IntelliJ IDEA 2018.3 is out with support for Java 12, accessibility improvements, GitHub pull requests, and more

Yesterday, the JetBrains community announced IntelliJ IDEA 2018.3, this year’s third major update. The IntelliJ IDEA 2018.3 is a massive new update that delivers Java 12 support, Multiline TODO comments, GitHub Pull Requests, Git submodules, Accessibility improvements, and more.

Major updates in the IntelliJ IDEA 2018.3

Java Updates

Support for Java 12: The 2018.3 version adds an initial support for the upcoming Java 12. Users can preview the Raw String Literals (JEP 326) in the IDE.

Quickly spot duplicates: Users can now quickly spot duplicates in more complicated cases using this IDE.

Java Stream API improvements: Redundant sorted calls made before the subsequent min call are now easily detected.

New data-flow-based inspection: The new inspection known as ‘Condition is covered by further condition’ detects situations where the first condition is unnecessary as it’s covered by the second one. The new IDE provides a quick-fix to remove such redundant conditions.

Detection of redundant usages of the @SuppressWarning annotation: The IDE now identifies situations where a suppressed inspection no longer addresses any warnings in the associated method body, class, or statement.

Editor Updates

Issues in code are highlighted: The IDE highlights the first and all subsequent TODO comment lines in the editor and displays them in the TODO tool window.

New indentation status bar: A new indentation status bar displays the size of the indent in the current file.

Improvements in the EditorConfig support:
You can create a scope to disable code formatting from being done on specific files and folders. Go to the ‘Formatter Control’ tab in Preferences / Settings | Editor | Code Style.
Syntax highlighting and code completion are now available for EditorConfig files.

Version Control Updates

Initial support for GitHub Pull Requests:  With this users can now view PRs in their IDE.

Support for Git submodules: update your project, commit changes, view diffs, and resolve conflicts.

New GitHub Pull Requests tool window: With this tool window, users can preview all the pull requests in your GitHub repository.

Advanced navigation in VCS Log: Users can use the Forward and Back navigation actions while they are in the VCS Log after they navigate from the commit hashes to the commit in the VCS Log tab, or after they use the Go to hash/branch/tag action. Simply use the left and right arrow keys to navigate to the child or parent commit.

Preview differences in the File History tab: Diff Preview is now available in the File History tab of the Version Control tool window.

Kotlin Updates

Kotlin 1.3 support: IntelliJ IDEA can help you migrate Kotlin project to Kotlin 1.3 and perform all the required changes in obsolete code to make it compliant with the latest state of the libraries.

Enhancements in multiplatform project support: In Kotlin 1.3, the model of multiplatform projects has been completely reworked in order to improve expressiveness and flexibility, and to make sharing common code easier. IntelliJ IDEA provides a set of project examples that cover the most common use cases.

New Kotlin Inspections & Quick-fixes: Since the release of IntelliJ IDEA 2018.2, the Kotlin plugin has got over 30 new inspections, quick-fixes, and intentions that helps write a code much more effectively.

Spring & Spring Boot Updates

Spring Boot 2.1 support: IntelliJ IDEA 2018.3 fully supports Spring Boot 2.1. Configuration values annotated with @DataSize are validated using the default @DataSizeUnit if specified.

Spring Initializr improvements: While creating a project using Spring Initializr, the IDE will suggest installing or enabling appropriate plugins to ensure that support for all selected technologies is present.

Better JPA and Spring Data support for Kotlin: Now the IDE can automatically inject JPQL into query strings, providing completion for entity names and parameters. Users can write Spring Data interfaces in Kotlin, and IntelliJ IDEA will understand the entities used. The IDE provides smart completion for method names and quick-fixes for parameters.

Maven Updates

Users can now easily delegate all their build and run actions to Maven. They simply have to go to Preferences (Settings) | Build, Execution, Deployment | Build Tools | Maven | Runner and select the new Delegate IDE build/run actions to maven option.

JVM Debugger Updates

Attach to Java processes that were started without a debug agent:  After attaching to a process, users will be able to view the current thread’s state and variable values, and use the memory view. If users want to attach the debugger to their local process, they can use the handy new Attach Debugger action, which is available in the Run Tool Window

Async stack traces in remote JVMs: IntelliJ IDEA 2018.3 now supports async stack traces in remote JVMs. To start using the agent remotely:

copy /lib/rt/debugger-agent.jar to the remote machine.
add -javaagent:debugger-agent.jar to the remote JVM options.

Action to remove all breakpoints: IntelliJ IDEA 2018.3 comes with handy new actions that remove all the breakpoints in a project, or all the breakpoints in the file.

JavaScript & TypeScript Updates

Improved Angular support: This includes much more accurate code completion and Go to definition for variables, pipes and async pipes, and template reference variables.

Autoimports in JavaScript: IntelliJ IDEA can now automatically add imports for symbols from the project’s dependencies, in JavaScript files. This works as long as there’s a TypeScript definition file inside the package, or the package contains sources written as ES module.

Support for Node.js worker threads: Users can now debug Node.js workers in IntelliJ IDEA. Users should be cautious of using Node.js 10.12 or above and the experimental-worker flag. The IDE provides code completion for the worker threads’ API.

Improved flexibility with ESLint and TSLint: Users can override severity levels from the linter’s configuration file and see all problems from the linter as errors or warnings.

Kubernetes Update

Support for Helm resource files: The IDE now resolves the Helm resource template files and provides with editing support, which includes code completion, rename refactoring, and inspections and quick-fixes.

Navigation in Helm resource files: The IDE lets users navigate from a value’s usage to its declaration in the chart’s values.yaml file.

Helm template result preview: The IDE can now preview the result of the Helm template rendering in the diff.

Helm dependency update: A new Helm Dependency Update action is available to download the external tgz dependencies (or update the existing ones) and display them in the project tree.

Database Updates

Added support for Cassandra database: With this release, the team has added support for the NoSQL database, Cassandra.

Improvements in SQL code completion: Now code completion works for: non-aggregated fields in GROUP BY, all the columns are listed in SELECT, MERGE, and INSERT INTO table variable, named parameters of stored procedures, numeric fields in SUM() and AVG(), FILTER (WHERE) clause, and field types in SQLite.

Introduction to table alias: One can now use the Introduce table alias action to create an alias directly on the table, and this alias will automatically replace usages of the table’s name.

Single connection mode: In IntelliJ IDEA 2018.3 users can view any temporary objects in the database tree. Also, it’s possible to use the same transaction in different consoles.

To know more about these and other updates in detail, visit the JetBrains blog.

IntelliJ IDEA 2018.3 Early Access Program is now open!

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