Things Possible in Intellij That Aren't Possible in Eclipse

Things possible in IntelliJ that aren't possible in Eclipse?

CTRL-click works anywhere

CTRL-click that brings you to where clicked object is defined works everywhere - not only in Java classes and variables in Java code, but in Spring configuration (you can click on class name, or property, or bean name), in Hibernate (you can click on property name or class, or included resource), you can navigate within one click from Java class to where it is used as Spring or Hibernate bean; clicking on included JSP or JSTL tag also works, ctrl-click on JavaScript variable or function brings you to the place it is defined or shows a menu if there are more than one place, including other .js files and JS code in HTML or JSP files.

Autocomplete for many languagues

Hibernate

Autocomplete in HSQL expressions, in Hibernate configuration (including class, property and DB column names), in Spring configuration

<property name="propName" ref="<hit CTRL-SPACE>"

and it will show you list of those beans which you can inject into that property.

Java

Very smart autocomplete in Java code:

interface Person {
    String getName();
    String getAddress();
    int getAge();
}
//---
Person p;
String name = p.<CTRL-SHIFT-SPACE>

and it shows you ONLY getName(), getAddress() and toString() (only they are compatible by type) and getName() is first in the list because it has more relevant name. Latest version 8 which is still in EAP has even more smart autocomplete.

interface Country{
}
interface Address {
    String getStreetAddress();
    String getZipCode();
    Country getCountry();
}
interface Person {
    String getName();
    Address getAddress();
    int getAge();
}
//--- 
Person p;
Country c = p.<CTRL-SHIFT-SPACE>

and it will silently autocomplete it to

Country c = p.getAddress().getCountry();

Javascript

Smart autocomplete in JavaScript.

function Person(name,address) {
    this.getName = function() { return name };
    this.getAddress = function() { return address };
}

Person.prototype.hello = function() {
    return "I'm " + this.getName() + " from " + this.get<CTRL-SPACE>;
}

and it shows ONLY getName() and getAddress(), no matter how may get* methods you have in other JS objects in your project, and ctrl-click on this.getName() brings you to where this one is defined, even if there are some other getName() functions in your project.

HTML

Did I mention autocomplete and ctrl-clicking in paths to files, like <script src="", <img src="", etc?

Autocomplete in HTML tag attributes. Autocomplete in style attribute of HTML tags, both attribute names and values. Autocomplete in class attributes as well.

Type <div class="<CTRL-SPACE> and it will show you list of CSS classes defined in your project. Pick one, ctrl-click on it and you will be redirected to where it is defined.

Easy own language higlighting

Latest version has language injection, so you can declare that you custom JSTL tag usually contains JavaScript and it will highlight JavaScript inside it.

<ui:obfuscateJavaScript>function something(){...}</ui:obfuscateJavaScript>

Indexed search across all project.

You can use Find Usages of any Java class or method and it will find where it is used including not only Java classes but Hibernate, Spring, JSP and other places. Rename Method refactoring renames method not only in Java classes but anywhere including comments (it can not be sure if string in comments is really method name so it will ask). And it will find only your method even if there are methods of another class with same name.
Good source control integration (does SVN support changelists? IDEA support them for every source control), ability to create a patch with your changes so you can send your changes to other team member without committing them.

Improved debugger

When I look at HashMap in debugger's watch window, I see logical view - keys and values, last time I did it in Eclipse it was showing entries with hash and next fields - I'm not really debugging HashMap, I just want to look at it contents.

Spring & Hibernate configuration validation

It validates Spring and Hibernate configuration right when you edit it, so I do not need to restart server to know that I misspelled class name, or added constructor parameter so my Spring cfg is invalid.

Last time I tried, I could not run Eclipse on Windows XP x64.

and it will suggest you person.name or person.address.
Ctrl-click on person.name and it will navigate you to getName() method of Person class.

Type Pattern.compile(""); put \\ there, hit CTRL-SPACE and see helpful hint about what you can put into your regular expression. You can also use language injection here - define your own method that takes string parameter, declare in IntelliLang options dialog that your parameter is regular expression - and it will give you autocomplete there as well. Needless to say it highlights incorrect regular expressions.

