JetBrains IntelliJ IDEA Blog

This weekend JetBrains attended the popular JavaDay conference at Cagliari, Italian island of Sardinia. I had a presentation titled “Productive Java from Start to Finish,” though I didn’t quite get to the ‘finish’ in the 45 minute time limit. I was just getting to the good parts when I saw the time-keeper hold up a sign saying “5 minutes” remaining. Oops! Well, at least I learned a lot, this being my second live presentation so far. (The first one was done too fast, ironically; have to find a happy medium.)

Thanks to Fabrizio Gianneschi (Java User Group Sardegna), who organized the event. Check out the photos here and here. There’s one with me in the middle with Fabricio and Roman Strobl (NetBeans evangelist) on the sunny Saturday afternoon. Did I mention the weather was fantastic, even for Cagliari in November?

There were some interesting presentations (luckily the slides were mostly in English) on ‘agent oriented programming’ with the JADE framework and at least two presentations regarding robotics and Lego Mindstorms, which I think is pretty cool, plus many more topics.

One of the highlights of the event for me was the dinner with Fabricio, Roman, Marco Colombo (Sun, Italy), and Giovanni Marciano (IRRE Piemonte). Incredible seafood, great conversation, and a waiter who sang and played guitar while we waited for our fish (he was busy entertaining us, after all!). Oh yes, and something called Mirto, to cap off the night.

Overall, I think it was a very successful event.

IntelliJ IDEA Java EE support was beefed up with the very interesting feature. Now you can build a database Web interface in literally a few mouse clicks. Well, okay, at least get yourself a starting point, which is way better that beginning from scratch.


I must note that there are some prerequisites, though:

1. A Web Module that is used to host the Persistence Unit
2. Persistence Unit that is used to encapsulate the database access

Details about creating Web modules, Persistence Units and mapping them to various datasources can be found in the IntelliJ IDEA built-in help, under Java EE Support, EJB Support and Web Application Development sections.

After the prerequisites are met, follow this simple step-by-step procedure:

Remember to switch to the Java EE View for performing the steps below

1. Right-click the Persistence Unit and select Generate Faces Pages

2. In the Create application files in field type the path where you want to store all the generated files.
3. In the Create Manage Beans in package specify the package where you want to create the Managed Bean classes.
4. From the Store facelets configuration list select the JSF configuration file where JSF configuration descriptor will be placed. This list contains all JSF configuration files eligible for the project.
5. In the Use this suffix for Managed Bean names specify the suffix that is added all generated Managed Bean names.
6. Select the Create separate subdirectory for each of the entities if you want to create separate folder for each of the entities and place all generated files that are used to access that entity.
   If you clear this option, the Automatically generate page names is selected to prevent from ambigous file names.

After the settings are configured, define what pages you want to generate:

1. Under the Entity column select what entities you want to generate interface pages for.
2. Under Edit, View, List, Create columns select what template should be used to generated the data access pages. Note that selecting a template from the column header overrides setting for the entire column.
   Remember that templates can be managed through the File Templates dialog and so you have the option to create the data access pages from your custom templates that contain functionality and layout of your choice.
3. Under Managed Bean column select template that will be used to generate the Managed Bean code.
4. Select a tab below the table to examine what code will be generated for each of the pages.
5. Click Generate.

IntelliJ IDEA generates the specified application files and you can try it by compiling and deploying the module to an application server.


Download the 6.0.2 release of IntelliJ IDEA and try this feature. You may also want to join IntelliJ IDEA EAP and watch the latest improvements and additions.

Being a maintenance release that includes small fixes and enhancements based on the feedback we have received, IntelliJ IDEA 6.0.2 also contains several noteworthy improvements:

• GWT applications internationalization.
• Automatic generation of JSF data access pages.
• Improved Visual Source Safe and StarTeam support.
• Various fixes addressing performance and stability issues.

Also note that Live GWT Demo was updated and now clearly demonstrates you how to internationalize your GWT applications.

IntelliJ IDEA 6.0 users are welcome to download and upgade without any additional fees.

Users of older IntelliJ IDEA versions and others can browse through the How to Upgrade page to find their upgrade plan.

