A full decade of Illuminated Cloud
Today marks 10 years since the first public release of Illuminated Cloud. In many ways, that's honestly difficult for me to comprehend, though in some ways, it seems about right.
I still vividly (or perhaps hazily) recall the first few days after that initial release when I was learning — literally hour by hour — that all of the “extensive testing” I'd done locally was in no way a proper preparation for the wide array of machine and org configurations against which IC would be used out in the wild. The first week specifically was pretty much a constant stream of hotfixes.
However, what was truly encouraging — in spite of that mad 'round-the-clock scramble — was the supportive nature of the feedback that I was getting from the Salesforce developer community. Instead of "This is broken. Why did you even release it in this state?", I was hearing "I really like what I’m seeing and look forward to getting fixes for the things that aren’t working just yet." People, it seems, were quite hungry for a true Salesforce IDE, and they were willing to be both patient and supportive while I worked through those initial bumps in the road. Given the massive stress of that first week, I can't express just how much I appreciated the kind response to what was admittedly a rocky initial launch.
With those initial issues mostly ironed out, I spent the next several months filling in key feature gaps for true every day usage. The main areas of focus in the initial release were 1) robust code completion for Apex and Visualforce (this pre-dated Aura); 2) bidrectional navigation between code references; 3) integrated metadata deployment and retrieval; 4) a configurable Apex code formatter; and 5) other editor-oriented enhancements. I then added things like Apex unit test execution and code coverage analysis, Anonymous Apex and SOQL Query execution, a Log Viewer (now Log Analyzer), and a log-based Apex debugger. New Salesforce technologies like Aura, Salesforce DX, and, later, LWC were also integrated concurrent with the respective platform releases, made possible in no small part by wonderful support from Salesforce who provided the early access required to facilitate these Day One integrations.
With those initial issues mostly ironed out, I spent the next several months filling in key feature gaps for true every day usage. The main areas of focus in the initial release were 1) robust code completion for Apex and Visualforce (this pre-dated Aura); 2) bidrectional navigation between code references; 3) integrated metadata deployment and retrieval; 4) a configurable Apex code formatter; and 5) other editor-oriented enhancements. I then added things like Apex unit test execution and code coverage analysis, Anonymous Apex and SOQL Query execution, a Log Viewer (now Log Analyzer), and a log-based Apex debugger. New Salesforce technologies like Aura, Salesforce DX, and, later, LWC were also integrated concurrent with the respective platform releases, made possible in no small part by wonderful support from Salesforce who provided the early access required to facilitate these Day One integrations.
I’ve said this many times in the past, but one of the most wonderful aspects of this whole endeavor has been meeting others in the Salesforce developer community and from the Salesforce and JetBrains partnership teams, both digitally via the standard IC support channels and in-person at conferences and regional user group meetings. I feel so very fortunate to be able to say that I’ve added some true friends from these communities over the years.
I could easily wax nostalgic for much, much longer, but I’ll try to wrap this up. More than anything, today represents an opportunity for me to reflect on a decade of my life dedicated to this “little side project” and how fulfilling it’s been, both professionally and personally.
As always, I still have years and years of ideas for improvements to Illuminated Cloud, so expect the regular weekly(-ish) release cadence to continue with the typical blend of new features, improvements, and fixes. And, of course, I always welcome feedback on what’s most important to you, the end user, because ultimately that’s why IC exists at all.
To the users of Illuminated Cloud — from those who have been with me for the full stretch to those who have perhaps only discovered it recently — you have my most sincere appreciation. Best wishes to you all.