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Code Editor

Lesson 1

You will need a code editor to manage your Terraform and Node.js code for projects. As Terraform is an Infrastructure as Code tool, all of your work in Terraform to build resources in AWS will occur in a code editor (and commands executed in the terminal). Later, you will need your code editor to work with the Serverless Framework and AWS Lambda, writing in Node.js.

Table of contents

  1. Code Editor
  2. Choose, download, and install your editor
  3. Create your first readme
  4. Next Steps

Choose, download, and install your editor

If you already have a code editor, you may continue to use it as you’d like!

If you do not have an editor, we have a couple recommendations depending on what you are looking for.

  1. WebStorm by Jetbrains - we will be using images/gifs from this code editor throughout the guide, which might help you follow along. WebStorm is a great code editor full of functionality and powerful tools. Because we are using Terraform, an Infrastructure as Code tool that is not an actual programming language, not all code editors off great code intelligence, but WebStorm does. It will make writing Terraform easy and intuitive, and we highly recommend it.

    NOTE: Webstorm is a paid code editor. It costs about $6/month.

  2. Visual Studio Code - while our images will not be in VSC (Visual Studio Code) and it doesn’t offer the same level of code intelligence, VSC is a great, light-weight code editor that has some great functionality as well and makes interacting with GitHub smooth and easy. If you are looking for something simple and free, you can go with VSC.

    Bonus: it’s FREE!

Follow the instructions for downloading and installing either one of the above (or find your own)!

Create your first readme

Now that you have your code editor installed, let’s go ahead and write your first readme.

  1. Open up your code editor and create a new file called readme.md. This creates a markdown file (hence the extension .md), which is just a way to format documents that are easy to read for other developers who want to use your work. We’ll be adding to this file throughout the guide.

  2. Paste the following into the file and save it:

     # Terraform Load-Balanced WordPress Site
    • What you just pasted is the title of your first project in Terraform! While you are still a ways off from completing it, this will serve as the basis for your readme file you’ll eventually need (don’t worry if you don’t understand this yet–you will)!
  3. In most code editors, there is an option to view markdown files in a side-by-side view, so that you can see what it will look like outside of your code editor. You can google name of your code editor side-by-side markdown view and something should pull up that directs you to the right button.

markdownbutton

Next Steps

You’re good to go! Head to the next section: Terminal