[Customs] 1. IntelliJ IDEA Configuration & Recommended Plugins

Introduction

As one of the most powerful Java IDEs available, IntelliJ IDEA can be significantly enhanced through proper configuration and carefully selected plugins. This guide presents a curated collection of essential plugins and configuration skills that will transform your development experience.

The goal is to provide ready-to-use configurations and plugins that immediately improve productivity, code quality, and development workflow.

Essential Plugins

🔧 Development Tools

CamelCase (3.0.12)

Purpose: Quick text case conversion for variable names and strings.

Features:

• Convert between camelCase, PascalCase, snake_case, and SCREAMING_SNAKE_CASE
• Keyboard shortcut: Shift + Alt + U
• Essential for refactoring and code consistency
• Supports multiple selection for batch conversions

Use Cases:

• Converting database column names to Java field names
• Adapting naming conventions between different coding standards
• Quick text formatting during code reviews

Maven Helper (4.23.222.2964.0)

Purpose: Enhanced Maven project management and dependency analysis.

Key Features:

• Visual dependency tree with conflict resolution
• Easy exclusion of transitive dependencies
• Quick Maven goal execution
• Dependency analyzer with search functionality

Benefits:

• Resolve dependency conflicts quickly
• Understand project dependency structure
• Optimize build performance by identifying unused dependencies

RestfulToolkit-fix (2.0.8)

Purpose: RESTful API development assistance.

Features:

• Navigate to REST endpoints quickly
• Generate HTTP requests from controller methods
• API documentation integration
• Request/response testing within IDE

Workflow Enhancement:

• Jump to controller methods from URLs
• Test API endpoints without external tools
• Maintain API documentation alongside code

🎨 Visual Enhancement

Atom Material Icons

Purpose: Beautiful file and folder icons for better visual organization.

Features:

• Modern, colorful icon set
• Language-specific file icons
• Framework and library recognition
• Customizable icon themes

Pokemon Progress

Purpose: Fun Pokemon-themed progress bars.

Features:

• Replace boring progress bars with Pokemon characters
• Multiple Pokemon themes available

🛠️ Productivity Tools

Grep Console

Purpose: Advanced console output filtering and highlighting.

Features:

• Real-time log filtering with regex patterns
• Color-coded log levels and patterns
• Save and reuse filter configurations
• Multiple console tabs with different filters

🌐 API Development

Apipost

Purpose: API testing and documentation within IntelliJ IDEA.

Features:

• Create and execute HTTP requests

Tips:

• Only use for temporary testing
• Still recommend Postman for complex API testing

📊 Diagram & Design Tools

PlantUML

Purpose: Professional UML diagram creation using text-based syntax.

Key Features:

• Real-time diagram preview with instant updates
• Comprehensive diagram types: sequence, class, activity, use case, component, deployment, state, and more
• Export to multiple formats (PNG, SVG, PDF, LaTeX)
• Integration with code documentation and comments
• Version control friendly (text-based source)

Excalidraw

Purpose: Hand-drawn style diagrams for brainstorming and creative design.

Key Features:

• Intuitive drag-and-drop interface
• Hand-drawn aesthetic for approachable diagrams
• Real-time collaborative whiteboarding
• Extensive shape and element library
• Export to various formats (PNG, SVG, JSON)

Essential IDE Skills & Configurations

🚀 Automation Settings

Commit-Time Code Formatting

Configuration: Enable automatic code formatting on commit

Setup Path: VCS → Git → Enable "Reformat code" and "Optimize imports"

Local Variable Final Enhancement

Configuration: Automatic final modifier for local variables

Setup: Editor → Inspections → Java → Code Style → Local variable or parameter can be final

⌨️ Productivity Shortcuts

Advanced Cursor Operations

Essential Shortcuts:

• Alt + Click: Add cursor at click position
• Alt + Shift + Click: Create rectangular selection
• Ctrl + Alt + Shift + J: Select all occurrences
• Alt + J: Select next occurrence

Workflow Enhancement:

• Multi-line editing efficiency
• Bulk text replacements
• Simultaneous code modifications

Custom Live Templates

Popular Custom Templates:

• .str → String.valueOf($VAR$)
• .not → !$VAR$
• .nn → if ($VAR$ != null)
• .null → if ($VAR$ == null)

Setup Path: Editor → Live Templates → Create new template group

Productivity Benefits:

• Faster common code patterns
• Reduced typing and syntax errors
• Consistent coding patterns across team

🎯 Code Quality Settings

Import Optimization

Configuration: Prevent wildcard imports

Setup Path: Editor → Code Style → Java → Imports

• Set “Class count to use import with ‘*’” to 999
• Set “Names count to use static import with ‘*’” to 999

Benefits:

• Explicit import declarations
• Avoid naming conflicts
• Smaller JAR file sizes
• Better IDE performance

File Header Templates

Configuration: Automatic file headers with author and date

Template Example:

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/**
 * TODO: Add class description
 *
 * @author ${USER}
 * @version 1.0, ${DATE}
 * @since 1.0.0
 */

Setup Path: Editor → File and Code Templates → Includes

Line Ending Consistency

Configuration: Ensure files end with line breaks

Setup Path: Editor → General → On Save → "Ensure every saved file ends with a line break"

Benefits:

• Consistent file endings across operating systems
• Better compatibility with command-line tools
• Cleaner git diffs