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VS Code for Non Developers

VS Code for Non Developers

May 14, 2022

A while back I created a page for MavensMate and Git for Non Developers. Now that MavensMate is dead (RIP) and VSCode is now the official IDE for Salesforce development it is time to start learning VS Code. (Also see Following the SFDX Trailhead Trails for how I did trying to learn SFDX which prompted me to start with this page first). 

Now, I want this to be for non developers, and about getting started with VS Code from the ground up, because I just see so many posts saying things like "just do npm install" or "open bash" or other posts where they start from a fully functioning VS Code installation. Or even from the very introductory Trailhead “In a command window, enter SFDX”. Nope. This is about starting from plain vanilla Windows 10 (or now Windows 11). No I'm not going to cover Mac - there is too much out there on how to do things on Mac, but not enough on Windows.

I'm going to TRY to start from an understanding of you know what the CMD prompt is in Windows and that's about it. But, alas, some of this might be baked in to me already as I started using unix 30+ years ago (even though I'm a non developer!). So if I get too techy too quickly please pull me up. Tweet me at @jodiem. I had just about every problem under the sun setting up my VS Code environment so I'm now going to uninstall everything and start again so I can try to explain it. (Edit: This is now the third time I am installing, so I will follow my own instructions and update as needed). 

So the purpose of this exploration is to:

  • Get VS Code installed.

  • Download ALL your metadata from a Sandbox.

  • Backup the Metadata into Bitbucket or Github using Git. 

That's it. 

Far too many examples of using Metadata just start with downloading a few classes or triggers, but NOPE, we want it ALL. If I'm searching for a field name I know is in my org somewhere, I want to see it everywhere, not just in code. So much has been promised about the Metadata Dependency API but not even that will find everything everywhere so I've given up on that before it's even released (Update: It is still nowhere to be seen, and seems to have gone to the dead pool). 

Now, you can start with the Trailheads on SFDX (new trailhead Set Up Visual Studio Code) but I found them too conceptual and not real at all. I think you can go and play with scratch orgs etc AFTER you are comfortable with your setup after seeing the metadata of an org that you know well. For the best video I've seen on how to look at your Metadata see Looking Under the Hood of Your Org with Eclipse (I've started after the IDE stuff is talked about). The biggest change with Scratch Orgs is the new DX Folder format - also known as Source Format. No longer is all the metadata in the SRC folder, and there is no one .object file for each object - each field is in it's own file. You can use the old format, in limited ways, but we are going with the new Source Format here. 

Firstly some thanks to all the people who have helped me out in my understanding of SFDX and VS Code so far, with special mention to The Good Day Sir Slack community, Christian Szandor Knapp, Roger Mitchell, and Rob Cowell who have helped me get through the barriers when I got really stuck. Oh and the excellent troubleshooting page when I almost gave up with VS Code. 

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