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Use the AWS CDK Explorer in the AWS Cloud9 integrated development environment (IDE) to visualize and work with AWS CDK applications.
Prerequisites
Install the AWS CDK command line interface. For instructions, see Getting Started with the AWS CDK in the AWS Cloud Development Kit (AWS CDK) Developer Guide.
Important
The AWS CDK version that you install must be 1.17.0 or later. You can check
which version you're running using cdk
--version command.
Visualize an AWS CDK application
Using the AWS Cloud9 IDE AWS CDK Explorer, you can manage the stacks and resources that are stored in the CDK
constructs of your apps. The AWS CDK Explorer displays your resources in a tree view using
the information that's defined in the tree.json file. This file is
created when you run the cdk synth
command. By default, the tree.json file is located in an app's
cdk.out directory.
To get started using the Toolkit AWS CDK Explorer, create a CDK application.
Complete the first several steps of the Hello World Tutorial lin the AWS CDK Developer Guide.
Important
When you reach the Deploying the Stack step, stop and return to this guide.
Note
You can run the commands that are provided in the tutorial, such as
mkdirandcdk init, on an operating system command line interface or in a Terminal window inside the VS Code editor.After you complete the required steps of the CDK tutorial, open the CDK content that you created in the AWS Cloud9 IDE editor.
In the AWS navigation pane, expand the CDK heading. Your CDK applications and their associated resources are now displayed in the CDK Explorer tree view. You can also run the following commands in a terminal within AWS Cloud9 to confirm that the CDK feature is working:
mkdir mycdkapp cd mycdkapp cdk init app --language=typescript cdk synth cdk bootstrap
Important notes
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When you load CDK apps into the AWS Cloud9 editor, you can load multiple folders at once. Each folder can contain multiple CDK apps, as shown in the preceding image. The AWS CDK Explorer finds apps in the project root directory and its direct subdirectories.
-
When you perform the first several steps of the tutorial, you might notice that the last command that you ran is
cdk synth. This command synthesizes the CloudFormation template by translating your AWS CDK app to CFN. As a by-product, it also generates thetree.jsonfile. If you make changes to a CDK app, run thecdk synthcommand again to see the changes reflected in the tree view. One example change is adding more resource to the app.
Perform other operations on an AWS CDK app
You can use the AWS Cloud9 editor to perform other operations on a CDK app in the same way that you use a command line interface. For example, you can update the code files in the editor and deploy the app by using an AWS Cloud9 Terminal window.
To try out these types of actions, use the AWS Cloud9 editor to continue the Hello World Tutorial in the AWS CDK Developer Guide. Make sure that you perform the last step, Destroying the App's Resources. Otherwise, you might incur unexpected costs to your AWS account.
