Use AWS Cloud9 with AWS CodeStar

You can use AWS Cloud9 to make code changes and develop software in an AWS CodeStar project. AWS Cloud9 is an online IDE, which you access through your web browser. The IDE offers a rich code editing experience with support for several programming languages and runtime debuggers, as well as a built-in terminal. In the background, an Amazon EC2 instance hosts an AWS Cloud9 development environment. This environment provides the AWS Cloud9 IDE and access to the AWS CodeStar project's code files. For more information, see the AWS Cloud9 User Guide.

You can use the AWS CodeStar console or AWS Cloud9 console to create AWS Cloud9 development environments for projects that store their code in CodeCommit. For AWS CodeStar projects that store their code in GitHub, you can only use the AWS Cloud9 console. This topic describes how to use both consoles.

To use AWS Cloud9, you need:

• An IAM user that has been added as a team member to an AWS CodeStar project.

• If the AWS CodeStar project stores its source code in CodeCommit, AWS credentials for the IAM user.

Create an AWS Cloud9 Environment for a Project

Follow these steps to create an AWS Cloud9 development environment for a AWS CodeStar project.

1. Follow the steps in Create a Project if you want to create a new project.

2. Open the project in the AWS CodeStar console. On the navigation bar, choose IDE. Choose Create environment, and then use the following steps.

   Important

   If the project is in an AWS Region where AWS Cloud9 isn't supported, you won't see AWS Cloud9 options in the IDE tab on the navigation bar. However, you can use the AWS Cloud9 console to create a development environment, open the new environment, and then connect it to the project's AWS CodeCommit repository. Skip the following steps and see Creating an Environment, Opening an Environment, and the AWS CodeCommit Sample in the AWS Cloud9 User Guide. For the list of supported AWS Regions, see AWS Cloud9 in the Amazon Web Services General Reference.

On Create AWS Cloud9 environment, customize the project defaults.

1. To change the default type of Amazon EC2 instance to host the environment, for Instance type, choose the instance type.

2. AWS Cloud9 uses Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (Amazon VPC) in your AWS account to communicate with the instance. Depending on how Amazon VPC is set up in your AWS account, do one of the following.

   Does the account have a VPC with at least one subnet in that VPC?	Is the VPC you want AWS Cloud9 to use the default VPC in the account?	Does the VPC have a single subnet?	Do this
   No	—	—	If no VPC exists, create one. Expand Network settings. For Network (VPC), choose Create VPC and follow the instructions on the page. For more information, see Create an Amazon VPC for AWS Cloud9 in the AWS Cloud9 User Guide. If a VPC exists but has no subnet, create one. Expand Network settings. For Network (VPC), choose Create subnet, and then follow the instructions. For more information, see Create a Subnet for AWS Cloud9 in the AWS Cloud9 User Guide.
   Yes	Yes	Yes	Skip ahead to step 4 in this procedure. (AWS Cloud9 uses the default VPC with its single subnet.)
   Yes	Yes	No	For Subnet, choose the subnet you want AWS Cloud9 to use in the preselected default VPC.
   Yes	No	Yes or No	For Network (VPC), choose the VPC that you want AWS Cloud9 to use. For Subnet, choose the subnet you want AWS Cloud9 to use in that VPC.

   For more information, see Amazon VPC Settings for AWS Cloud9 Development Environments in the AWS Cloud9 User Guide.

3. Enter an Environment name and optionally add an Environment description.

   Note

   Environment names must be unique per user.

4. To change the default time period after which AWS Cloud9 shuts down the environment when it has not been used, expand Cost-saving settings, and then change the setting.

5. Choose Create environment.

To open the environment, see Open an AWS Cloud9 Environment for a Project.

You can use these steps to create more than one environment for a project. For example, you might want to use one environment to work on one portion of the code and another environment to work on the same portion of the code with different settings.

Open an AWS Cloud9 Environment for a Project

Follow these steps to open an AWS Cloud9 development environment that you created for an AWS CodeStar project.

1. With the project open in the AWS CodeStar console, on the navigation bar, choose IDE.

   Important

   If the project's source code is stored in GitHub, you won't see IDE on the navigation bar. However, you can use the AWS Cloud9 console to open an existing environment. Skip the rest of this procedure and see Opening an Environment in the AWS Cloud9 User Guide and Use GitHub with AWS Cloud9.

2. For Your AWS Cloud9 environments or Shared AWS Cloud9 environments, choose Open IDE for the environment you want to open.

