JetBrains CodeCanvas 2024.2 Help

IDE and IDE Components

CodeCanvas lets you flexibly configure the IDE for user dev environments. You can specify the IDE and its version, the plugins that will be installed, and the VM options that will be used to run the IDE.

IDE and IDE version

You can specify the IDE and its version when creating a dev environment template. If you specify Default as the IDE version, dev environments will use the version set by the system administrator. By default, the Default version means the latest release version. Learn more

In an already existing dev environment template, you can change the IDE version but not the IDE itself.

Change IDE version

VM options

In some cases, you might need to change the configuration of Java Virtual Machine (JVM) your IntelliJ-based IDE runs on. For example, increase the maximum memory heap size allocated for the IDE.

To configure VM options, use the Advanced | VM options section of the dev environment template. Specify one option per line. For example:

-Xms2048m -Xmx4096m

Configure IDE settings (IntelliJ-based IDEs)

There are two types of settings in IntelliJ-based IDEs: project settings and personal settings.

Project settings

The .idea directory in the project directory contains project settings like the list of modules, run configurations, file encodings, and others. As this directory is stored in the source code, your project settings will be automatically applied to the IDE in a dev environment.

Personal settings

Personal IDE settings include the IDE theme, keymap, code style, and others. We recommend that developers apply the personal settings themselves using the Settings Sync feature of the IDE. Learn more

Pre-install IDE plugins (IntelliJ-based IDEs)

You can pre-install plugins in IntelliJ-based IDEs (like IntelliJ IDEA, PyCharm, WebStorm, and others) using the IDE plugins section of the dev environment template. CodeCanvas downloads and installs plugins from JetBrains Marketplace.

Plugin and IDE compatibility

CodeCanvas always installs the latest version of the plugin compatible with the IDE version. If the plugin is not compatible with the IDE (e.g., the plugin is not yet updated to support the latest IDE version), CodeCanvas won't install the plugin.

Plugin location

IDE plugins are stored on a dev environment in /mnt/jetbrains/system/ide-plugins (outside the IDE installation directory). If you need to install a plugin that is not available in JetBrains Marketplace, you can upload it to this directory using the On initialization lifecycle script.

Install plugins

  1. In JetBrains Marketplace, find the plugin you need.

  2. On the plugin page, go to the Additional Information section and copy the plugin ID.

    Plugin ID
  3. In CodeCanvas, open the Project settings section of the dev environment template.

  4. In the IDE plugins section, specify the plugin ID. To install multiple plugins, use the Add plugin button.

(Optional) Install plugins via lifecycle script

Alternatively, you can install plugins using the CodeCanvas's system tool – remote-dev-server.sh. To do this, create a script that installs the plugins, e.g.:

#!/bin/sh $CANVAS_IDE_HOME/bin/remote-dev-server.sh installPlugins IdeaVIM

Then, use it as the On initialization script in Startup performance | Lifecycle scripts.

Last modified: 18 September 2024