Developing on a Remote Server

Note: A more detailed guide (minus step 1) can be found here.

Not able to develop locally? Want to test deployment on a remote server? Follow these steps: 1. Follow the deployment steps to learn how to host a VPS and set it up correctly
2. Set up a pair of SSH keys. Make note of the file location that the keys are stored in 3. In VSCode, download the Remote Development extension
4. Enter CTRL+SHIFT+P to open the Command Palette
5. Search and select Remote-SSH: Open Configuration File...
6. Edit configuration file to contain an entry with this format:
Host <any_name_for_remote_server> HostName <your_server_ip_or_hostname> User <your_username> IdentityFile <ssh_keys_location> Note 1: You can now reference your host by the name you chose, instead of its IP address
Note 2: User is likely root
7. Open Command Palette again and select Remote-SSH: Connect to Host...
8. A new VSCode terminal should open. Answer the questions (e.g. server type, server password), and you should be connected!
9. Open the Extensions page in VSCode, and download the extensions you want to use
10. After following the environment variables setup, open the Command Palette and select Ports: Focus on Ports View
11. Enter the port numbers of every port in the .env file. When running the project, you can now use localhost to access it