Documentation panel
The 1C:Element help inside the editor: the contents tree, full-text search, the page for the symbol under the cursor and the jumps from the designer - all built from your own platform distribution.
The extension shows the platform help inside the editor - as its own Documentation (1C:Element) container in the activity bar. It is the same reference as on the documentation site, but built from your own 1C:Element distribution: it matches the platform version you actually use and works offline.
What is inside
- The “Contents” tree - a curated table of contents matching the site: the developer guide,
the administrator guide, the language types (
Std,Std::Collections→Array, …) and the query language. Sections inside a page (Type hierarchy,Examples,Literals) are nested under its node, so a click lands on the right spot straight away. - The page opens as an editor tab beside the current one and does not steal the focus: the article’s code, tables and images, a Copy button on samples, and a Primary source link to the same page on the site. Internal links open other pages in the same tab, and the “Contents” tree follows the page you open.
- Search (the button in the tree header, the XBSL: search the documentation command) is full-text across the whole reference and both guides; picking a hit opens the page.
How you get here
The panel is the single “what is this thing” answer for the whole extension:
| From | What happens |
|---|---|
Hovering a name in .xbsl |
the hover shows the type description and a Documentation link - a click opens the page |
| Editor context menu, XBSL: documentation for symbol | the page of the type under the cursor; for a method or an ambiguous name - a list of candidates |
| The designer Palette, Open documentation | the page of the component you are about to insert (a short description also rides in the palette item’s tooltip) |
| The “Contents” tree and search | plain navigation through the reference |
For an ambiguous name the candidates are ranked by the receiver before the dot:
ScheduledJob.Configure prefers the scheduled job pages over a guide topic of the same name.
What you need
- LSP mode (
pip install "xbsl[lsp]"): the server holds the documentation database, the extension only asks and displays. - The documentation dataset built from your 1C:Element distribution - see Language data.
Without the data the panel does not fail - it reports that the documentation is unavailable, and the rest of the extension keeps working.
For scripts and agents
The same reference is available outside the editor:
- MCP -
docs_search(full-text search),docs_page(an article by id),docs_symbol(the page for a type or member name). This is how an AI agent verifies the platform API without going online. - LSP - the
xbsl/docsAvailable,xbsl/docsSearch,xbsl/docsPage,xbsl/docsTreeandxbsl/hoverDocrequests: any LSP-capable editor can build its own panel on top of them.
Related
- Visual form designer - the palette and the properties panel that link here.
- VS Code extension - everything else the extension does.