node_modules directory is always excluded automatically.

TIP

The extension uses the .job.zip extension for packaged files (e.g., my_job.job.zip). This ensures that regular .zip files in your assets/ folder are not excluded by the .jobignore pattern.

Package Naming Strategy

You can configure how the packaged ZIP file is named via the productlive.packageNaming setting:

Strategy	Example	Behavior
key-timestamp (default)	my_job-2026_04_28T14_30_00.job.zip	Each package creates a new file with a unique timestamp
key	my_job.job.zip	Overwrites the previous package
key-date	my_job-2026-04-28.job.zip	One package per day, overwrites within the same day

Settings

Setting	Type	Default	Description
productlive.jobIgnore	boolean	true	When packaging a job, enforce the presence of a .jobignore file if it doesn't exist.
productlive.jobIgnoreForce	boolean	false	Auto-accept .jobignore creation when packaging a job if it doesn't exist.
productlive.inlineTaskDocumentation	boolean	true	Enable the display of task documentation inside the editor.
productlive.packageNaming	string	key-timestamp	Naming strategy for packaged job ZIP files. Options: key-timestamp, key, key-date.

Next

• Get started with your first Data Factory job.
• Learn about XSLT, XPath, and XSD transformations.
• Explore the full task reference.