You can use the AWS Cloud9 IDE to start working with code in the project's AWS CodeCommit repository right away. For more information, see The Environment Window, The Editor, Tabs, and Panes, and The Terminal in the AWS Cloud9 User Guide and Basic Git Commands in the AWS CodeCommit User Guide.

Share an AWS Cloud9 Environment with a Project Team Member

After you create an AWS Cloud9 development environment for an AWS CodeStar project, you can invite other users across your AWS account, including project team members, to access that same environment. This is especially useful for pair programming, where two programmers take turns coding and giving advice about the same code through screen sharing or while sitting at the same workstation. Environment members can use the shared AWS Cloud9 IDE to see each member's code changes highlighted in the code editor and to text chat with other members while coding.

Adding a team member to a project doesn't automatically allow that member to participate in any related AWS Cloud9 development environments for the project. To invite a project team member to access an environment for a project, you need to determine the correct environment member access role, apply AWS managed policies to the user, and invite the user to your environment. For more information, see About Environment Member Access Roles and Invite an IAM user to Your Environment in the AWS Cloud9 User Guide.

When you invite a project team member to access an environment for a project, the AWS CodeStar console displays the environment to that team member. The environment is displayed in the Shared environments list on the IDE tab in the AWS CodeStar console for the project. To display this list, have the team member open the project in the console, and then choose IDE in the navigation bar.

Important

If the project's source code is stored in GitHub, you won't see IDE on the navigation bar. However, you can use the AWS Cloud9 console to invite other users across your AWS account, including project team members, to access an environment. To do this, see Use GitHub with AWS Cloud9 in this guide, and see About Environment Member Access Roles and Invite an IAM user to Your Environment in the AWS Cloud9 User Guide.

You can also invite a user who is not a project team member to access an environment. For example, you might want a user to work on a project's code but have no other access to that project. To invite this type of user, see About Environment Member Access Roles and Invite an IAM user to Your Environmentin the AWS Cloud9 User Guide. When you invite a user who is not a project team member to access an environment for a project, that user can use the AWS Cloud9 console to access the environment. For more information, see Open an Environment in the AWS Cloud9 User Guide.

Delete an AWS Cloud9 Environment from a Project

When you delete a project and all its AWS resources from AWS CodeStar, all related AWS Cloud9 development environments that were created with the AWS CodeStar console are also deleted and cannot be recovered. You can delete a development environment from a project without deleting the project.

1. With the project open in the AWS CodeStar console, in the navigation bar, choose IDE.

   Important

   If the project's source code is stored in GitHub, you won't see IDE on the navigation bar. However, you can use the AWS Cloud9 console to delete a development environment. Skip the rest of this procedure and see Deleting an Environment in the AWS Cloud9 User Guide.

2. Choose the environment you want to delete in Cloud9 environments and choose Delete

3. Enter delete to confirm deletion for the development environment, and then choose Delete.

   Warning

   You cannot recover a development environment after it has been deleted. All uncommitted code changes in the environment are lost.

Use GitHub with AWS Cloud9

For AWS CodeStar projects that have their source code stored in GitHub, the AWS CodeStar console doesn't support working with AWS Cloud9 development environments directly. However, you can use the AWS Cloud9 console to work with source code in GitHub repositories.

1. Use the AWS Cloud9 console to create an AWS Cloud9 development environment. For information, see Creating an Environment in the AWS Cloud9 User Guide.

2. Use the AWS Cloud9 console to open the development environment. For information, see Opening an Environment in the AWS Cloud9 User Guide.

3. In the IDE, use a terminal session to connect to the GitHub repository (a process known as cloning). If a terminal session isn't running, on the menu bar in the IDE, choose Window, New Terminal. For the commands to use to clone the GitHub repository, see Cloning a Repository on the GitHub Help website.

   To navigate to the main page of the GitHub repository, with the project open in the AWS CodeStar console, on the side navigation bar, choose Code.

4. Use the Environment window and editor tabs in the IDE to view, change, and save code. For more information, see The Environment Window and The Editor, Tabs, and Panes in the AWS Cloud9 User Guide.

5. Use Git in the IDE's terminal session to push your code changes to the repository and periodically pull code changes from others from the repository. For more information, see Pushing to a Remote Respository and Fetching a Remote Repository on the GitHub Help website. For Git commands, see Git Cheatsheet on the GitHub Help website.

   Note

   To keep Git from prompting you for your GitHub sign-in credentials every time you push or pull code from the repository, you can use a credential helper. For more information, see Caching Your GitHub Password in Git on the GitHub Help website.

Additional Resources

For more information about using AWS Cloud9, see the following in the AWS Cloud9 User Guide:

• Tutorial

• Working with Environments

• Working with the IDE

• Samples