A couple of weeks ago, Ajax.org released a new IDE for Javascripters known as Cloud9. It’s an open source project built on Node.js. In case you don’t know, Node.js is an implementation of Server Side JavaScript (SSJS) and is now actively being used for SSJS development. Since Cloud9 IDE is built on top of Node.js, it has an integrated debugger for Node.JS applications. In this article we’ll be taking a look at various features of Cloud9 such as those mentioned above, but for now let’s begin with installation.

Installation

Installation is very simple provided you’re familiar with the terminal. There are three ways to install Cloud9:

1. If you’ve Git installed on your system then you can get the code repository directly from Github. Just enter the following command in your terminal:

git clone git://github.com/ajaxorg/cloud9.git

After Git checkout, enter the following command to install all the submodules and run the IDE:

bin/cloud9.sh

The editor will open in your default browser after all the submodules have been installed.

You can also install Cloud9 via NPM

npm install cloud9

or by downloading the source code from Github.

Review

Cloud9′s UI is similar to Eclipse IDE, so Eclipse users will find it simple and intuitive to use. While not as robust as Eclipse, it supports various features required in an IDE like Nested syntax highlighting, auto indentation, line numbering, bracket matching and debugging. Moreover, Cloud9 uses pure DOM methods along with virtual view port to render everything, the upshot being: no scalability problems. Nice! Note that DOM is used only for drawing purposes and does not store states. Plugins are also supported in Cloud9. In fact, various features like the filesystem, debugger, console and search are all basically plugins for Cloud9. On top of all this, users can also write extensions for Cloud9. This tutorial covers everything you need to know about writing extensions for Cloud9.

The biggest advantage of using Cloud9 is that you can rapidly develop and debug SSJS applications without any fuss. It’s true that you can find many JavaScript IDE’s on the Web, but most of them do not have good support for SSJS development. The fact that Cloud9 is built on top of Node.js makes it an ideal IDE for developing SSJS applications. That being said, it’s still buggy. Not only did it crash a couple of times while debugging, it’s also not completely stable on Safari and Internet Explorer7/8. Some other features missing from this IDE are code folding and source control integration. Still, judging by the exponential increase in its user base, there’s hope that these features will soon be available.

Final Verdict

So, the big question is: “Do we need another IDE for JS development?” Well, it all boils down to your requirements. There’s no need to switch to Cloud9 if you’re just working with Client-Side JS(CSJS). There are already some very good editors/IDE’s for CSJS like Aptana, Eclipse for JS, IntelliJS and Textmate. However, if you’re into SSJS development, I strongly recommend trying out Cloud9.

(And if you do take Cloud9 for a spin, we’d love to see your reviews in the comments section!)