Cloudsmith Consulting LLC

Welcome to the CloudSmith CDS For Code Extension

This extension is designed to help developers with a simple development loop for Microsoft™ Common Data Service (CDS) using Visual Studio Code. Many developers do not have access to a full Visual Studio license in order to use Microsoft™ CDS Development Toolkit. This extension is designed to get you started.

Version	Link
Release Version:	0.8.14
Development Version:	0.9.0

Welcome to the CloudSmith CDS For Code Extension

Prerequisites

All pre-requisites are downloaded automatically when the extension first runs or upon update. Speciifcally, the following pre-requisites are downloaded:

Microsoft Dynamics 365 SDK (latest version) obtained from NuGet
PowerShell scripts that support deployment tasks
Assembly Scanner tool that supports plugin registration
CrmSvcUtil extensions that support custom code generation using CrmSvcUtil
Templates that are used by the extension

Getting started

Adding a connection

This extension allows you to connect to CDS/Dynamics instances in the following ways:

Microsoft™ Common Data Service (CDS) Online - also called Microsoft Dynamics 365 online
Dynamics CRM On-Premises (8.0, 8.1) or Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement (8.2, 9.0)
Azure AD hosted/integrated into an On-Premises installation

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Features

This VS Code extension will help you perform these tasks in your CDS development loop.

[X] Connect to CDS & On-Premise environments (8.0+)
[X] View and inspect metadata on each server connection
[X] Package and deploy CDS solutions from server into version control
[X] Package and deploy CDS solution from version control into server
[X] Generate entities using CrmSvcUtil
[X] Customize the CrmSvcUtil experience (coming soon)
[X] Author web resources with VSCode
[X] Put CDS solution assets into version control
[x] Build and deploy plugins using VSCode
[x] Deploy assets into solution using pre-made templates

For a more comprehensive walkthrough of features you can check out our How To articles on the following topics:

Commands

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Commands and Descriptions

Command	Description
Add component to a CDS Solution	Adds a selected component to your connected CDS solution
Compare a local web resource file to a version deployed on a CDS instance	Compares your local copy of a web resource to the one currently deployed in your CDS solution
Create or Edit a connection to the Common Data Service	Add a connection to a CDS instance
Create a web resource in your workspace or on a CDS instance	Create a web resource in your local workspace
Create a process on a CDS instance	Create a process on a CDS instance
Build a .Net Core project in the current workspace	Builds your .NET Core project inside the CDS for Code Secure Terminal
Build and Test a .Net Core project in the current workspace	Builds and runs tests for your .NET Core project inside the CDS for Code Secure Terminal
Deploy a Web Resource to CDS	Deploy a local web resource to a connected CDS instance
Publish solution changes on a CDS environment	Executes the Publish Changes command against a connected CDS instance
Register or update a plugin assembly	Registers a plugin step for you plugin assembly on a connected CDS instance
Remove a component from a CDS Solution	Removes a selected component from your connected CDS solution
Remove remembered locations where CDS solutions are stored in this workspace	Removes the mappings from connected CDS solutions to local workspace folders
Download a Web Resource from CDS	Download a copy of a web resource from a connected CDS solution to you local workspace
Create or update where CDS solutions are stored in this workspace	Create or update mappings from connected CDS solutions to local folders and workspaces
Clear the CDS for Code terminal	Clear the screen of the CDS for Code Secure Terminal
Open the CDS for Code terminal	Open or view the CDS for Code Secure Terminal
Download required PowerShell scripts from GitHub	Download the supporting PowerShell scripts necessary for functionality in the CDS for Code extension
Download & unpack solution from a registered CDS environment	Get the contents of a solutions from a connected CDS instance and put it inside of a local workspace for editing
Pack & deploy solution to a registerd CDS environment	Packages up local changes to a CDS solution and deploys them to a connected CDS instance
Configure entity code generation for use with CrmSvcUtil.exe	Configure options for code generation based on the CloudSmith CrmSvcUtil Extensions
Generate entity code from metadata on a registered CDS environment	Generates entity code using the CDS for Code Secure Terminal with a call to CrmSvcUtil
Create new items or projects from a template	Create a new item or project from an existing template within the template catalog
Delete a template from the catalog	Deletes a template from the template catalog
Open template catalog in code editor	Opens the template catalog inside of the VSCode editor
Export template from the template catalog	Exports a template from the template catalog for sharing
Import template into the template catalog	Imports a template into the template catalog
Open template folder in explorer	Opens the template catalog folder in Windows Explorer
Save workspace items as a template in the template catalog	Save a file or project in the current workspace as a template to the template catalog

Settings

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Settings and Descriptions

Setting	Description	Default
cs.cds.configuration.connection.defaultTimeout	The default timeout in seconds for connections to CDS (requires reload)	30
cs.cds.configuration.connection.importExportTimeout	The default timeout in seconds for import/export operations (requires reload)	120
cs.cds.configuration.web.usePowerAppsUi	Use the PowerApps Maker UX where possible	true
cs.cds.configuration.tools.sdkInstallPath	The full path to the root of the Dynamics 365/CDS SDK installation on your computer	C:\Deploy\Tools
cs.cds.configuration.tools.updateSource	The URL where supporting scripts are located	https://gihub.com/CloudSmithConsulting/cds-for-code/releases/download/
cs.cds.configuration.tools.updateChannel	The update channel to use when downloading new versions of this extension	stable
cs.cds.configuration.iconThemes.selectedTheme	The icon set to use in the CDS Explorer view	default
cs.cds.configuration.explorer.showDefaultSolution	Show the Default Solution in the CDS Explorer view	false
cs.cds.configuration.explorer.showWelcomeExperience	Show the welcome experience for this extension	true
cs.cds.configuration.templates.placeholders	List of built in placeholders, in key-value string pairs	default
cs.cds.configuration.templates.placeholderRegExp	Regular expression for detecting placeholders (e.g. "#{([\s\S]+?)}"). The first capture group dictates the placeholder key	#{([\s\S]+?)}
cs.cds.configuration.templates.templatesDirectory	Filesystem path that stores templates
cs.cds.configuration.templates.treeViewGroupPreference	Preference for grouping templates in the Template Explorer	Publisher
cs.cds.configuration.templates.usePlaceholders	Look for and replace placeholders in template (e.g. #{author})	true

Known Issues

We are currently on the insider preview program of CDS for Code. This build may come with instabilities, and will improve over the duration of the preview program. We thank our participants and hope they will submit their feedback to us.

Change Log

You can stay up to date with the latest changes by checking out our change log located here.

Contributors

All of this could not be possible without community projects and our preview program participants. You can read more about our contributors here

Feedback

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CDS for Code

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