Plugin Dependencies
A plugin may depend on API and classes from other plugins, either bundled or third-party.
This document describes the syntax for declaring plugin dependencies and optional plugin dependencies. For more information about dependencies on the IntelliJ Platform modules, see Plugin Compatibility with IntelliJ Platform Products.
Required Steps
To express a dependency on classes from other plugins or modules, perform the following three required steps detailed below on this page:
Locate Plugin ID
Project Setup
Declaration in plugin.xml
1. Locating Plugin ID and Preparing Sandbox
A compatible version must be chosen carefully according to the plugin's compatibility. For non-bundled plugins, it is not possible to specify the minimum/maximum version for the dependent plugin. (Issue)
JetBrains Marketplace
For plugins published on JetBrains Marketplace:
Open plugin's detail page
Scroll down to the bottom section Additional Information
Copy Plugin ID
Bundled and Other Plugins
All IDs of bundled plugins can be gathered using a dedicated Gradle task. See Other tab on how to locate the plugin ID for a plugin distribution file.
Use printBundledPlugins task.
Use listBundledPlugins task.
IDs of Bundled Plugins
The following table lists some commonly used bundled plugins and their ID. See also Modules Specific to Functionality.
Plugin Name | Plugin ID | Related Documentation |
|---|---|---|
Copyright |
| |
CSS |
| |
Database Tools and SQL |
| |
Gradle |
| |
Groovy |
| |
IntelliLang |
| |
Java |
| |
JavaScript and TypeScript |
| |
JSON |
| |
Kotlin |
| |
Markdown |
| |
Maven |
| |
Spring |
| |
Spring Boot |
| |
YAML |
|
Preparing Sandbox
If the plugin is not bundled with the target IDE, run the (sandbox) IDE Development Instance of your target IDE and install the plugin there.
2. Project Setup
Depending on the chosen development workflow (Gradle or DevKit), one of the following steps is necessary.
IntelliJ Platform Gradle Plugin (2.x)
Define dependencies on plugins using the provided helper functions in the dependencies {} block of the build.gradle.kts file:
For bundled plugins, use bundledPlugin(). Use plugin() for non-bundled plugins (for example, from JetBrains Marketplace).
See Plugins for full reference and additional options.
Gradle IntelliJ Plugin (1.x)
Add the dependency to the intellij.plugins parameter in your build script:
Plugin DevKit
Add the JARs of the plugin on which the project depends to the Classpath of the IntelliJ Platform SDK.
Adding a plugin dependency in DevKit-based plugin
Open the Project Structure dialog and go to section.
Select the SDK used in the project.
Click the + button in the Classpath tab.
Select the plugin JAR depending on whether it is bundled or non-bundled plugin:
For bundled plugins, the plugin JAR files are located in plugins/$PLUGIN_NAME$ or plugins/$PLUGIN_NAME$/lib under the main installation directory.
For non-bundled plugins, depending on the platform version, the plugin JAR files are located in:
3. Dependency Declaration in plugin.xml
Regardless of whether a plugin project uses Modules Available in All Products, or Modules Specific to Functionality, the correct module must be listed as a dependency in plugin.xml. If a project depends on another plugin, the dependency must be declared like a module. If only general IntelliJ Platform features (APIs) are used, then a default dependency on com.intellij.modules.platform must be declared.
To display a list of available IntelliJ Platform modules, invoke the code completion feature for the <depends> element contents while editing the plugin project's plugin.xml file.
In the plugin.xml, add a <depends> tag with the dependency plugin's ID as its content. Continuing with the example from Project Setup above, the dependency declaration in plugin.xml would be:
Optional Plugin Dependencies
A plugin can also specify an optional plugin dependency. In this case, the plugin will load even if the plugin it depends on is not installed or enabled, but part of the plugin's functionality will not be available.
Declare additional optional="true" and required config-file attribute pointing to the optional plugin descriptor file:
Sample
The plugin adds additional highlighting for Java and Kotlin files. The main plugin.xml defines a required dependency on the Java plugin (plugin ID com.intellij.java) and registers the corresponding com.intellij.annotator extension. Additionally, it specifies an optional dependency on the Kotlin plugin (plugin ID org.jetbrains.kotlin):
plugin.xml
The configuration file myPluginId-withKotlin.xml is located in the same directory as the main plugin.xml file. In that file, the annotator extension for Kotlin is defined:
myPluginId-withKotlin.xml