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Autocomplete, warnings and keyboard navigation in the Method Sketch editor.

Autocomplete

Key	Action
Ctrl+Space	Open the menu
↑ ↓	Choose a suggestion
Tab	Accept the chosen suggestion, or the first one if none is chosen
Enter	Accept the chosen suggestion. With none chosen, Enter starts a new line as usual
Esc	Close the menu

The menu opens as you type. It also opens by itself where a choice comes next:

• on a new line inside a UseCase or Flow body
• after each component and each arrow of a call
• in the type slot of an Identifier or Value
• on a blank top-level line when you press Enter. Leave an empty line after the previous }; the menu opens on the second Enter.

Moving the caret with the arrow keys or the mouse never opens it.

Suggestions you picked recently are listed first.

Snippets

Block suggestions such as UseCase insert a template. The name is selected so you can type over it, and Tab moves to the next placeholder.

What is suggested where

Top level

On a blank line outside any block: StaticAspect, UseCase, Activity, Flow, DTO, DTO : Base, Doc, Identifier, Value, External, External : Facet, External:e and Section. Typing narrows the list, so Us leaves UseCase.

StaticAspect

Type the component's name, then pick its type from the menu. A capital letter narrows the list: OrderM offers Manager.

The types are Client, Manager, Engine, Access, Utility and Resource. A resource can carry a suffix:

Suggestion	Resource
Resource	relational (default)
Resource:a	API
Resource:f	file
Resource:n	NoSQL

UseCase

Caret	Suggestions
Start of an empty use case	Clients and utilities. A use case starts from one of these
After a component	->, then the components. After a manager, -:q> as well
After an arrow	The components the caller may call
Inside an arrow, between - and >	The target's facets, and the transports :a (async) and :q (queued). If the target has no facets yet, Operation() and ITarget to start one
After a facet	The facet's operations, or Operation()

A synchronous call is the default, so it has no transport suffix.

The components offered after an arrow follow the call rules:

Caller	May call
Client	Manager, Utility
Manager	Engine, Access, Utility. Another Manager only through -:a> or -:q>
Engine	Access, Utility
Access	Resource
Utility	Manager, Engine, Access, Utility

Identifier and Value

After the name, the menu offers the primitive types: bool, byte, sbyte, char, decimal, double, float, int, uint, long, ulong, short, ushort, string, Guid.

DTO

After DTO, the name slot offers the request and response types your calls use that nothing declares yet.

At the start of a property line, the menu offers the types a property can have: primitives, your Identifier, Value, DTO and External types, and Uri, DateTime, object. It stays closed while you type the property name. Add [] or <…> yourself.

After : in the header, the menu offers the possible base types:

• declared DTOs and External types
• request and response types whose name ends in Base
• the base the backend generates when one operation is called with several DTOs: {Operation}RequestBase or {Operation}ResponseBase

External

Each slot of an External line offers what fits it: the sketch's facets, and type names. Types that are used but not declared come first, marked not declared. External:e offers event facets only.

Flow

On a new line in a Flow body the menu offers lanes (@participant, plus lanes used in your other flows) and steps: task, (Start), (End), send >>, receive <<, timer <T and <decision>. Until the flow has a lane, only lanes are offered.

Type a name first and the menu offers each kind of step with that name filled in. After @ it offers lane names.

Errors and warnings

Problems are underlined as you type. Hover over one to read the message. The Issues panel lists them all, and clicking one moves the editor to it.

Message	Meaning
Syntax Error (red)	The text cannot be parsed
Component '…' has not been defined	A use case names a component that no StaticAspect declares
A manager cannot call a resource directly	Only an access can. The call is left out of the diagram
This call detail is ignored	An access reads or writes a resource directly, so an operation or transport on that call is dropped
A synchronous manager-to-manager call isn't represented	Use -:a> or -:q>
… conflicting request parameters across use cases	The same operation is written with a different number or order of parameters. Parameters are matched by position
… mixes value and reference types	See below

Mixed value and reference types

Every call to one operation must pass all value types (a primitive, Identifier or Value) or all reference types (a DTO). The same goes for its responses.

A type that nothing declares counts as a reference type, so the usual cause is a misspelt name or a missing Identifier declaration. Below, WidgetId is declared and GadgetId is not.

Strict mode

The Issues panel has a Permissive / Strict switch. Strict also warns about any DTO property, request or response type that is not defined. Permissive is the default, so an early sketch is not covered in warnings.

Navigation

All navigation keys start with Ctrl+K. On macOS Cmd works too.

Bookmarks

Keys	Action
Ctrl+K Ctrl+K	Toggle a bookmark on the current line
Ctrl+K Ctrl+N	Next bookmark
Ctrl+K Ctrl+P	Previous bookmark
Ctrl+K Ctrl+L	Clear all bookmarks

Sections

The second key needs no Ctrl.

Keys	Action
Ctrl+K ]	Next section
Ctrl+K [	Previous section
Ctrl+K .	Next block (UseCase, DTO, …) in the current section
Ctrl+K ,	Previous block in the current section

Blocks outside any section count as one group, ahead of the first section.

Selecting an item in the navigation panel also moves the editor to it.