Intellij Setup
Intellij is an IDE specifically built for writing Java software. Because it is a first class Java editor, it offers much better support than the versions of VS Code that WPI provides us, including but not limited to:
Better and more reliable intellisense
Better refactoring/renaming support (especially at the class level)
A much better Git integration tool
Smarter Command and Subsystem class creation
Better Checkstyle and PMD integration (if you choose to adopt a styleguide)
Allows support of multi “module” projects (aka subprojects, like reusable libraries, a separate project for a dashboard, etc))
Installing Intellij
The easiest way to install and update Intellij is by download Jet Brains Toolbox application. This will alert you whenever there is a new version, and allows you to easily download their other IDEs if you ever want to dabble in Python or Web Development
Once Toolbox has been installed, open it and select the “Intellij Community Edition”, and run the installer
Note
The FRC Intellij Plugin revolves around the FRC competition season and often will lag behind, and end up incompatible with the newer versions of the intellij IDE. Because of this, it is recommended that you install the latest supported version listed on the plugins webpage.
It is also recommended that everyone on the team use the same version, and that you lock that version down at the start of the build season.
The latest supported version is 2021.3.3
Installing Plugins
To get the best experience out of Intellij, we need to install some additional plugins.
To install a plugin, go to File -> Settings -> Plugins
. Select the “Marketplace” for the following plugins, and install them. Once they are all done, you will need to restart Intellij
FRC
Checkstyle-IDEA
Setting up Java Compiler
Intellij comes bundled with its own version of java, but to be more consistent with how VS code operates, it is highly recommended (and in some cases required) to point intellij to the offically supported version of the JDK distributed with the VS Code Tools installer.
To add the wpilib JDK, navigate to File -> Project Structure -> Project -> SDK -> Edit
. Click the “+” button to add a new SDK, and navigate to the folder where the WPI tools where installed. On windows, this will be something like C:\Users\Public\wpilib\2022\jdk
FRC Plugin
The Intellij FRC plugin is an open source project to provide a lot of helpful features for us when we are developing software for FRC robots. It eases the creation of Subsystems and Commands by filling in a lot of the boiler plate code for use.
Adding a Subsystem
Right click on the package where you want to put the subsystem (almost certainly frc.robot.subsystems
), and click “New -> FRC -> Subsystem”
The subsystem it creates is very sparse. At the very least, you will probably want to add a periodic
function
Adding a Command
Right click on the package where you want to put the command, and click “New -> FRC -> Command”. You will be given the option to select what subsystems this command requires to save you some typing.