Getting to Know IntelliJ IDEA
Getting to Know IntelliJ IDEA
Level up your IntelliJ IDEA knowledge so that you can focus on doing what you do best.
About the Book
We’re frequently taught to use a text editor when we’re learning to write code so that we understand the fundamentals. However, if we treat our IDE as a text editor, we are doing ourselves a disservice. As professional developers, we no longer need to learn the fundamentals; we need to deliver working applications. We can use the features of an IDE to help us with this.
IntelliJ IDEA is an extremely fully-featured IDE that can help professional developers with almost any task they need to perform, and this can be overwhelming to get to grips with. Getting to Know IntelliJ IDEA uses two approaches to help newcomers and experienced users alike:
- Tutorials that walk through writing code and developing applications that show when, why and how to use IntelliJ IDEA features to create working applications.
- A questions-and-answers approach that demonstrates which features can be used to solve the problems that professional developers face.
Seeing how to use IntelliJ IDEA from these different angles not only showcases the most useful features but also teaches multiple approaches for using these features. No matter which technologies you use or how you like to work, reading this book will help you find an approach that enables you to work comfortably and productively with IntelliJ IDEA.
Table of Contents
- Dedication
- About the authors
- Trisha Gee
- Helen Scott
- Getting the most from this book
- Who should read this book
- Signposts to look out for
- A note about versions
- A note about shortcuts
- Feedback
- Acknowledgements
- Technical reviewers
- Cover design
- Part I: Getting to Know IntelliJ IDEA
- 1. What is IntelliJ IDEA?
- 1.1. What is IntelliJ IDEA?
- 1.2. Who makes it?
- 1.3. Community Edition versus Ultimate
- 2. The IntelliJ IDEA guiding principles
- 2.1. Always Green
- 2.2. Keyboard First
- 2.3. In the Flow
- 3. Installing IntelliJ IDEA
- 4. IntelliJ IDEA out of the box
- 4.1. Welcome screen
- 4.2. Tip of the day
- 4.3. New feature notifications
- 4.4. Balloon notifications
- 4.5. Tool window buttons
- 4.6. Tool windows
- 4.7. Navigation Bar
- 4.8. Editor tabs
- 4.9. Status bar
- 4.10. Breadcrumbs
- 4.11. Editor
- 4.12. After upgrading
- 5. Where to look
- 5.1. In the editor
- 5.2. Gutter icons
- 5.3. Right scrollbar
- 5.4. Status Bar
- 5.5. Tool windows
- 5.6. Dialogs
- 5.7. Seeing or changing your settings
- 5.8. Finding your JDK
- 6. How IntelliJ IDEA sees your project
- 6.1. IntelliJ IDEA’s view of your project
- 6.2. IntelliJ IDEA’s internal map
- 6.3. Finding your code
- 6.4. Projects and workspaces
- 6.5. Establishing Version Control status
- 6.6. IntelliJ IDEA Ultimate Framework support
- 6.7. Plugins and your project
- 7. Where to get help
- 7.1. IntelliJ IDEA’s YouTube channel
- 7.2. IntelliJ IDEA’s online help
- 7.3. IntelliJ IDEA’s Feature Trainer
- 7.4. IntelliJ IDEA’s Guide
- 7.5. IntelliJ IDEA’s Blog
- 7.6. IntelliJ IDEA Community Forums
- 7.7. IntelliJ IDEA YouTrack
- 7.8. Stack Overflow
- 1. What is IntelliJ IDEA?
- Part II: Working with code
- 8. Writing code
- 9. Creating code quickly
- 9.1. Suggestions while you type
- 9.2. Type-sensitive suggestions
- 9.3. Just keep typing
- 9.4. Complete your code’s structure
- 9.5. Generate common code structures
- 9.6. Create a new…
- 9.7. Generate from missing code
- 10. Fixing and changing your code
- 10.1. See suggestions in the editor
- 10.2. Fix errors
- 10.3. Improve code
- 10.4. Change code
- 10.5. Check spelling
- 11. Activating your muscle memory with Keyboard Shortcuts
- 11.1. Focus on the editor
- 11.2. "Get me out of here"
- 11.3. Extra-fast copy/cut line
- 11.4. Duplicate line or selection
- 11.5. Delete line
- 11.6. Format code
- 12. Moving through your code
- 12.1. Finding anything
- 12.2. Viewing and opening recent files
- 12.3. Viewing and moving to recent locations
- 12.4. Going to a specific line
- 12.5. Moving backward and forward through code
- 12.6. Moving between your code and its test
- 12.7. Finding where this code is used
- 12.8. Seeing details of the code you are calling
- 13. Understanding code
- 13.1. Hints in the editor
- 13.2. API and documentation at a glance
- 13.3. Readable code documentation
- 13.4. Hide distracting code
- 13.5. Code use and data values
- 13.6. Syntax highlighting for embedded code
- 13.7. Understanding the flow of your code
- 13.8. Understanding changes over time
- 13.9. Getting insight into the code’s intended behaviour
- Part III: Developing applications
- 14. Opening a project
- 14.1. How IntelliJ IDEA uses your project’s build tool
- 14.2. Cloning a project from GitHub
- 15. Running your code
- 15.1. Re-running an application
- 15.2. Terminating a process
- 16. Debugging your code
- 17. Testing your code
- 17.1. A quick discussion of automated testing
- 18. Combining testing and debugging
- 19. Managing dependencies
- 19.1. Why do you need dependency management?