Other features

There are few features which I'm not sure are present in Eclipse or not. But at least each member of our team who uses Eclipse, also uses some merging tool to merge local changes with changes from source control, usually WinMerge. I never need it - merging in IDEA is enough for me. By 3 clicks I can see list of file versions in source control, by 3 more clicks I can compare previous versions, or previous and current one and possibly merge.

It allows to to specify that I need all .jars inside WEB-INF\lib folder, without picking each file separately, so when someone commits new .jar into that folder it picks it up automatically.

Mentioned above is probably 10% of what it does. I do not use Maven, Flex, Swing, EJB and a lot of other stuff, so I can not tell how it helps with them. But it does.

Things possible in IntelliJ that aren't possible in Eclipse?

CTRL-click works anywhere

CTRL-click that brings you to where clicked object is defined works everywhere - not only in Java classes and variables in Java code, but in Spring configuration (you can click on class name, or property, or bean name), in Hibernate (you can click on property name or class, or included resource), you can navigate within one click from Java class to where it is used as Spring or Hibernate bean; clicking on included JSP or JSTL tag also works, ctrl-click on JavaScript variable or function brings you to the place it is defined or shows a menu if there are more than one place, including other .js files and JS code in HTML or JSP files.

Autocomplete for many languagues

Hibernate

Autocomplete in HSQL expressions, in Hibernate configuration (including class, property and DB column names), in Spring configuration

<property name="propName" ref="<hit CTRL-SPACE>"

and it will show you list of those beans which you can inject into that property.

Java

Very smart autocomplete in Java code:

interface Person {
    String getName();
    String getAddress();
    int getAge();
}
//---
Person p;
String name = p.<CTRL-SHIFT-SPACE>

and it shows you ONLY getName(), getAddress() and toString() (only they are compatible by type) and getName() is first in the list because it has more relevant name. Latest version 8 which is still in EAP has even more smart autocomplete.

interface Country{
}
interface Address {
    String getStreetAddress();
    String getZipCode();
    Country getCountry();
}
interface Person {
    String getName();
    Address getAddress();
    int getAge();
}
//--- 
Person p;
Country c = p.<CTRL-SHIFT-SPACE>

and it will silently autocomplete it to

Country c = p.getAddress().getCountry();

Javascript

Smart autocomplete in JavaScript.

function Person(name,address) {
    this.getName = function() { return name };
    this.getAddress = function() { return address };
}

Person.prototype.hello = function() {
    return "I'm " + this.getName() + " from " + this.get<CTRL-SPACE>;
}

and it shows ONLY getName() and getAddress(), no matter how may get* methods you have in other JS objects in your project, and ctrl-click on this.getName() brings you to where this one is defined, even if there are some other getName() functions in your project.

HTML

Did I mention autocomplete and ctrl-clicking in paths to files, like <script src="", <img src="", etc?

Autocomplete in HTML tag attributes. Autocomplete in style attribute of HTML tags, both attribute names and values. Autocomplete in class attributes as well.

Type <div class="<CTRL-SPACE> and it will show you list of CSS classes defined in your project. Pick one, ctrl-click on it and you will be redirected to where it is defined.

Easy own language higlighting

Latest version has language injection, so you can declare that you custom JSTL tag usually contains JavaScript and it will highlight JavaScript inside it.

<ui:obfuscateJavaScript>function something(){...}</ui:obfuscateJavaScript>

Indexed search across all project.

You can use Find Usages of any Java class or method and it will find where it is used including not only Java classes but Hibernate, Spring, JSP and other places. Rename Method refactoring renames method not only in Java classes but anywhere including comments (it can not be sure if string in comments is really method name so it will ask). And it will find only your method even if there are methods of another class with same name.
Good source control integration (does SVN support changelists? IDEA support them for every source control), ability to create a patch with your changes so you can send your changes to other team member without committing them.

Improved debugger

When I look at HashMap in debugger's watch window, I see logical view - keys and values, last time I did it in Eclipse it was showing entries with hash and next fields - I'm not really debugging HashMap, I just want to look at it contents.

Spring & Hibernate configuration validation

It validates Spring and Hibernate configuration right when you edit it, so I do not need to restart server to know that I misspelled class name, or added constructor parameter so my Spring cfg is invalid.

