Install the Designer

This page installs Visual Studio Code, the Axon Ivy PRO Designer extension, and the Java and Maven it needs, then checks them from a command prompt. It assumes Before you start is done. Then go to Test the installation.

Plan 30 minutes. The commands are for Windows; the links in each step also cover macOS and Linux.

Component

Version

Visual Studio Code

current release

Axon Ivy PRO Designer

the extension from the VS Code Marketplace

Java

Eclipse Temurin 25 (LTS)

Apache Maven

3.9.16

1 · Install Visual Studio Code

  1. Download VS Code from https://code.visualstudio.com/.

  2. Run the installer. The default settings are fine.

  3. Start VS Code.

Tip

Important

Visual Studio Code is not Visual Studio. They are different products with similar names, and the Designer only runs in Visual Studio Code.

2 · Install the extension

  1. In VS Code, click Extensions in the Activity Bar on the left, or press Ctrl+Shift+X.

  2. Type Axon Ivy in the search field.

  3. Select Axon Ivy PRO Designer.

  4. Click Install.

  5. Close VS Code once the installation has finished.

The extension does not include Java or Maven, and it does not work until both are installed. That is the rest of this page.

3 · Install Java

The Designer needs a Java SE runtime: Eclipse Temurin 25, the long-term support release.

  1. Open https://adoptium.net/.

  2. Download Temurin 25 (LTS) for your operating system.

  3. Run the installer. On the page with the additional options, switch on Set JAVA_HOME variable.

4 · Download Apache Maven

  1. Open https://maven.apache.org/download.cgi.

  2. Download version 3.9.16, the file apache-maven-3.9.16-bin.zip.

  3. Extract it to a local folder, e.g. C:\Program Files\Apache\maven.

Maven's own installation instructions, including other operating systems, are at https://maven.apache.org/install.html.

5 · Set the environment variables for Maven

Maven has no installer, so nothing creates its environment variables for you. You add two: MAVEN_HOME, and an entry in Path that points to it.

  1. Press the Windows key, type environment variables and open Edit the system environment variables.

    Alternatively press Win+R, run sysdm.cpl and open the Advanced tab.

  2. Click Environment Variables… at the bottom.

  3. Under System variables, click New… and enter:

    Variable name

    MAVEN_HOME

    Variable value

    the extracted folder, e.g. C:\Program Files\Apache\maven\apache-maven-3.9.16

    It is the folder that directly contains bin, boot, conf and lib, not the one above it.

  4. Still under System variables, select Path and click Edit….

  5. Click New, enter %MAVEN_HOME%\bin and confirm.

  6. Close every dialog with OK. Nothing is saved until you do.

Note

If something in the dialog looks different

  • No administrator rights? Editing system variables needs them. Use the User variables section at the top of the same dialog instead, with the same steps. That is fully sufficient.

  • Enter paths without a trailing backslash and without quotation marks, even when they contain spaces.

  • Path opens as one long text field instead of a list: that is the older version of the dialog. Add ;%MAVEN_HOME%\bin to the end of the existing value. Do not replace what is already there.

6 · Check the installation

Environment variables only reach programs started after the change. Close VS Code and every open command prompt first.

Then open a new Command Prompt — press Win+R and run cmd — and run:

java -version
echo %JAVA_HOME%
echo %MAVEN_HOME%
mvn -v

You should see output from all four. The last one names Maven 3.9.16 and the Java it found, something like:

Apache Maven 3.9.16 (...)
Maven home: C:\Program Files\Apache\maven\apache-maven-3.9.16
Java version: 25..., vendor: Eclipse Adoptium, runtime: C:\Program Files\Eclipse Adoptium\jdk-25...
Tip

Important

Use Command Prompt, not PowerShell. In PowerShell, echo %JAVA_HOME% prints the text %JAVA_HOME% back unchanged whether the variable is set or not, so the check proves nothing. The PowerShell equivalent is $env:JAVA_HOME.

If you see

What to do

echo %JAVA_HOME% prints %JAVA_HOME%, or nothing

The option was not switched on when Java was installed. Run the Java installer again and switch on Set JAVA_HOME variable, see step 3

'mvn' is not recognized as an internal or external command

Either %MAVEN_HOME%\bin is missing from Path, or the Command Prompt was already open before you changed it. Check step 5, then open a new one

mvn -v shows a version other than 3.9.16

Another Maven is earlier in Path. Remove it, or move %MAVEN_HOME%\bin above it

Next

Test the installation. It proves that the extension, Java, Maven and the engine work together.