The latest version of TeamCity is now available at Download page.

This release is mainly aimed at improving product quality based on your bug reports and feedback, which we really appreciate. We have also added several features that make your team development process smarter:

• Support for TestNG tests for Ant build runner
• “Stacktrace navigation” from TeamCity to IntelliJ IDEA
• Subversion access over https protocol with client certificate authentication

Now TeamCity works under Internet Explorer 7.0 and Firefox 2.0.

You can take a look at these and other features in the TeamCity live demo.

More features are coming soon in the next minor release:

• support of ClearCase and Visual SourceSafe
• long-awaited integration of TeamCity with Microsoft Visual Studio

Join our Early Access Program and be the first to know the latest news and share your opinion on new and existing product features!

In the spirit of healthy dialogue, I’m looking for a whole series of reviews of IntelliJ IDEA 6.0. If you know of any reviews or comparisons involving IDEA 6.0, feel free to comment on this post, and include the links!

The good, the bad, and the ugly are all appreciated!

So to get the ball rolling, here’s a recent review from an Eclipse user, Unnsse Khan, who just spoke at the SDJUG in California!

Enjoy! http://trusoftware.blogspot.com/2006/11/eclipse-vs-intellij-idea.html

Technorati Tags: IntelliJ IntelliJ IDEA Eclipse NetBeans Review IntelliJ Review Eclipse Review NetBeans Review

~~
I believed it before, but now it’s undeniable: Java User Groups (JUGs) are awesome.
Not only do some of the greatest developers come together with students and other members of the community, but their leadership often brings a high level of respectability to the organization, which benefits everyone involved and helps the community as a whole. I’m proud to be working with people of such caliber, and I’m looking forward to more collaboration in the near future!

If your JUG is looking for speakers for 2007, we can help! Write me at jugs@jetbrains.com for more info.
~~

On Monday of this week, I had the chance to attend our local JUG, the CZJUG, at the Czech Technical University in the heart of Prague, where Rob Harwood of JetBrains presented “Annotations in Java” (slides coming in the near future), followed by Danny Coward of Sun and his informative overview of the upcoming JDK 7 features.

The thing that struck me most… besides the looks on the 50+ guys’ faces when Ann Oreshnikova speedily answered a java trivia question, even though she doesn’t speak Czech, and won a great-looking SDN Java Hoodie… was the competition between JUG members when personal licenses of IntelliJ IDEA 6.0 and TeamCity 1.0 were up for grabs. Awesome. As long as it never gets to this level, friendly competition is fine with me!

Later in the week I was lucky enough to meet with Bruno Souza, Brazil’s Javaman, to discuss how JetBrains can help JUG communities worldwide. I’m looking forward to attending more JUG meetings all over Europe in the future, and to helping out with even more than I can attend. So far, we’ve got a few meetings lined up outside the US, from Egypt and Greece, all the way up to Belgium for JavaPolis 06! If you’re looking for speakers for your JUG, or if you know someone who would like to speak at more JUGs, write me here!

All the best,

Dave Booth

Technorati Tags: JUG Java User Group Rob Harwood Javapolis IntelliJ IntelliJ IDEA Bruno Souza TeamCity SUN

As you might have noticed, IntelliJ IDEA contains tons of various features. Now JetBrains wants your feedback to find out what product features you are using more intensively than others, which ones of them are used not so frequently and those that maybe are never used. The aim of this little survey is to make IntelliJ IDEA even more productive and friendly to use.

IntelliJ IDEA includes the built-in statistics engine that gathers information about product features you are using in your everyday work (you can view this information from the Help menu, Productivity Guide). The statistics is also stored in the feature.usage.statistics.xml file. This file can be found:

• Windows systems: %userprofile%\.IntelliJIDEAxx\config\options
• *NIX systems: home/.IntelliJIDEAxx/config/options
• Macintosh systems: ~/Library/Preferences/IntelliJIDEAxx/options/

Note that xx is the IntelliJ IDEA version number you are using.

Please find a couple of minutes, locate this file and email it to idea-feedback@jetbrains.com with Features Statistics in the subject.