Last time I tried, I could not run Eclipse on Windows XP x64.

and it will suggest you person.name or person.address.
Ctrl-click on person.name and it will navigate you to getName() method of Person class.

Type Pattern.compile(""); put \\ there, hit CTRL-SPACE and see helpful hint about what you can put into your regular expression. You can also use language injection here - define your own method that takes string parameter, declare in IntelliLang options dialog that your parameter is regular expression - and it will give you autocomplete there as well. Needless to say it highlights incorrect regular expressions.

Other features

There are few features which I'm not sure are present in Eclipse or not. But at least each member of our team who uses Eclipse, also uses some merging tool to merge local changes with changes from source control, usually WinMerge. I never need it - merging in IDEA is enough for me. By 3 clicks I can see list of file versions in source control, by 3 more clicks I can compare previous versions, or previous and current one and possibly merge.

It allows to to specify that I need all .jars inside WEB-INF\lib folder, without picking each file separately, so when someone commits new .jar into that folder it picks it up automatically.

Mentioned above is probably 10% of what it does. I do not use Maven, Flex, Swing, EJB and a lot of other stuff, so I can not tell how it helps with them. But it does.

Things possible in IntelliJ that aren't possible in Eclipse?

CTRL-click works anywhere

CTRL-click that brings you to where clicked object is defined works everywhere - not only in Java classes and variables in Java code, but in Spring configuration (you can click on class name, or property, or bean name), in Hibernate (you can click on property name or class, or included resource), you can navigate within one click from Java class to where it is used as Spring or Hibernate bean; clicking on included JSP or JSTL tag also works, ctrl-click on JavaScript variable or function brings you to the place it is defined or shows a menu if there are more than one place, including other .js files and JS code in HTML or JSP files.

Autocomplete for many languagues

Hibernate

Autocomplete in HSQL expressions, in Hibernate configuration (including class, property and DB column names), in Spring configuration

<property name="propName" ref="<hit CTRL-SPACE>"

and it will show you list of those beans which you can inject into that property.

Java

Very smart autocomplete in Java code:

interface Person {
    String getName();
    String getAddress();
    int getAge();
}
//---
Person p;
String name = p.<CTRL-SHIFT-SPACE>

and it shows you ONLY getName(), getAddress() and toString() (only they are compatible by type) and getName() is first in the list because it has more relevant name. Latest version 8 which is still in EAP has even more smart autocomplete.

interface Country{
}
interface Address {
    String getStreetAddress();
    String getZipCode();
    Country getCountry();
}
interface Person {
    String getName();
    Address getAddress();
    int getAge();
}
//--- 
Person p;
Country c = p.<CTRL-SHIFT-SPACE>

and it will silently autocomplete it to

Country c = p.getAddress().getCountry();

Javascript

Smart autocomplete in JavaScript.

function Person(name,address) {
    this.getName = function() { return name };
    this.getAddress = function() { return address };
}

Person.prototype.hello = function() {
    return "I'm " + this.getName() + " from " + this.get<CTRL-SPACE>;
}

and it shows ONLY getName() and getAddress(), no matter how may get* methods you have in other JS objects in your project, and ctrl-click on this.getName() brings you to where this one is defined, even if there are some other getName() functions in your project.

HTML

Did I mention autocomplete and ctrl-clicking in paths to files, like <script src="", <img src="", etc?

Autocomplete in HTML tag attributes. Autocomplete in style attribute of HTML tags, both attribute names and values. Autocomplete in class attributes as well.

Type <div class="<CTRL-SPACE> and it will show you list of CSS classes defined in your project. Pick one, ctrl-click on it and you will be redirected to where it is defined.

Easy own language higlighting

Latest version has language injection, so you can declare that you custom JSTL tag usually contains JavaScript and it will highlight JavaScript inside it.

<ui:obfuscateJavaScript>function something(){...}</ui:obfuscateJavaScript>

Indexed search across all project.

You can use Find Usages of any Java class or method and it will find where it is used including not only Java classes but Hibernate, Spring, JSP and other places. Rename Method refactoring renames method not only in Java classes but anywhere including comments (it can not be sure if string in comments is really method name so it will ask). And it will find only your method even if there are methods of another class with same name.
Good source control integration (does SVN support changelists? IDEA support them for every source control), ability to create a patch with your changes so you can send your changes to other team member without committing them.