- 19.2. Seeing your project’s dependencies
- 19.3. Adding dependencies
- 20. Working with a build tool
- 20.1. A view of your project’s build tool
- 20.2. Running the build
- 20.3. Finding your build configuration
- 21. Keeping track of code changes
- 21.1. Enabling Version Control (Git)
- 21.2. Committing changes
- 21.3. The Git tool window
- 21.4. Seeing code changes
- 21.5. What to look for when you’re ready to commit your code
- 21.6. Working with remote version control
- 21.7. Your last line of defence
- 14. Opening a project
- Part IV: IntelliJ IDEA Essentials
- 22. Fixing errors and warnings
- 22.1. FAQ: Recognising and managing warnings and errors
- 23. Refactoring your code
- 23.1. FAQ: Changing your code without breaking it
- 24. Formatting and arranging your code
- 24.1. FAQ: When and how to format and arrange your code
- 25. Benefiting from multiple clipboards
- 25.1. FAQ: Copying and pasting in IntelliJ IDEA
- 26. Using Run Configurations effectively
- 26.1. What is a Run Configuration?
- 26.2. Editing configurations
- 26.3. FAQ: Running applications and tests
- 26.4. Run Anything
- 27. Diving into debugging
- 27.1. FAQ: The importance of breakpoints
- 27.2. FAQ: Seeing program state
- 27.3. Debugging a remote application
- 27.4. Debugging performance problems
- 28. Expanding on testing
- 28.1. FAQ: Test coverage
- 28.2. FAQ: Getting comfortable with automated tests
- 29. Building on build tools
- 29.1. The Maven or Gradle tool window
- 29.2. FAQ: Maven, Gradle and IntelliJ IDEA
- 30. Doing more with dependencies
- 30.1. IntelliJ IDEA’s Dependencies tool window
- 30.2. FAQ: Working with dependencies
- 31. Making version control work for you
- 31.1. Why work with a Version Control System (VCS)
- 31.2. The Commit tool window
- 31.3. FAQ: Committing changes
- 31.4. The Git tool window
- 31.5. FAQ: Working with branches
- 31.6. FAQ: Git for more experienced users
- 32. Viewing and applying local history
- 32.1. FAQ: Using Local History to get back to a known working state
- 33. Running commands in the terminal
- 33.1. FAQ: Working with the built-in terminal
- 34. Managing work TODO
- 34.1. FAQ: Viewing and managing your project’s TODOs
- 35. Pairing with code with me
- 35.1. Using Code With Me
- 35.2. FAQ: Tips for Code With Me
- 36. Working with plugins
- 36.1. FAQ: How to view and change the plugins you work with
- 37. Understanding Java in IntelliJ IDEA
- 37.1. FAQ: IntelliJ IDEA’s Java settings
- 37.2. FAQ: Troubleshooting JVM errors
- 38. Deciphering the Project Structure dialog
- 38.1. FAQ: JVM and Java Settings
- 38.2. FAQs: Project Structure
- 39. Looking in your .idea folder
- 39.1. FAQ: Understanding what’s in your .idea folder
- 40. Changing IntelliJ IDEA settings
- 40.1. FAQ: Tinkering with your project settings
- 41. What to do if things go wrong
- 41.1. Where to look in the IDE
- 41.2. Writing and running
- 41.3. Problems with your project
- 41.4. Problems with the IDE
- 41.5. Problems caused by plugins
- 41.6. What to check and change
- Appendix A: Tuning your IDE
- A.1. Startup Tips
- A.2. Navigation Bar
- A.3. Editor Tabs
- A.4. Breadcrumbs
- A.5. Tool windows and their buttons
- A.6. Inlay Hints
- Appendix B: Top Tips that did not make it into the book
- B.1. Multiple carets
- B.2. Multi-line Strings
- B.3. Find in Files
- B.4. Shortcut on dialogs
- B.5. Searchable dialogs and tool windows
- Appendix C: Top Keyboard Shortcuts
- 22. Fixing errors and warnings
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