Configuration properties meta-data support in IntelliJ

In the JetBrains webinar about Spring Boot Support in IntelliJ IDEA 14.1 an interesting functionality of IntelliJ IDEA was presented. Since version 14.1 IntelliJ supports “code completion” and contextual help for configuration properties when working with application.properties-files in spring boot context.

Spring boot jars contain meta-data files located inside META-INF that provide details for configuration properties. These meta-data files are json-files named spring-configuration-metadata.json. The “code completion” for configuration properties in IntelliJ is based on these meta-data files placed under META-INF.

Every spring boot based jar that supports configuration properties can provide such a meta-data file called additional-spring-configuration-metadata.json. The additional meta-data file will then be automatically merged to the main meta-data file by the annotation processor and will be resolved by IntelliJ for the “code completion” in application.properties.

The following snippet shows an example of such an additional meta-data file.

For more details about the configuration meta-data have a look at the spring boot documentation (Appendix B Configuration meta-data)

For an example use of the “code completion” functionality in IntelliJ have a look at the recorded JetBrains webinar @Youtube from 18:30.

Links

Below some links related to the webinar about Spring Boot Support in IntelliJ IDEA 14.1

• Recorded JetBrains webinar @Youtube
• Sample code to JetBrains webinar