Improved debugger

When I look at HashMap in debugger's watch window, I see logical view - keys and values, last time I did it in Eclipse it was showing entries with hash and next fields - I'm not really debugging HashMap, I just want to look at it contents.

Spring & Hibernate configuration validation

It validates Spring and Hibernate configuration right when you edit it, so I do not need to restart server to know that I misspelled class name, or added constructor parameter so my Spring cfg is invalid.

Last time I tried, I could not run Eclipse on Windows XP x64.

and it will suggest you person.name or person.address.
Ctrl-click on person.name and it will navigate you to getName() method of Person class.

Type Pattern.compile(""); put \\ there, hit CTRL-SPACE and see helpful hint about what you can put into your regular expression. You can also use language injection here - define your own method that takes string parameter, declare in IntelliLang options dialog that your parameter is regular expression - and it will give you autocomplete there as well. Needless to say it highlights incorrect regular expressions.

Other features

There are few features which I'm not sure are present in Eclipse or not. But at least each member of our team who uses Eclipse, also uses some merging tool to merge local changes with changes from source control, usually WinMerge. I never need it - merging in IDEA is enough for me. By 3 clicks I can see list of file versions in source control, by 3 more clicks I can compare previous versions, or previous and current one and possibly merge.

It allows to to specify that I need all .jars inside WEB-INF\lib folder, without picking each file separately, so when someone commits new .jar into that folder it picks it up automatically.

Mentioned above is probably 10% of what it does. I do not use Maven, Flex, Swing, EJB and a lot of other stuff, so I can not tell how it helps with them. But it does.

Different Outputs Between Intellij and Eclipse

The app runs via Gradle in IntelliJ IDEA and stderr/stdout are not synchronized (probably a limitation of Gradle output logging in the IDE console).

The workaround would be to run the app directly using IDE (without Gradle) by setting the "Build and run using:" option to IntelliJ IDEA:

In addition to that IntelliJ IDEA 2019.3+ versions have a setting to sync stderr and stdout streams that you can use with Application run configuration:

Since the next 2019.3 EAP stdout and stderr process streams will
influence less each other. In particular, streams shouldn't be mixed
in middle of the lines anymore. For example, running Test class
(from the issue description) won't produce lines like 41 out41 err.
Please note that proper ordering between stdout and stderr is still
not guaranteed by default, but there is a way to enforce it with
run.processes.with.redirectedErrorStream registry key. To enable it,
do the following:

• "Help | Find Action..." on the main menu; find "Registry..." item and open it;
• Enable run.processes.with.redirectedErrorStream key.

Enabling it will merge stdout and stderr streams of processes spawned
by IDE. This will ensure proper ordering of messages from
stdout/stderr. For example, with the registry key enabled, running the
Test class will produce the expected output.

However, as a price, merging stdout and stderr will make them
indistinguishable: error output will be printed as normal text. Use
ANSI coloring to highlight error output differently. Please note that
the registry key is supported for requested run/debug configurations
only. If it is not supported for your run/debug configuration, please
submit a request in issue tracker.

Is it possible to add own shortcuts and templates in Intellij?

To begin with, let's make a simple example, for example, the hello method. Go to Settings -> Editor - > Live Templates. Here you can view ready-made groups of templates and create your own by clicking on the plus sign on the right side of the panel. You can also create a separate template, then it will be added to the user group. After clicking, you will see a window at the bottom where you need to enter an abbreviation, descriptions, and the actual text of the template. There will also be a warning label "No applicable context" and a Define button next to it, clicking on which we will see a list of possible contexts — HTML, XML, Java, Javascript, CSS, and so on. Some have sub-items, for example in Java it is possible to use a template in a method, in a comment, at the class level, somewhere else, or everywhere at once. Choose the entire Java package as an example.

As an abbreviation, we will write hello, as a text, here is a line like this:

public static void hello() {
     System.out.println("Hello")
    }

Click OK, after Apply and you can check. Create a class with any name, write hello inside, press TAB and voila — we have this method

Can i use some eclipse libraries in intellij IDE?

Yes.

This particular library is hosted by the "Eclipse Foundation", which also hosts the Eclipse IDE. So they share a name, but the Eclipse IDE is not a dependency.

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