[blog] Introducing VSCode IDE extension for Apache Openwhisk

As introduced in the previous introduction post for the IntelliJ Openwhisk plugin, our team(NAVER) is developing an IDE extension(aka. plugin) to write and deploy code more easily.

In this post, I'm going to introduce a VSCode extension "Devtools for Apache Openwhisk", which can be used in VSCode IDE.
This extension helps you easily write code and deploy a wskdeploy project, and manage deployed Openwhisk entities.

How to install?

You can download it in the VSCode marketplace.
Or, you can search this extension and install it in the VSCode marketplace in the IDE directly.

How to use it?

Setting the API host and authentication key

If the wsk is installed and already in use, the extension automatically find the ~/.wskprops file in the home directory and set up API host and authentication key.

You can set it using the wsk property set command.

wsk property set --apihost API_HOST --auth AUTH_KEY

Or you can add it manually in the IDE. Select the Add new endpoint menu and add your openwhisk API host.

Next, you need to add your namespace by selecting the "Add new namespace" menu in the context menu. You can add a namespace by entering the authentication key.

Starting the wskdeploy project

You can create boilerplates for wskdeploy using the Create a wskdeploy project command in the workspace.

If you have already a wskdeploy manifest file or create boilerplates wskdeploy project with the command,
it is automatically detected and can be deployed by running commands directly in the side panel. (it requires wskdeploy installation).

Managing Openwhisk entities

In the Openwhisk Explorer, you can see a list of registered Openwhisk API hosts and namespaces, as well as the deployed Openwhisk entities (Action, Package, and Trigger) in each namespace.

Invoking an action

You can invoke deployed actions directly in the VSCode. When you enter the parameters and click the invoke action button, the action is invoked with the parameters you entered and the result appears in the console window.