Accelerate Development with Alibaba Cloud Toolkit: One-Click Deploy & More

For developers, improving efficiency can be done by speeding up coding or automating repetitive tasks. Cloud Toolkit, a local IDE plugin, adopts the latter approach.

Since its release in Dec 2022, tens of thousands of developers use it to develop, test, diagnose, and deploy applications, including quick creation of Dubbo projects.

Core Feature: One‑Click Application Deployment

With simple initialization, the plugin automates project build, packaging, upload, and deployment to cloud (ECS, EDAS, Kubernetes) or any host. It integrates Alibaba code standards, Arthas diagnostics, Dubbo tools, a terminal shell, and a MySQL executor.

Support for Windows Server Deployment

The plugin now allows direct deployment to Windows servers via a graphical interface. Steps:

Import your project into IntelliJ IDEA.

Add a host via Tools > Alibaba Cloud > View > Host and configure Host List, Username, Password, Tag, then click Add.

Deploy the application by right‑clicking the project, selecting Alibaba Cloud > Deploy to Host, setting parameters, and clicking Run.

Support for EDAS Kubernetes Cluster Deployment

For Alibaba Cloud EDAS users, Cloud Toolkit integrates with EDAS Kubernetes, enabling one‑click deployment from the IDE.

Select Deploy → to EDAS → EDAS for Kubernetes Application in the plugin.

Configure deployment parameters in the Deploy to EDAS dialog; create the application on the EDAS console if needed.

Click Run to view deployment logs in the IntelliJ console.

SSH Proxy (Jump Host) Support

The plugin can route deployments through an SSH proxy when the development machine cannot directly reach the target server.

Add the proxy host (IP, username, password) via the Host dialog.

Add the target host.

In the Advanced tab, set the SSH Proxy to the previously added proxy host and confirm.

Real‑Time Log Viewing During Deployment

The latest version adds the ability to view remote deployment logs in real time, helping developers spot errors immediately.

Open the deployment configuration, go to the Advanced tab, and enter a log‑tail command such as:

tail -f /root/act_tomcat/tomcat/logs/catalina.out -n200

Quick Creation of Dubbo Projects

The plugin provides a wizard to generate a Dubbo project with Spring configuration, requiring no manual API integration.

In IntelliJ IDEA, choose File → New → Project…, select JAVA SDK, and click Next.

Fill in Dubbo version, Spring Boot version, etc., then confirm creation.

The generated project matches the official Apache Dubbo sample structure.

Conclusion

Cloud Toolkit offers many features that can streamline development workflows; try installing it to find the functionality that best addresses your pain points.