3. Handling Editor Events

The source code for the Java action class is EditorHandlerIllustration, a subclass of AnAction. For more information about creating action classes, see Action System, which covers the topic in depth.

The EditorHandlerIllustration action is registered in the editor_basic plugin.xml file. Note that this action class is registered to appear on the Editor context menu.

<actions>
  <action
      id="EditorBasics.EditorHandlerIllustration"
      class="org.intellij.sdk.editor.EditorHandlerIllustration"
      text="Editor Add Caret"
      description="Adds a second caret below the existing one."
      icon="SdkIcons.Sdk_default_icon">
    <add-to-group group-id="EditorPopupMenu" anchor="first"/>
  </action>
</action>

Under what conditions should the EditorHandlerIllustration action be capable of cloning a caret? Only if the following conditions are met in the EditorHandlerIllustration.update() method:

• A project is open,

• An editor is available,

• There is at least one caret active in the editor.

After ensuring that Project and Editor objects are available, the Editor object is used to verify there is at least one caret:

public class EditorHandlerIllustration extends AnAction {
  @Override
  public void update(@NotNull AnActionEvent event) {
    Project project = event.getProject();
    Editor editor = event.getData(CommonDataKeys.EDITOR);

    // Make sure at least one caret is available
    boolean menuAllowed = false;
    if (editor != null && project != null) {
      // Ensure the list of carets in the editor is not empty
      menuAllowed = !editor.getCaretModel().getAllCarets().isEmpty();
    }
    event.getPresentation().setEnabledAndVisible(menuAllowed);
  }
}

When the EditorHandlerIllustration.actionPerformed() method clones the caret, it should use the appropriate IntelliJ Platform EditorActionHandler. An instance of EditorActionManager is required to obtain the correct EditorActionHandler. The EditorActionManager class provides a static method to do this.

To request the correct EditorActionHandler from EditorActionManager, consult the IdeActions interface for the correct constant to pass into the EditorActionManager.getActionHandler() method. For cloning a caret below the primary caret, the constant is ACTION_EDITOR_CLONE_CARET_BELOW. Based on that constant, the EditorActionManager returns an instance of CloneCaretActionHandler, a subclass of EditorActionHandler.

// Snippet from EditorHandlerIllustration.actionPerformed()
EditorActionManager actionManager = EditorActionManager.getInstance();
EditorActionHandler actionHandler =
    actionManager.getActionHandler(IdeActions.ACTION_EDITOR_CLONE_CARET_BELOW);

To clone the caret requires only calling the EditorActionHandler.execute() method and passing in the appropriate context.

public class EditorHandlerIllustration extends AnAction {
  @Override
  public void actionPerformed(@NotNull AnActionEvent event) {
    Editor editor = event.getRequiredData(CommonDataKeys.EDITOR);
    EditorActionManager actionManager = EditorActionManager.getInstance();
    EditorActionHandler actionHandler =
        actionManager.getActionHandler(IdeActions.ACTION_EDITOR_CLONE_CARET_BELOW);
    actionHandler.execute(editor,
        editor.getCaretModel().getPrimaryCaret(), event.getDataContext());
  }
}

First, a subclass such as MyTypedHandler is created based on TypedActionHandler. The class overrides the method TypedActionHandler.execute(), which is the callback for editor keystroke events.

Override the TypedActionHandler.execute() method in MyTypedHandler to implement the logic for handling keystroke events. This method is called every time a key is pressed when the Editor Tool Window has focus.

In the following example, the MyTypedHandler.execute() method inserts "editor_basics\n" at the zero caret Offset position when a keystroke event occurs. As explained in Working with Text, safe modifications to the document must be in the context of a write action. So although a method on the Document interface does the String insertion, the write action ensures a stable context.

final class MyTypedHandler implements TypedActionHandler {
  @Override
  public void execute(@NotNull Editor editor,
                      char c,
                      @NotNull DataContext dataContext) {
    Document document = editor.getDocument();
    Project project = editor.getProject();
    Runnable runnable = () -> document.insertString(0, "editor_basics\n");
    WriteCommandAction.runWriteCommandAction(project, runnable);
  }
}

A custom implementation of TypedActionHandler must be registered to replace the existing typing handler to receive editor keystroke events. The registration is done through the TypedAction class.

As is shown in the snippet below, the EditorActionManager is used to get access to the TypedAction class. The method TypedAction.setupHandler() is used to register the custom MyTypedHandler class:

public class EditorHandlerIllustration extends AnAction {
  static {
    EditorActionManager actionManager = EditorActionManager.getInstance();
    TypedAction typedAction = actionManager.getTypedAction();
    typedAction.setupHandler(new MyTypedHandler());
  }
}

Placing the registration code in the EditorHandlerIllustration class is somewhat arbitrary in the sense that the registration of MyTypedHandler has nothing to do with the EditorHandlerIllustration class. However, the EditorHandlerIllustration class is convenient because as an action it gets instantiated at application startup. On instantiation, the static block of code in EditorHandlerIllustration gets evaluated. In the editor_basics code sample any of the AnAction derived classes would work for registering MyTypedHandler.