IntelliJ IDEA plug-in

This plug-in integrates JFormDesigner into Jetbrains IntelliJ IDEA (Community and Ultimate Editions).

Benefits

Using this plug-in has following benefits compared to JFormDesigner stand-alone edition:

User interface

The screenshot below shows the IntelliJ IDEA main window editing a JFormDesigner form.

IntelliJ IDEA main window

A JFormDesigner editor consists of:

Creating new forms

You can create new forms in any of IntelliJ IDEA's project views. First select the destination package or folder, then invoke IDEA's New command and choose JFormDesigner Form.

New Form Menu

In the New JFormDesigner Form dialog, enter the form name (which is also used as class name), choose a superclass, a layout manager and set localization options.

Open forms for editing

You can open existing forms the same way as opening any other file in IntelliJ IDEA. Locate it in any of IntelliJ IDEA's project views and double-click it.

Go to Java code / Go to form

JFormDesigner adds a button to IntelliJ IDEA's main toolbar that enables you to switch quickly from a JFormDesigner form editor to its Java editor and vice versa. If a form editor is active, then the button is named Go to Java code (Go to Java code). If a Java editor is active, then it is named Go to JFormDesigner form (Go to JFormDesigner form). You can also use Ctrl+Shift+D (Mac: Shift+Command+D).

Go to Java code   Go to form

Code folding

To move the generated code out of the way, JFormDesigner folds it in the Java editor.

Code folding

Convert IntelliJ IDEA and NetBeans forms

You can convert existing IntelliJ IDEA and NetBeans forms to JFormDesigner forms. Right-click on the form file (or any container) and select Convert to JFormDesigner Form.

Convert forms

When converting an IntelliJ IDEA form, JFormDesigner inserts its own generated GUI code into the existing Java class and removes IntelliJ IDEA's GUI code.

Settings

JFormDesigner uses the term "Preferences" instead of IntelliJ IDEA's "Settings". The JFormDesigner preferences are fully integrated into the IntelliJ IDEA settings dialog. Select File > Settings from the menu to open it, expand the "Other Settings" node and then select the "JFormDesigner" page. To set project specific settings, select the item named "JFormDesigner (Project)". See Preferences for details.

Keyboard shortcuts

You can assign shortcut keys to most JFormDesigner commands in IntelliJ IDEA's keymap settings. Select File > Settings > Keymap to open it. In the actions tree expand Plug-ins > JFormDesigner.