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Cover image for 10 Intellij Idea's plugins I'm using
Mateusz Jarzyna
Mateusz Jarzyna

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10 Intellij Idea's plugins I'm using

Cover image: https://pl.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plik:IntelliJIDEA_2016.3_Community.png

Intellij Idea has a lot of plugins, both paid and free (I'm using only free). Here is a list of my favorite, that I'm using daily.

All images are from the official plugin's web page

SonarLint

SonarLint
SonarLint is a static code analyzer. Idea has build-in code analyzer, but SonarLint is able to find more issues in your Java code, so they work perfectly together. SonarLint can be connected to SonarQube server, but even in standalone is an interesting plugin.

SonarLint plugin page

Rainbow Brackets

Rainbow Brackets
Rainbow Brackets is just an eye candy tool that makes brackets colorful. There is also Indent Rainbow but I'm not using it.

Rainbow Brackets plugin page

Code review tool

Merge Request Integration CE - Code Review for GitLab
That's what I'm most happy about. Making code review in web browser is a pain, you can't see the full code, you can't go to method implementation in simply way, etc. Moving this process to the IDE was fantastic decision.

In my company we're using the GitLab, so I'm using Merge Request Integration CE - Code Review for GitLab. But if you are using GitHub or BitBucket or other tool for code review - I'm sure that there is a good plugin for you, just search and test.

Extra Icons

Extra Icons
Extra Icons adds icons for popular tools that are not available in Idea by default.

Extra Icons plugin page

CSV Plugin

CSV Plugin
CSV Plugin allows to open the .csv files in tabular, excel-like view. Useful from time to time.

CSV Plugin plugin page

CodeGlance

CodeGlance
CodeGlance adds a code mini map into the editor pane. Not very useful, just show yours code structure.

CodeGlance plugin page

CamelCase

[no picture]
CodeGlance allows switching easily between kebab-case, SNAKE_CASE, PascalCase, camelCase, snake_case or space case. I'm using it when renaming the variable after changing the scope.

CodeGlance plugin page

AsciiDoc

AsciiDoc
In my company we are using Spring REST Docs to create technical documentation. AsciiDoc plugin just shows rendered preview of .adoc files.

AsciiDoc plugin page

Request mapper

Request mapper
Request mapper is a tool that allows you to find a URL mapping declaration in your Spring/JAX-RS/Micronaut project. You can add @RequestMapping annotation on both, class and method and the plugin still works fine and quick.

Request mapper plugin page

IDE Features Trainer

I've used this plugin in the past. As the home page says:

Learn basic shortcuts and essential features interactively — right inside the IDE.

You can learn the IDE in an easy, interactive way.

IDE Features Trainer plugin page

Bonus 1 - the font

Monaco font
I'm using the Monaco font. In my opinion it's really readable and clean. I love that font.

Bonus 2 - Live templates

test's live template
I'm using only one live template in my daily job - to create new JUnit test.
To create that one, open PreferencesEditorLive Templates, then add new template and paste:

@org.junit.jupiter.api.Test
public void $END$() throws Exception {

}
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Bonus 3 - skip Spring's classes when debugging

Alt Text
I was really annoyed when I was debugging my application and saw infinite numbers of Spring's classes. So I've opened PreferencesBuild, Execution, DeploymentDebuggerStepping and added org.springframework.* into the Do not step into the clasess list. Really helpful trick ;)

Share in comments yours favorite plugins and tricks.

Top comments (5)

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luccabiagi profile image
Lucca Biagi de Paula Prado

Wow, Its very close to my setup :3

But, I use String Manipulation Plugin instead of CodeGlance, as with String Manipulation I can increment, decrement, create a sequence and other cool features

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siy profile image
Sergiy Yevtushenko

Maven Helper Plugin brings (beside other useful things) Eclipse-like dependency analyzer and manager. It's way better than anything else you can find for Idea for this purpose.

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martinhaeusler profile image
Martin Häusler

I personally can't live without Grep Console. This little plugin can apply colour to log output lines based on regular expressions. Why is that useful?

  • print TRACE logs in gray
  • print INFO logs in black
  • print WARN logs in yellow
  • print ERROR logs in red

A real timesaver when you're faced with a lot of log output. It's such a small thing but for me it has become essential to the point where I wonder why IntelliJ doesn't have it integrated already.

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mateuszjarzyna profile image
Mateusz Jarzyna

Thanks for sharing! I will try it

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ama profile image
Adrian Matei

Cool list Mateusz, thanks. I have already installed Rainbow Brackets and Extra Icons. If you are in bookmarking code snippets for later reuse I recommend the Save to Bookmarks.dev plugin