AWS Toolkit for Visual Studio Code

The AWS Toolkit for Visual Studio Code is an extension that enables you to interact with certain services of Amazon Web Services (AWS) from within the Visual Studio Code editor.

The following screenshots show important parts of the Toolkit.

Fundamental UI Components

AWS Commands in the Command Palette

Contents

• Features
• Setup
• AWS Commands
• Usage
• Get Help

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Features

You can use the AWS Toolkit for Visual Studio Code as follows:

• Develop serverless applications locally, and then deploy them to an AWS account (see Usage)

• Manage certain supported AWS resources in an AWS account (see Usage).

  This includes:

  • Listing and deleting AWS CloudFormation stacks
  • Listing and invoking AWS Lambda functions

  For example:

  

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Setup

After you install the AWS Toolkit for Visual Studio Code, to access most of its features, you must complete the additional steps defined in the Getting Started topic of the AWS Toolkit for Visual Studio Code User Guide. These additional steps include the following:

1. Create an AWS account (see the Prerequisites in the user guide and also these additional details)
2. Create and configure a set of AWS credentials (see Step 1 of Managing AWS Resources)
3. Connect the Toolkit to AWS using those credentials (see Step 2 of Managing AWS Resources)

To use this Toolkit to develop serverless applications with AWS, you must also do the following on the local machine where the Toolkit is installed:

1. Install the AWS Command Line Interface (AWS CLI)
2. Install and start Docker (also see this general information about Docker)
3. Install the AWS SAM CLI

See Installing the AWS SAM CLI for complete setup instructions for these three components.

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AWS Commands

The AWS Toolkit for Visual Studio Code has several features that you can access through the Command Palette (select View, then Command Palette):

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Usage

• Managing AWS Resources
• Developing Serverless Applications

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Usage: Managing AWS Resources

Step 1: Set Up a Credentials Profile

(Note: If you already have an AWS credentials profile, skip ahead to "Step 2: Connect to an AWS Account".)

For complete instructions, see Setting Up Your AWS Credentials in the AWS Toolkit for Visual Studio Code User Guide.

In summary:

1. On the menu bar, choose View, Command Palette.
2. Begin typing: "AWS: Create Credentials Profile" and choose that command when you see it.
3. Follow the on-screen instructions to add an AWS credentials profile to your environment.

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Step 2: Connect to an AWS Account

For complete instructions, see Connect to AWS in the AWS Toolkit for Visual Studio Code User Guide .

In summary:

1. On the menu bar, choose View, Command Palette.
2. Begin typing "AWS: Connect to AWS" and choose that command when you see it.
3. In the list of AWS credentials profiles, choose the profile that you want to use.

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Step 3: Work with Available AWS Resources

For complete information, see Working with AWS Services in the AWS Toolkit for Visual Studio Code User Guide .

1. If the AWS Explorer isn't showing, open it by choosing the AWS icon in the Activity Bar:

2. If you have existing resources in your AWS account but they aren't being displayed in the AWS Explorer (and assuming that your credentials and a connection have been set up properly), choose the Refresh icon in the AWS Explorer to show them.

3. Expand the AWS Region that contains the resource that you want to manage.

   (Note: To show or hide AWS regions, choose View, Command Palette on the menu bar, and then choose AWS: Show region in the Explorer or AWS: Hide region from the Explorer.)

4. Expand the supported AWS service that contains the resource that you want to manage.

   (Note: Not all services are currently supported.)

5. If applicable, expand the parent resource that contains the child resource that you want to manage.

6. Open the context menu of the resource you want to manage and choose one of the available actions.

   (Note: Not all service actions are currently supported.)

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Usage: Developing Serverless Applications

You can use the AWS Toolkit for Visual Studio Code to create, run, debug, and deploy serverless applications.

• Create a Serverless Application
• Run or Debug a Serverless Application
• Deploy a Serverless Application

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Step 1: Create a Serverless Application

For complete instructions, see Creating a Serverless Application in the AWS Toolkit for Visual Studio Code User Guide.

In summary:

1. On the menu bar, choose View, Command Palette.

2. Begin typing "AWS: Create new SAM Application" and choose that command when you see it.

   

3. Follow the on-screen instructions to finish creating the SAM application, including:

   1. Choosing the application runtime.
   2. Selecting or creating a workspace folder for the project.
   3. Entering a name for the application

   The Toolkit produces the application code and files, adds them to the location you specified, and opens the template.yaml file in the editor.

   

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Step 2: Run or Debug the Serverless Application

For complete instructions, see Run and Debug Your Serverless Application in the AWS Toolkit for Visual Studio Code User Guide.

In summary:

1. Select the AWS icon in the Activity Bar, , to ensure that the AWS Toolkit for Visual Studio Code is running.

2. Select the Project icon in the Activity Bar, , go to the hello-world directory, and open app.js.

3. Select the Run Locally CodeLens. (Or, if needed, first select the Configure link from the Codelenses, enter event data in templates.json, save, and then select the Run Locally CodeLens.)

   

4. Note the run status and results in the OUTPUT panel.

   

Additional Information

After you choose the AWS icon in the Activity Bar, CodeLenses appear in serverless-application code files above certain functions. The functions that have these Codelenses are those that use AWS Lambda-function handler syntax. A handler is a function that Lambda calls to start execution of a Lambda function. These CodeLenses enable you to locally run or debug the corresponding serverless application. CodeLens actions in the Toolkit include:

• Configure, for specifying function configurations such as an event payload and environment variable overrides.
• Run Locally, for running the function without debugging.
• Debug Locally, for running the function with debugging.

(For general information about running and debugging in VS Code, see Debugging on the VS Code website.)

For information about how to work with remote versions of Lambda functions, see Interacting with Remote Lambda Functions in the AWS Toolkit for Visual Studio Code User Guide.

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Step 3: Deploy the Serverless Application

(Note: This procedure uses an Amazon S3 bucket in your AWS account. You can create a bucket ahead of time (see How Do I Create an S3 Bucket in the Amazon Simple Storage Service Console User Guide) or run an AWS CLI command that the Toolkit will give you during the procedure, then restart the procedure.)

For complete instructions, see Deploying a Serverless Application in the AWS Toolkit for Visual Studio Code User Guide.

In summary:

1. On the menu bar, choose View, Command Palette.

2. Begin typing "AWS: Deploy SAM Application" and choose that command when you see it.

   

3. Follow the on-screen instructions to finish deploying the serverless application, including:

   1. Choosing the SAM template file that corresponds with the serverless application you want to deploy.
   2. Choosing the AWS Region you want to deploy to.
   3. Specifying the name of an Amazon S3 bucket in the AWS account that the Toolkit will use for packaging and deploying the serverless application. The bucket must exist within the AWS Region that you chose in the previous step.
   4. Specifying a name for the AWS CloudFormation stack to which the serverless application will be deployed.

4. Note the status and results in the OUTPUT panel. The serverless application is deployed to an AWS CloudFormation stack. If the stack already exists, it is updated; otherwise, a new stack is created. Within a few minutes, the Toolkit displays a deployment success or failure message.

   

5. In the AWS Explorer, expand the AWS Region that contains the stack, then expand CloudFormation. Expand the stack that you want to manage and open the context menu of its resources.

   For example:

   

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Get Help

For additional details on how to use the AWS Toolkit for Visual Studio Code, see the user guide.

To report issues with the AWS Toolkit for Visual Studio Code or to propose Toolkit code changes, see the aws/aws-toolkit-vscode repository on GitHub.

You can also contact AWS directly.

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