IntelliJ IDEA 2019 progress report: 2019.1 Early Access Program is here!

It’s time to say goodbye and farewell to our 2018 thread: it’s a new year and that means a new IntelliJ IDEA. The Early Access Program is now open for developers to take IntelliJ IDEA 2019.1 for a spin. What will they find? While this is an early access version and still a work in progress, there’s a lot to explore for the new year.

With over 900 issues fixed, IntelliJ IDEA 2019.1 promises a much easier environment for developing. Check out the release notes for the multitude of bugs, performance problems, and usability issues that have been fixed.

Today, we’re a look at what JetBrains has in store for developers for 2019. You can download the EAP here.

Java

The upcoming 2019.1 will come with support for the planned Java 12 Enhanced Switches. In the Java 12 preview, IntelliJ IDEA can generate missing switches as well as work for enhanced switch statements or expressions. If there’s an error in the switch statement, IntelliJ detects it and can suggest a correction. It can also detect duplicate branches.

Extract variable refactorings have been improved as well, making it possible to better preserve semantics. IntelliJ IDEA 2019.1 extracts variables from field initializers and automatically moves initializers into initializer blocks. It currently works for return, assignment, and declaration. Developers can also configure variable names for auto-generated try/catch blocks.

Gradle

2019.1 comes with improved Gradke integration as a number of bug fixes and usability issues have been dealt with. “Delegate build/run to Gradle” has been enabled by default for new projects. It can also be set for each Gradle project. HotSwap now works. The overall built-in Gradle version has upgraded to v4.10.3.

Maven

IntelliJ IDEA 2019.1 does support Maven 2, but it will no longer be bundled with it anymore. Maven v3.3.9 will be bundled with IDEA 2019.1. In fact, JetBrains is considering to end support for Maven 2 in v.2019.2; please add your comments if you have thoughts on the matter.

Version Control Systems

New actions are available for developers in 2019.1: Fixup and Squash. These actions allow developers to create commits with the correct commit messages. Developers can also cherry pick select files from the commit from the context menu. Plus, the IDE indicates incoming and outgoing commits for individual branches in the Branches popup.

2019.1 also allows developers to view and restore deleted shelved files. There are also changes for Git settings, file status highlights, and the diff viewer.

Editor

Do you use Ctrl+Y? The first time a developer uses that keystroke, there will be a new Keymap Configuration Dialog. Developers will be able to choose whether that shortcut belongs to “Delete Line” or “Redo”. (Of course, this can be reassigned later if necessary.)

2018.3 already provides initial support for Spring Cloud Stream; 2019.1 pushes this further with rich editing support with things like syntax highlighting, code completion, inspections, and quick-fixes.