How to Boost Your GCP Productivity in Chrome

When you work with the Google Cloud Platform, console.cloud.google.com is your home base outside of the Cloud SDK. It requires a lot of clicking, even with pinned products in the side bar. As a developer I prefer the keyboard to the mouse. So, how can you use the keyboard to boost your productivity in Google Chrome?

The key to fast access to GCP services are aliases and a vim-like user experience.

Aliases

With aText, you can easily set up redirect aliases. For instance, you type ‘s/’ in the address bar, hit Enter, and it loads en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spoon#Manufacture if you happen to be curious about how spoons are made and need to come back to that page again and again.¹

Below are some of the URL aliases I have set up. I have divided these into three categories: basic services, libraries and APIs, and GCP.

Basic Services

Alias	URL
a	analytics.google.com/analytics/web/#/report-home/<ID>
c	calendar.google.com
f	feedly.com/i/collection/content/user/<USER-ID>/category/global.all
g	mail.google.com/mail/#inbox
k	keep.google.com
l	www.linkedin.com/feed/
m	maps.google.com
ping	www.gcping.com/
pm	mail.protonmail.com/login
pock	app.getpocket.com/
pp	paperpile.com/app
pr	ghe.<COMPANY>.net/pulls?q=is%3Aopen+is%3Apr+user%3A<TEAM-OR-ORG>+sort%3Aupdated-desc+
res	www.researcher-app.com/feed/all

Please note that wherever you see <...>, you must replace the ellipsis with the relevant identifier.

As an example, if I type pr/ in the address bar and hit Enter subsequently, I see all open pull requests of the team or organization I am interested in. No need to click around or bookmark a page.

APIs

Alias	URL
beam	beam.apache.org/documentation/sdks/javadoc/
check	www.scalacheck.org/documentation.html
scala	www.scala-lang.org/api/current/scala/collection/immutable/List.html
scio	spotify.github.io/scio/api/com/spotify/scio/values/SCollection.html
style	www.scalastyle.org/rules-1.0.0.html
test	www.scalatest.org/user_guide
tf	www.tensorflow.org/api_docs/python/
tfx	github.com/tensorflow/tfx

GCP

Alias	URL
bq	console.cloud.google.com/bigquery?project=<PROJECT-ID>
bqdoc	cloud.google.com/bigquery/docs/reference/standard-sql/functions-and-operators
cb	app.cloudability.com/#/dashboards/
df	console.cloud.google.com/dataflow
fb	console.firebase.google.com/project/<PROJECT-ID>/hosting/usage/current-billing/storage
gcp	console.cloud.google.com/home/dashboard
gcr	console.cloud.google.com/gcr/images/<REPOSITORY>
gcs	console.cloud.google.com/storage/browser
iam	console.cloud.google.com/iam-admin/iam/
kf	kubeflow.endpoints.<PROJECT-ID>.cloud.goog/pipeline/#/pipelines
ml	console.cloud.google.com/mlengine/jobs?organizationId=<ORG-ID>&project=<PROJECT-ID>
quota	console.cloud.google.com/iam-admin/quotas?project=<PROJECT-ID>
sd	app.google.stackdriver.com/dashboards/<DASHBOARD-ID>?project=<PROJECT-ID>
sup	console.cloud.google.com/support/cases?organizationId=<ORG-ID>&tabId=cases

I usually have a go-to GCP project, which is represented by <PROJECT-ID>. From there I’m two clicks away from any other project of any of the services with an alias. Alternatively, I have a secondary alias for another commonly used project. That reduces searching and clicking considerably.

Vim

With Vimium you open a new tab with ‘t’. Together with the aliases I hit ‘t’, followed by, say, ‘bqdoc/’, and press Enter, after which I have opened the BigQuery documentation page in a new tab. No mouse needed!

Note that you can also jump to the address bar without Vimium or a mouse by using the combination ‘Ctrl/Cmd + t’.

But Vimium can do more. It allows you to open links in the current or a new tab with ‘f’ or ‘F’, respectively. Upon hitting ‘f/F’, you see all hyperlinks tagged with one or two letter codes that you can then enter to open said links. You go back in your browser’s history with ‘H’, and ‘r’ reloads the current tab. Yes, it is case-sensitive.

Bonus

What follows is not exclusively related to GCP or Chrome, but it may be of interest to productivity wizards.

Bangs

If DuckDuckGo is your default search engine, you have access to hundreds of !bangs to search more efficiently. For example, !w numeronym goes to the relevant page in Wikipedia that explains why ‘K8s’ is short for Kubernetes. And no, it’s not because ‘eight’ sounds vaguely like the penultimate syllable in Kubernetes. With !ox eucatastrophe you thumb through the OED for said entry, and if you need a cuticle pusher delivered to your home, you use !a cuticle pusher. Of course you can also learn about what developers have said about a NullPointerException by searching for !so nullpointerexception.

Hammerspoon

If you are on a Mac, you may want to check out Hammerspoon. My configuration file is here. It allows me to open Chrome, or any commonly used app, with a shortcut and resize and/or move app windows without a mouse. Beyond that I can control playback on Spotify without having to switch apps.

You’re welcome!