Visual Studio Code for Java Developers

As a developer, I have used an Eclipse as an IDE tool, and later I started to use IntelliJ IDEA, but last year I caught myself thinking that IntelliJ IDEA became slow and heavy. It’s a reason why I decided to try to use Visual Studio Code as a primary IDE for Java/Kotlin Development.

Prerequisites

Sure, we have to install Visual Studio Code, and after we need to install list of Extensions.

• Extension Pack for Java

  Extension Pack for Java is a collection of popular extensions that can help write, test and debug Java applications.

• Gradle for Java

  Provides a visual interface for your Gradle build.

• Checkstyle for Java

  Check your Java code format and fix it!

• Kotlin Language

  Syntax support for the Kotlin programming language.

These extensions provides the minimum needed tools to be able develop using Java or Kotlin.

Spring Framework Support

Using IntelliJ IDEA we know that it’s a powerful tool for Java developers using Spring Framework. Let’s add the following extension pack to be able to support Spring in VS Code.

• Spring Boot Extension Pack

  Collection of extensions for developing and deploying Spring Boot Application.

  

That’s it! Now you can easy develop Spring Boot Applications. Using that extension you can easier to control the Beans, Endpoint Mappings, and Services that are running.

Useful Extensions

Also, I am using these extensions which provide the development process more comfortable.

• Remote - WSL

  In case, if you are using Windows WSL2 you could use workspace through Remote WSL and be able to control WSL2 file system.

• Git Graph

  View a Git Graph of your repository, and easily perform Git actions from the graph.

  

• YAML

  Provides comprehensive YAML Language support with built-in Kubernetes syntax support.

If you are using a few PC in the office and at home for instance I recommend enabling Settings Sync. It helps to synchronize all of the installed extensions between your workstations and you do not need to repeat that installation guide on each PC you are working on.

The screenshot below demonstrates the theme which I'm using which is called GitHub Theme.

p.s. I will update this post from time to time if I will find new useful extensions for Java developers.