VSCode Ballerina Development Container

A development container is a running Docker container with a well-defined tool/runtime stack and its prerequisites. You can try out development containers with GitHub Codespaces or Visual Studio Code Remote - Containers.

This is a template project for Ballerina language with VS Code development containers.

Setting up the development container

Open in Github Codespaces

Follow these steps to open this sample in a Codespace:

1. Click the Code drop-down menu and select the Open with Codespaces option.
2. Select + New codespace at the bottom on the pane.

For more info, check out the GitHub documentation.

VS Code Remote - Containers

Follow these steps to open this sample in a container using the VS Code Remote - Containers extension:

1. If this is your first time using a development container, please ensure your system meets the pre-reqs (i.e. have Docker installed) in the getting started steps.

2. Use this template repository to create a Ballerina project repository

3. Clone the newly created repository to your local filesystem.

4. Press F1 and select the Remote-Containers: Open Folder in Container... command.

5. Select the cloned copy of this folder, wait for the container to start, and try things out!

Create a Ballerina project

To create a Ballerina project open up the terminal in VSCode (Terminal -> New Terminal ). Then use the following command to create your Ballerina project.

$ bal init

Create a Ballerina module with

$ bal add <module_name>

---

Using a specific container with an older Ballerina version

Update the .devcontainer/devcontainer.json file to switch the Ballerina version of the container

{
	"name": "Ubuntu",
	"build": {
		"dockerfile": "Dockerfile",
		"args": { "VARIANT": "<IMAGE_TAG_GOES_HERE>" }
	},
...

You can check the docker hub ballerina-dev registry for released Ballerina dev containers.

NOTE: Base docker image for the dev container is maintained at VS Code Remote Ballerina-Dev Docker repository.