For developers, there are two main ways to be more productive. The first is to speed up your work and try to be more productive by writing more code and doing more at the same time. Smart developers choose the second option, which is to automate some repetitive and tedious tasks through plug-ins, thus saving time to do real business and achieving a relaxed and efficient pace of work.

The Cloud Toolkit, a native IDE plug-in, is designed to improve developer productivity in this second way. It helps developers develop, test, diagnose, and deploy applications more efficiently. It also enables rapid creation of Dubbo projects, and has been used by tens of thousands of developers since its launch last December. (To watch the live demo of middleware little Sister, please click)

This article takes a look at some of the new features that the latest releases of the Cloud Toolkit have brought to developers. The following is an outline of the article:

  • Core function: One-click application deployment
  • Supports Windows server deployment
  • Supports EDAS Kubernetes cluster deployment
  • Support for SSH proxies (jumpers)
  • View real-time application deployment logs
  • Quickly create open source RPC framework Dubbo project

More detailed operations can be seen at help.aliyun.com/document_de…

Core function: One-click application deployment

With a simple initial configuration, the plug-in automates building, packaging, uploading, deployment, and publishing to the cloud (ECS, EDAS, Kubernetes, etc.) and any server (Host). It not only integrates alibaba code specifications (code specifications that automatically detect entire Java projects or individual Java files), but also has built-in Arthas program diagnostics, Dubbo tools, Terminal Shell terminals, and MySQL executives.

Supports Windows server deployment

For Windows developers, the plug-in now allows you to deploy your application to a Windows server. Instead of switching between a series of o&M tools, you can quickly deploy your application by selecting a target server on the GRAPHICAL interface. The operation steps are as follows:

  1. Import your project in IntelliJ IDEA;
  2. Adding a server;
    • Select from the top menu barTools > Alibaba Cloud > Alibaba Cloud View > Host
    • Click Add Host on the Host TAB page that is displayed
    • inAdd HostIn the dialog box that is displayed, set parameters such as Host List, Username, Password, and Tag. Then clickAdd
  3. Deploy applications;
    • Right-click your Project in Project on the left side of the IntelliJ IDEA screen and choose Alibaba Cloud > Deploy to Host from the shortcut menu
    • In the Deploy to Host dialog box, set the deployment parameters and click Run

Supports EDAS Kubernetes cluster deployment

For EDAS users of Alibaba Cloud, Cloud Toolkit has realized the integration with EDAS Kubernetes cluster, so that developers can easily deploy applications directly to corresponding Kubernetes cluster in IDE. The operation steps are as follows:

  1. On IntelliJ IDEA, click the icon of Cloud Toolkit and select a value from the drop-down listDeploy to EDAS -> EDAS for Kubernetes Application;
  2. Configure application deployment parameters in the Deploy to EDAS dialog box. (If you have not created an application on EDAS, click in the upper right corner of the dialog boxCreate Application on EDAS Console...Jump to the EDAS console to create the application);
  3. Click Run. Deployment logs are displayed in the Console area of IntelliJ IDEA. You can check the deployment result based on the logs.

Support for SSH proxies (jumpers)

In a deployment scenario, some developers will encounter a dilemma like the one above: for security reasons, there is no network connection between the local development machine and the remote deployment server 192.168.0.1, and only a proxy machine (commonly known as a “jumper”) can be used to get through the network environment. In this case, the new version of Cloud Toolkit supports SSH agents to solve this dilemma. The steps are as follows:

  1. Add agent machine;
    • Click the menu:Tools - Alibaba Cloud - Alibaba Cloud View - Host
    • Click on theAdd HostButton, in the popup window, enter the IP address, user name and password of the agent machine (as shown in the figure below: 47.95.120.154 this machine is added by usThe machine P), and clickAddButton is added
  2. Add the target deployment machine; This step is exactly the same as step 1 above and will not be repeated here. Let’s add one with IP address 192.168.20.247The machine T. Notice, don’t click at this pointAddButton to go straight to step three.
  3. Set machine P as an agent for machine T; Click on the image belowAdvancedTAB page, select the newly added machine P: 47.95.120.154 from SSH Proxy and clickAddButton to complete the addition.

View real-time application deployment logs

The latest version of Cloud Toolkit has added the function of viewing real-time logs during application deployment on a remote server. This enables developers to view the deployment logs on the remote server immediately after application deployment is triggered. In this way, developers can immediately view the startup logs, including error messages during the run, and then follow up and rectify problems. The operation steps are as follows:

  1. On the application deployment configuration page, click the Advanced TAB, as shown in the following figure.
  2. Enter the Command for viewing real-time logs in Command and select Automatic open after deploy. After the configuration, the Terminal for viewing real-time logs is enabled during application deployment. The command for viewing real-time logs is as follows:
tail -f /root/act_tomcat/tomcat/logs/catalina.out -n200
Copy the code

Quickly create open source RPC framework Dubbo project

In the latest release, the ability to quickly create Dubbo projects is provided. Dubbo adopts the full Spring configuration mode to access applications transparently without any API intrusion. You only need to use Spring to load Dubbo configuration. Dubbo is loaded based on Spring’s Schema extension. If you don’t want to use Spring configuration, you can call it through the API.

The operation steps are as follows:

  1. Open IntelliJ IDEA, go to file-new-project…
  2. Select the JAVA SDK version and click Next;
  3. Enter the basic information, including the Dubbo version and Spring Boot version, as shown in the following figure.
  4. Determine to create;

As shown in the figure below, you have created a complete Dubbo project that has the same structure as the official Apache Dubbo sample project.

conclusion

There are many more features that you can install and experience. I believe there is always a feature that will hit your pain point, and I look forward to Cloud Toolkit becoming more powerful and solving more problems for more developers.

Welcome to follow my public number: program ape DD, get exclusive collate learning resources and daily dry goods push. If you’re interested in my topics, you can also follow my blog at didispace.com