Notable Changes in IntelliJ Platform and Plugins API 2019.*

2019.3

Notable Changes in IntelliJ Platform 2019.3

PlatformTestCase renamed to HeavyPlatformTestCase

Now reflects its “heavy test” characteristics (see Light and Heavy Tests).

Support for transitive optional plugin dependencies

Optional plugin.xml configuration files can now specify <depends>. Issue

Theme/Keymap plugins do not require restart

(Un)Installing or enabling/disabling Theme or Keymap plugins doesn’t require an IDE restart anymore.

Run task once (per project)

Use com.intellij.ide.util.RunOnceUtil to run a task exactly once for application or per project.

Symbol completion in plain text editor (VCS Commit Message)

Contribute symbol names (classes, methods, ..) via com.intellij.completion.plainTextSymbol extension point (com.intellij.codeInsight.completion.PlainTextSymbolCompletionContributor).

User-customizable date/time formatting

Use com.intellij.util.text.JBDateFormat#getFormatter() to use configured format from Settings | Appearance & Behavior | System Settings | Date Formats.

Notable Changes in IntelliJ IDEA

Unbundled plugins

Several plugins (Heroku integration, RubyMotion support, Java Applets Support) for no longer actively maintained technology have been moved to a separate repository. If your plugin depends on them, users will need to install them from the JetBrains plugin repository.

2019.2

Notable Changes in IntelliJ Platform 2019.2

Quickfixes for file-level notifications

Consistent with other quickfixes, the menu now shows names of fixes, not names of problems themselves. Issue

Create HTML representation of code

Use com.intellij.openapi.editor.richcopy.HtmlSyntaxInfoUtil to create Lexer-based highlighted code samples, e.g. for usage in documentation.

View | Appearance | Description in Tree Views

Toggles showing additional details in UI (e.g. modification timestamp in Project View) see UISettings#getShowInplaceComments.

New API for Editor Inlay Hints

Allows a variety of presentations (incl. custom painting), mouse event handling and exposing settings in Editor | Inlay Hints. See com.intellij.codeInsight.hints.InlayHintsProvider.

com.intellij.openapi.vfs.AsyncFileListener

A non-blocking variant for com.intellij.openapi.vfs.newvfs.BulkFileListener.

com.intellij.openapi.util.ColoredItem

Provides background color in all Trees, Lists and ComboBoxes.

com.intellij.openapi.startup.StartupActivity background variant

Use new dedicated extension point com.intellij.backgroundPostStartupActivity (see Javadoc for StartupActivity#BACKGROUND_POST_STARTUP_ACTIVITY).

com.intellij.codeHighlighting.TextEditorHighlightingPassFactory registration

Use new dedicated extension point com.intellij.highlightingPassFactory.

com.intellij.openapi.fileTypes.FileTypeFactory deprecated

When registering file type via file extension, pattern or exact file name matching, use extension point com.intellij.fileType instead (see Sample).

@org.jetbrains.annotations.ApiStatus.NonExtendable

Indicates that the annotated API class, interface or method must not be extended, implemented or overridden by external plugins but can be only obtained or instantiated (for classes and interfaces), or called (for methods).

@org.jetbrains.annotations.ApiStatus.OverrideOnly

Indicates that the annotated method is part of SPI (Service Provider Interface), which is intended to be only implemented or overridden but never called by external plugins.

com.intellij.util.Query.forEach

Defaults to thread-safe to prevent problems with clients using unsynchronized collections.

com.intellij.openapi.projectRoots.SdkType#getInvalidHomeMessage

Returns dedicated message when invalid SDK path was chosen (e.g., JRE instead of JDK).

Notable Changes in IntelliJ IDEA

Java functionality extracted as plugin

If your plugin depends on Java, it must be specified now, please see blog post for details.

Unbundled plugins

Several plugins (J2ME, JsTestDriver, Struts 1.x) for no longer actively maintained technology have been moved to a separate repository. If your plugin depends on them, users will need to install them from the JetBrains plugin repository.

2019.1

Notable Changes in IntelliJ Platform 2019.1

com.intellij.testFramework.InspectionTestCase changed to light test

Use dedicated ProjectDescriptor or rollback project setup changes in tearDown() (see Light and Heavy Tests).

@org.jetbrains.annotations.ApiStatus.AvailableSince

External annotations for IntelliJ Platform are generated and attached to plugin projects automatically (replacing @since Javadoc).

@org.jetbrains.annotations.ApiStatus.ScheduledForRemoval

External annotations for IntelliJ Platform are generated and attached to plugin projects automatically. This allows highlighting of API which has been removed in newer platform versions.

@org.jetbrains.annotations.ApiStatus.Internal

Indicates that the annotated element must not be considered as a public API. Do not use outside of IntelliJ Platform. Issue

PsiReferenceProvider assert underlying element

Assert references are created for the given underlying PsiElement. Issue

CachedValue more strict assertions

Enabled in tests and EAP/internal mode, see CachedValueStabilityChecker Javadoc.