Writing Plugins for Intellij

Mihai Toader

@mtoader

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John Lindquist

@johnlindquist

*This webinar is being recorded*

Poll Results

  • 33 have written a plugin
  • Getting started is hard
  • Documentation is sparse
  • No info on building UI

What do you want to build?

  • 52% - Tooling
  • 22% - Language
  • 17% - Framework
  • 8% - Other

What is this about?

  • A non-JetBrains point of view
  • Understand your questions/concerns
  • De-mystify the process
  • Distribute resources

The Basics

  • Intellij is a platform
  • Intellij (community) is open-source
  • Everything is a plugin (JavaScript, etc)
  • Mostly anything is possible

Ridiculous ideas

  • Send a tweet every time a test passes
  • Flip the editor upside-down on Wednesdays
  • Random project-wide "Todo" generator
  • Auto-move all files to a dir named "stuff"

Good ideas

  • Support a new language
  • Support a framework
  • Enhance the editor (e.g., VIM plugin)
  • New refactorings, inspections, generators

Current best docs

http://j.mp/jetbrains-plugin-dev

Q&A with Mihai

Please ask questions, we'll do our best to answer

Any unanswered questions will be addressed in a follow-up blog post

Why did you choose the Intellij platform to build your plugin?
How did you get started developing your plugin?
What were the main challenges you faced when getting started?
What did you like about the plugin development process?
What would you change about the process?
Have you received much user feedback for your plugin?
Why did you choose to open-source your plugin? Has anyone else contributed?

Thanks for watching!

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@jetbrains