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2. Getting Started Guide

2. Getting Started Guide

Getting Started

This section describes how to

  • setup a workspace in VS Code
  • access the important commands to create your integration
  • create your first Camel Route
  • run your Camel Route locally
  • get access to the source code of the Camel Route

Preparing the Workspace

Visual Studio Code requires you to create a workspace for your project to access the full functionality of the environment. If you haven’t done so yet, please open your Visual Studio Code instance. You can do that by finding the right launcher on your computer or by opening a command shell and executing code. This should leave you with a window like the one below.

A Screenshot of a fresh VS Code instance

Next we need to select our workspace folder which will store our project files. Go to the File menu and select the entry Open Folder. In the following screen browse to the folder you would like to use and select it.

A Screenshot of the Open Folder menu item

VS Code Commands

Some VS Code commands require a workspace to show up and function correctly. If you haven’t set one up and opened it you should check the Preparing the Workspace section.

To access the VS Code command palette you have to press either F1 or CTRL+SHIFT+P. This will open up an entry field which you can use to filter for the commands you are interested in.

In our case we are interested in the Camel related commands, so lets type Camel into the field and check the filtered results.

A Screenshot of the available Camel commands

Create your first Camel Route

If you followed the steps from the section you should still see the filtered Camel commands. Please select now the command called Camel: Create a Camel Route using YAML DSL and hit Enter. Next you are asked to provide a name for the file to be created. Feel free to pick a name without stating a file extension (example: simpleTest) and hit Enter again.

If the execution fails you should double check if you have installed the Camel CLI correctly. Follow the instructions outline in the section Camel CLI section.

If all worked correctly you should now see your new file with the extension .camel.yaml and the Kaoto Visual Designer should open up.

If the Kaoto editor doesn’t open check you followed the Install Kaoto section and your file is named like filename.camel.yaml. If you named the file differently then rename it to match this naming rule.

You should now see a similar screen like the one below.

A Screenshot of a fresh created Camel Route

Launch your Camel Route

The Camel Route we created in the previous chapter can already be launched. Let’s try to start the Route by clicking the Run Camel Application with JBang button in the top right of the Kaoto Visual Editor.

A Screenshot of the launch button to run the Camel route

A terminal should open up and it will show you the output of your launched Camel Route.

A Screenshot of the launch terminal showing the outputs of the launched Camel Route

You can terminate the execution of your Camel Route at any time by selecting the terminal window and pressing CTRL+C.

Accessing the Source Code

You might wonder how the source of your new Camel Route looks like. While Kaoto tries relief users from the burden of working with the source code, we still allow access to it via the default Visual Studio Code Text Editor.

To access your source code you can either right click the tab labeled with the filename and then select Reopen Editor with and then choosing Text Editor.

Another way of doing that is to right-click the file in the Explorer view on the left side of the window and then similarly selecting the menu item Open With and then choosing Text Editor.

If you want to revert back to the Kaoto Editor you can follow the same steps as above but instead of Text Editor you should then select Kaoto Editor.