Want to reduce back-and-forth between AWS console and Intellij? (Curated list of plugins)
Note: you’ll get more value by watching the video than reading the blog post as the content is better explained with a live demo.
Productivity nerds like me want to focus on the coding task at hand. We don’t want to be switching from AWS console to IDE constantly for trivial matter. Our time is too valuable for that.
In this video, I’m going to talk about 4 plugins that I found to work well for me. You will also see some productivity tips along the way.
AWS CloudFormation
AWS CloudFormation — plugin for IntelliJ IDEs | JetBrains
There’s another one with a similar name but this is the one that I’m referring to.
Few features to look out for:
- Template validation: create a resource with duplicate key
- Ctrl+f12: then type something to quicly navigate to any place
- Completes resource types
- Completes resource properties: in bucket
- Combine with new intellij feature: hover to see documentation:
Aws toolkit
AWS Toolkit — plugin for IntelliJ IDEs | JetBrains
This one is from the AWS team and it has a few deeper integrations with their services.
Starter projects
Template for new projects available.
AWS Explorer
The second major feature of this plugin is the explorer.
Lambda
You can update function code and configuration.
run configuration
You can also run your serverless functions directly.
Cloudformation
Get stack status for it, see how deployment is going on, or what resources have been created.
This is much more convenient than looking at it in the cloudformation console.
Logs
The default cloudwatch logs is cumbersome to work, especially when there are long build output.
This is a better alternative.
ECS
You can also remotely debug containers running in ECS.
Since it’s not serverless, I don’t want to spend much time on it on this channel. Check the following post if you want to learn about it:
S3
You can do some basic actions on objects like download, rename, etc.
Typeformation
Typeformation — plugin for IntelliJ IDEs | JetBrains
This one is written by me and it’s essentially a bunch of live templates to allow typing resources faster.
I already have 2 videos on this channel. Feel free to check them out for more examples:
Typeformation: Type Cloudformation templates with pleasure!
Although it’s useful in the current state, I don’t have time to maintain it. If you have live templates that are useful, feel free to save it and send it on github and I will add it to the project.
cfn-lint
cfn-lint — plugin for IntelliJ IDEs
This plugin is useful in the sense that it quickly shows obvious errors but it also guides you toward good practices as well.
Note that for this to work, you must have cfn-lint on your PATH. Get it here:
Final note
I hinted about changing lambda code or configuration in your IDE. That’s fine if you’re experimenting, If you’re going to do that, I recommend that you make it automatable by putting these in your cloudformation template as soon as possible. Otherwise, an automated tool like cfnbuddy will show you exactly how to correct your template so that your template matches what you deployed. It will send you a pull request to show you exactly what changed in your resources.
For example, if I changed a role, I’d then receive a pull request that includes a diff like this:
You could copy the changed resource and paste it into your actual template.
That’s about it for this video. In upcoming videos, I’ll keep on sharing more productivity tips like these. So, if you like this video, hit the subscribe button. I’ll be back with a new video in a few days.
Originally posted https://www.lambdatv.com/intellij-plugins
