Pabulib (.pb)

Extension for Visual Studio Code · version 1.1.0 · Marketplace ID DominikPeters.pabulib-pb

Language support for the .pb file format used by Pabulib, the library of participatory budgeting elections: syntax highlighting, validation, completions, hover information, navigation and quick fixes.

Install from the VS Code Marketplace Source code on GitHub Report an issue

A .pb file with syntax highlighting for META, PROJECTS and VOTES

The .pb format

A .pb file stores a participatory budgeting election in three semicolon-separated sections: META (description, budget, vote type and so on), PROJECTS (ids, costs, names, categories) and VOTES (what each voter selected). The full specification is on pabulib.org.

META
key;value
description;Municipal PB in Example City
num_projects;3
num_votes;5
budget;100000
vote_type;approval

PROJECTS
project_id;cost;name;category
1;30000;New Park;environment
2;50000;Road Repair;infrastructure
3;25000;Library Books;education

VOTES
voter_id;vote
v1;1,2
v2;2,3

What it does

Validation

Diagnostics appear as you type. The extension checks, among other things, for missing required META fields, wrong value types, num_projects and num_votes that disagree with the data, invalid vote types, rules and dates, duplicate or unknown project ids, votes that violate length or point limits, and projects that cost more than the total budget.

A diagnostic reporting that num_votes does not match the number of votes, with a quick fix

Completions

Suggestions for META field names (with descriptions), valid values for vote_type and rule, project ids when entering votes, and categories and targets already used in the file.

Completion list for the vote_type value

Hover information

Hover over a META key to see its description and valid values, over the budget to see what share of the total project cost it covers, over a category to see the other projects in it, and over a project id in a vote to see its name, cost, categories and vote count.

Hover showing other projects that share a category

Navigation and quick fixes

Go to Definition (Ctrl/Cmd-click) jumps from a project id in a vote to its definition; Find All References lists the votes for a project; Rename Symbol (F2) renames a project id across the file.
Quick fixes (lightbulb or Ctrl/Cmd+.) update num_projects or num_votes to the real counts, add missing META fields, and sort projects by votes, cost or id.
The Outline panel shows the three sections with summary statistics, and each section can be folded separately.

Folded META, PROJECTS and VOTES sections

How to use it

Install the extension and open any file with the .pb extension; highlighting and checks start automatically and there is nothing to configure.

Privacy, license and source

The extension works on the open file only and does not send data anywhere. It is MIT licensed; the source code and issue tracker are on GitHub.