IntelliJ IDEA plugins Curated for Java Developers
I’m a big fan of IDEA based IDEs. Nowadays I am mostly working on the IntelliJ IDEA IDE. So having a good set of plugins improve your productivity. Now there is a marketplace of plugins where you can get tons of free plugins as well as paid ones. So here is my favorite list of plugins that I am using the day to day basis.
1. Maven Helper
This plugin is a must-have plugin if you are using maven as your build tool. When working on a large project you may notice that how many times you use maven dependency analyze command and scroll top to bottom to find dependency or dependency conflict. This plugin gives you a nice view where you can search instantly and exclude conflicts by a single click. There are many other options you will find useful.
2. Maven Dependency Searcher
This plugin gives you in IDE searching of maven central. It also provides you to download binary jars, sources jars and option to copy dependency for your favorite build tool. So this simplifies dependency searching and will be useful for projects that use third-party libraries.
3. Maven Dependency Updater
Have you noticed that Android Studio has a nice little feature where you can update a dependency to its latest version in build Gradle file? So this plugin is developed by me to give the same intention but for maven. So give it a try and let me know what you think. This requires up to date maven index. You can update maven repositories by accessing Settings ➡ Build, Execution, Deployment ➡ Build Tools ➡ Maven ➡ Repositories. Next, select the repository you want to update and hit the update button.
4. Database Navigator
Many applications require SQL database integration. So IntelliJ IDEA Ultimate edition comes with the SQL database integration. So what about community edition? Database Navigator gives you a complete set of tools when working with SQL databases within IntelliJ IDEA community edition. It supports Oracle, MySQL, SQLite and PostgreSQL. It’s one of my favorite plugins.
5. Duplicate Class Finder
I think you know about concept call jar hell. Meaning of the Jar Hell is that when you have multiple dependencies in your classpath there could be classes with the same namespace and name. So in the runtime, they could conflict with each other providing unintended behaviours. So this plugin helps you to identify those type of issues in your project classpath.
6. Visual VM Launcher
Analyzing performance impacts is critical for any Java application. Visual VM is a great tool to do that. But attaching it from the Visual VM is a little bit cumbersome. So why don’t you do it within IntelliJ IDEA itself?
7. Sonar Lint
I hope you try to deliver quality code always. So having static code analyzer within the reach of few clicks is an advantage. This plugin could be used as a standalone plugin for popular Sonarqube. Also, it could integrate with your Sonarqube server to fetch analyzing rules from it.
8. Archive Browser
Sometimes you need to have a look inside of your war file or any archive file. Archive Browser provider your directory like navigation inside of archive file within the project tool window. Isn’t it awesome?
9. Builder Generator
As the name implies it generates builder pattern for POJO with a single click. You can generate either inner builders or separate builder class using this plugin.
10. Generate Copy Constructor
This plugin generates copy constructor. Trust me it’s helpful in some cases. So having this in your plugin collection is a plus.
11. GenerateSerialVersionUID
This plugin comes in handy when you working on a project that relies on java serialization. It easily adds the serialVersionUID for a class.
12. GenerateAllSetter
This plugin allows you to generate all the setters with default values. You only have to update the values as you wanted, definitely saves a bunch of keystrokes for you.
Final Words
When I found something myself repeating, I tend to search for a plugin in the marketplace. Most of the time there is a one, so give it a try. Now it’s easy to install plugin while browsing the marketplace. Also comment I’ve missed plugin that you love. Give a clap if you found this helpful. Thanks for reading.
