Spring API
Spring API allows 3rd party plugins to re-use, integrate with or extend existing Spring Framework support in IntelliJ IDEA Ultimate.
Please see Spring Framework Support for general feature overview.
A popular plugin using Spring API is hybris integration.
To develop plugins, you will need to use IntelliJ IDEA Ultimate Edition version 13.1 or higher.
Setting up Project
Setup Gradle build script to target IntelliJ IDEA Ultimate, then add dependency to bundled Spring plugin with ID com.intellij.spring.
Please use only Spring-related functionality exposed in spring-api.jar (sources are provided in $IDEA_HOME$/lib/src/src_spring-boot-openapi.zip) in your plugin. Using any other "internal" (implementation) classes from Spring plugin itself (spring.jar) is not supported.
plugin.xml
Add <depends>com.intellij.spring</depends> to your plugin.xml to require "Spring Support" plugin to be activated. All available extension points are provided under com.intellij.spring prefix. Note that the "Spring Support" plugin itself has dependencies on a few other plugins which need to be enabled in your sandbox (see notifications on startup).
Main Concepts
A Spring facet can be attached to a Module. Nearly all Spring functionality requires an existing and correctly setup Spring facet.
Spring facets usually contain one more user-configured or automatically provided filesets, which group a set of Spring related configuration files (XML, Code, .properties, or other configuration files).
A fileset usually corresponds to an actual application context configuration at runtime. Hierarchies can be modeled by depending on another fileset (possibly from another module).
As an API-user, you will usually prefer working with SpringModel, which is built on top of fileset(s).
API Updates
How Do I...
Spring Setup
To check availability of Spring/Spring Facet etc. see com.intellij.spring.model.utils.SpringCommonUtils.
2016.2 See com.intellij.spring.SpringLibraryUtil to obtain information about the exact version of Spring in use.
Spring Model
Obtain Spring Model by File, PsiElement, ...
See SpringManager#getSpringModel(s)... and com.intellij.spring.model.utils.SpringModelUtils.
Contribute Implicit Model
See com.intellij.spring.SpringModelProvider to provide implicit filesets (e.g. provided by another framework in a specific configuration file).
Version 15 See com.intellij.spring.facet.SpringAutodetectedFileSet for a convenient base class. Please note that autodetected filesets cannot be edited/modified by users in Spring facet.
Customize Implicit Models Configuration
2017.1 See com.intellij.spring.facet.SpringFileSetEditorCustomization to customize presentation and/or add extra settings/actions for specific autodetected filesets.
Contribute Implicit Beans
See com.intellij.spring.model.jam.CustomComponentsDiscoverer or com.intellij.spring.model.SpringImplicitBeansProviderBase to provide implicit (framework-specific) beans (e.g. "servletContext" by Spring MVC).
Version 15 CustomComponentsDiscoverer has been split into com.intellij.spring.model.custom.CustomLocalComponentsDiscoverer and com.intellij.spring.model.custom.CustomModuleComponentsDiscoverer respectively.
Contribute Custom Bean Scope
Version 14 See com.intellij.spring.model.scope.SpringCustomBeanScope to provide custom (e.g. framework specific) bean scopes.
Obtain/Create Spring Profiles
Version 14.1 com.intellij.spring.profiles.SpringProfilesFactory
Beans
Search for Bean by Name
com.intellij.spring.CommonSpringModel#findBeanByName
Version 14: com.intellij.spring.model.utils.SpringModelSearchers#findBean
Search for Beans by Type
Choose one of com.intellij.spring.CommonSpringModel#findBeansByPsiClassXXX variants (please note deprecated methods).
Version 14: com.intellij.spring.model.utils.SpringModelSearchers#findBeans
Version 16: note deprecation of SpringModelSearchParameters.BeanClass#withInheritors(GlobalSearchScope)
Check If a Bean with Given Name/Type Exists
Version 14: com.intellij.spring.model.utils.SpringModelSearchers#doesBeanExist (please note deprecated methods)
Mark Bean as Infrastructure Bean
Version 14: implement SpringInfrastructureBean, such beans obtain a special icon and can be filtered in various places in UI.
XML Configuration
All support for XML-based Spring configuration files is provided via DOM-API.
Add Support for Additional Spring Namespace
See com.intellij.spring.customNamespaces EP, registered namespace-key must match the one registered with your DOM elements via @Namespace. Register available elements via standard DomExtender<Beans> EP or com.intellij.spring.dom.SpringCustomNamespaces#registerExtensions (Version 14).
Please pay attention to getModelVersion and getStubVersion (see Javadoc).
Add Reference to Spring Bean in DomElement
Use the following template:
Code Configuration
Add Reference to Spring Bean in JamElement
Version 14
@AliasFor
Version 16 See com.intellij.spring.model.aliasFor.SpringAliasForUtils to obtain corresponding @AliasFor JAM.
spring.factories
Version 15 See com.intellij.spring.spi.SpringSpiManager.
IDE Features
Add Inspections to Spring Validator
Add additional inspections (e.g. for custom namespace) to Spring Validator (Settings|Compiler|Validation) via com.intellij.spring.SpringInspectionsRegistry$Contributor in com.intellij.spring.inspectionsRegistryContributor extension point.
Add Additional Files to Spring Validator
Version 14.1 Additional files to be processed by inspections registered with Spring Validator (e.g. specific .properties configuration files) can be registered via com.intellij.spring.SpringInspectionsRegistry$AdditionalFilesContributor
Configure Spring Support for Other Frameworks
Use com.intellij.spring.facet.SpringConfigurator to provide "automatic" configuration when Spring facet is added via framework wizard.
UI/Presentation
Please do not reference bean icons from SpringApiIcons directly, but use SpringPresentationProvider to re-use unified icon/bean name. See SpringBeansPsiElementCellRenderer for popup/list renderer.
Spring Boot
2018.1
Spring Boot API allows extending/accessing Spring Boot specific support in the IDE.
Setting Up
Add dependency to bundled Spring Boot plugin with ID com.intellij.spring.boot. Sources for Spring Boot API are available in $IDEA_HOME$/lib/src/src_spring-boot-openapi.zip.
Update plugin.xml
Add <depends>com.intellij.spring.boot</depends> to your plugin.xml to require "Spring Boot" plugin to be activated. All available extension points are provided under com.intellij.spring.boot prefix.
Spring Boot Library
Use com.intellij.spring.boot.library.SpringBootLibraryUtil to query version and availability of common additional libraries.
Custom Configuration Files Format
com.intellij.spring.boot.model.SpringBootModelConfigFileContributor allows adding support for custom config file formats.
Auto-Configuration Support
Existing Condition implementations can be simulated at design time in IDE via com.intellij.spring.boot.model.autoconfigure.conditions.ConditionalContributor.
Custom @ConditionalOn... annotations implementing com.intellij.spring.boot.model.autoconfigure.conditions.jam.ConditionalOnJamElement will be added into evaluation automatically.
Spring Initializr
com.intellij.spring.boot.initializr.SpringInitializrModuleBuilderPostTask allows performing custom setup steps after creation of module (e.g. setup integration with build system).
Endpoint Tab
Use com.intellij.spring.boot.run.endpoint extension point to add custom actuator endpoint tabs. Any settings should be exposed in "Spring Boot" settings tab via com.intellij.spring.boot.run.endpointTabConfigurable EP.