Dev Container Presentation / Demo

🚨 This project is used for giving dev container presentations/demos. It is not meant to show "good" or production ready code. The purpose is to show how a fully configured development environment can be spun up in isolation from the host machine in minutes.

🚚 What is a dev container?

Dev Containers are a feature currently shipping for Visual Studio Code (as an extension) utilizing containers to create fully configured and version controlled development environments.

✅ Great what does that give me?

• Team members are always working from the same:
  • Base Operating System
  • Network Stack
  • Required Extensions and Configuration
  • CLI Tools
• Host OS agnostic.
• Full project setup in minutes.
• Version controlled Development experience.
• Can be hosted in the cloud (Example: GitHub Codespaces).
• ⭐️ NEW: Multiple Configurations Per Project allowing for different setups for different types of work.

👎 Downsides

• Slower than running on the Host OS.
• Currently a Visual Studio Code and GitHub Codespaces only feature.
  • Currently being standardized.
  • Other vendors are looking to adopt.
• Flakey containers if running on arch64 (Example: Apple Silicon).
  • Software is still transitioning.
  • This is more of a Docker issue than a dev container issue.

  • 🚨 I picked this stack for this project as it currently is one of those flakey containers and I want to show what to do when things go wrong.

🛠️ Requirements

• Docker
• Visual Studio Code
  • Dev Containers Extension

💬 Presenter Notes

🛠️ Pre-Presentation Setup

• Be sure above software is downloaded and configured.
• Delete any containers, images, and volumes associated with this repo prior to presentation.

🧐 Things To Show

☝️ This Project

• Starting out, no images, container, or volumes exist for this project.
• Cloning this project with Dev Container.
  • Show .devcontainer directory.
• "Open in Container" icon and prompt.
• Startup Log
• Terminal (In Container vs Host OS)
• Configuration
  • .devcontainer.json
  • Dockerfile
• Extensions:
  • SQL (Configured)
    • Show Postgres connection, but no db.
  • Adding new extensions to .devcontainer.json via extension panel.
    • Search for vscode-pets.
• Migrations
  • Run via Terminal
    • cd backend
    • sqlx migrate run
  • Show in Extension
• Mapped Ports
  • Start project:
    • cd backend
    • cargo build
    • cargo run

      • 🚨 I know cargo run does a build, but this is working around one of the flakey issues in this container.

  • Show access via host:
    • http://localhost:3000

    • 🚨 Notice database connectivity.

      • Data will persist via container volume, even if container is destroyed.

🎉 Creating a New Project

• Show how to make a node.js dev container.
• Use newer version than local.
  • Show differences in terminal.
• Example code:

console.log("Hello, Dev Container");

🎨 Show Production Level Project

• Quick Overview of Project
• Mapped Environment Variables