IntelliJ IDEA Plugin Development: Setup, Components, Actions, Services, Persistence, GUI

The article introduces how to create IntelliJ IDEA plugins, starting with installing Android Studio/IntelliJ IDEA and setting up the development environment.

It explains the required project structure, showing a typical layout with src/ and resources/META-INF/plugin.xml directories.

Component development is covered, including defining application, project, and module components, registering them in plugin.xml , and their lifecycle methods ( initComponent , disposeComponent , projectOpened , etc.). Example registration: <application-components> <component> <interface-class>com.example.test.Component1</interface-class> <implementation-class>com.example.test.Component1Impl</implementation-class> </component> </application-components>

Action creation is demonstrated by extending AnAction and overriding actionPerformed . Sample code: public class TextBoxes extends AnAction { @Override public void actionPerformed(AnActionEvent e) { Project project = e.getData(PlatformDataKeys.PROJECT); Messages.showInputDialog(project, "What is your name?", "Input your name", Messages.getQuestionIcon()); } } The action is registered in plugin.xml : <actions> <group id="MyPlugin.SampleMenu" text="Sample Menu" description="Sample menu"> <add-to-group group-id="MainMenu" anchor="last"/> <action id="Myplugin.Textboxes" class="Mypackage.TextBoxes" text="Text Boxes" description="A test menu item"/> </group> </actions>

The guide also covers extension points and extensions, showing how to declare an <extensionPoint> and implement it with implementation or beanClass attributes.

Service development is explained, with examples of declaring an application or project service in plugin.xml and accessing it via ServiceManager.getService : MyProjectService service = ServiceManager.getService(MyProjectService.class);

State persistence is addressed using PropertiesComponent for simple key‑value data and PersistentStateComponent for complex state. Example of a persistent component: @State(name = "PersistentDemo", storages = {@Storage("PluginDemo.xml")}) public class PersistentDemo implements PersistentStateComponent { public static class State { public String value; } private State myState = new State(); @Override public State getState() { return myState; } @Override public void loadState(State state) { XmlSerializerUtil.copyBean(state, this); } }

GUI design using IntelliJ's GUI Designer is described: enable code generation, create a .form file, drag Swing components, assign field names, and generate Java source. The generated code contains methods wrapped with $ markers that are updated automatically when the form changes.

Finally, the article outlines how to package the plugin (JAR or ZIP), install it via the IDE’s plugin settings, and run/debug the plugin within a sandboxed IDEA instance.