Hi! It’s good news today for a lot of java, ruby and groovy developers – new version “Maia” (officially v9) was just released by JetBrains with a lot of new features (including faster environment, extensive Java 6 support, build-in Google App Engine and Grails projects support etc) – feel read full “What’s new” list.

There exists also not so good news – this time for PHP developers – support of PHP was removed from release of free (”community”) version of IDEA, so developers can stick with other completely free IDEs this time – for example NetBeans comes to my mind this time… as alternative… but after Oracle buy Sun, I not sure it is right choice… but this is “idea” for another post…)

Actually personally I don’t understand why “Community” version does not support PHP, Javascript, Python or Ruby as this languages are used by a lot (if not most) of “open source” developers that for some reasons does not feet into JetBrains licensing of commercial version of IntelliJ IDEA for open source projects. I think “vice versa” if compare to JetBrains – Commercial version must have extended support for Java development, while Community edition must support MORE other open source frameworks / languages, like Ruby, Python or PHP etc. Sure it’s only my “personal” opinion, but I think most of developers will agree with me – people that use IDEA for Java development (usually in enterprises) can (and will!) simply BUY commercial licenses, while a lot of potential IntelliJ users actually want to use it for small open source projects in non-Java languages stack and want to get IDE for FREE!

But totally – all new features show that JetBrains go in right direction – support for most “progressive” and “latest” technologies in IDEA (even if it is available only commercially )

Keep it going, JetBrains!

Let’s start with installation and configuration of the IntelliJ IDEA IDE for RoR / GoG / Django and Google App Engine development.

At the time I write this article, version 8 is available and version 9 (Maia) only at pre-release stages… So we start development in version 8 (but with really huge interest we will wait for version 9!). Also please note that community version of IDE is lack some important functions, so we going to use commercial version (30 day trial will be enough to start)

So go to http://www.jetbrains.com/idea/, download and start installation of Windows version of IntelliJ IDEA. During installation you need to select the plugins to enable. Made following selection (I am going to use Git and Subversion version controls systems in Evejob project)

On next screen, when IDEA will ask you about Web/JavaEE plugins I recommend to leave all options selected (unless you know that you not going to use some of Java technologies in near future) dues to the fact that when we move to Grails development, some of this plug ins will be in used.

On “Select Application Server Plugins” I also recommend to leave all options, as probably we will want to test hosting of application on as much Web Servers as possible (unless you know specific server requirements) – it is exactly way I am going to develop Evejob!

Same way, I recommend to leave all HTML / JavaScript development Plugins and Other Plugins selected (unless you know for sure which one you going to use and which one not… seems effort to enable them later can be more then performance issues in case if you just leave everything enabled, at least on latest hardware).

In case if you have only one developer machine, on next screen with “IDEA Server Account details” you can just select “Do not login”, press “Skip”

and move forward to the end of installation.

Finish!

But wait – it’s not all – we need also to install plugins for RoR, Django and even Google AppEngine (Grails support build in to IntelliJ IDEA 8)…

Let’s start:
- go to File / Settings
- in Settings window found at left list box “Plugins” item and select it.

- open tab Available

- wait few seconds, until get a list of all available plugins in JetBrains database.

- in search box, start typing “Python”.

- select “Python” plugin in filtered list

- right click and press “Download and Install” link

Plugin will be downloaded and installed for you (usually takes few minutes)!

Now it is time to install same way “Ruby” and “Google App Engine” plugins…

After you install all 3 plugins, press “Apply” button and answer “Yes” to the question about restart IDEA to activate changes in plugins.

That’s it with IntelliJ IDEA installation!