Autocomplete AWS CDK L1 Constructs in VS Code

Autocomplete AWS CDK L1 Constructs in VS Code

This extension adds L1 construct snippets from AWS CDK into Visual Studio Code.

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Danny Steenman
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2 min read

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I created an extension for AWS CDK that adds all available L1 constructs from AWS CDK into Visual Studio Code in the form of snippets. Basically, it will autocomplete any CloudFormation resource you specify including its properties + values.

The VS Code extension is called CDK Construct Snippets

AWS CDK Constructs Snippets VS Code Marketplace extension

For now, the VS Code extension only supports TypeScript. But if you want to help out and make it available for more programming languages, then you can help by contributing in the GitHub repository

Features

The VS Code extension contains the following features:

  1. Supports all resources that are defined by CloudFormation in the form of L1 constructs in AWS CDK
  2. Triggers autocomplete by invoking l1-<cloudformation-resource>
  3. The construct snippets are automatically updated every week after AWS updates their CloudFormation Resource Specification.
  4. Has built-in support for placeholders. This means you can quickly jump from property to property in each resource by using Tab
  5. The extension will show which property is required by adding a // required comment next to it.
  6. The autocomplete prompt shows the matching AWS CDK resource documentation URL in its description.

Usage

  • Step 1. Install this extension
  • Step 2. Start working in your AWS CDK project (TypeScript)
  • Step 3. Start adding L1 constructs in your code by using their prefix name e.g. l1-s3-bucket equals to L1 construct s3.CfnBucket

AWS CDK Construct Snippets example

Note: Once you start typing a prefix (explained in step 3), the corresponding snippet shows up in the dropdown menu. If this doesn't happen automatically, press ctrl + space to invoke IntelliSense and search for the prefix of the resource type that you want to add (as listed in step 3).

Have a look at a VS Code extension I made for AWS CloudFormation

If you're working with AWS CloudFormation, then you might be interested in my other VS Code extension that I created which adds autocomplete snippets for all the AWS CloudFormation resources for YAML templates.

https://towardsthecloud.com/autocomplete-cloudformation-resources-vs-code

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AWSVisual Studio CodeTypeScriptaws-cdkextension