3 Convenient JetBrains Features That Save Developers Time
JVM developers have embraced IntelliJ IDEA at an impressive rate of 62%. The JetBrains plugins that power this IDE are proof of how developers can save valuable coding time.
JetBrains products come packed with features designed to enhance coding efficiency. The WakaTime plugin tracks coding activity, while Key Promoter X helps optimize keyboard shortcuts, making development more seamless. These tools effectively address common bottlenecks. Additionally, Digma’s runtime linting provides real-time feedback, allowing developers to catch potential issues early in the development cycle. To unlock the full potential of these powerful tools, consider buying JetBrains for complete access to their suite of features.
Three powerful JetBrains tools can boost your development speed by a lot. You’ll write better code faster as you manage version control, analyze code quality and make project management more efficient.
Why Developers Need JetBrains Features
Software development teams run into roadblocks that slow them down. Recent studies show developers face several key bottlenecks in their daily workflow.
Common development bottlenecks
Developers struggle to maintain focus during coding sessions. They deliver quality work fast when they enter a ‘flow state’. In spite of that, their concentration breaks with frequent interruptions, which hurts both quality and quantity of work.
Slow build times and testing cycles create another major hurdle. A developer’s daily output depends on how fast they can change, build, and test code. The team members also find it hard to keep track of code structure, dependencies, and potential bugs, particularly in complex projects.
Teams that share codebases face their own set of challenges. Team members’ different development environments can lead to inconsistencies. Developers also spend lots of time trying to understand unfamiliar code when they contribute to large projects or fix bugs.
How features solve these problems
JetBrains tools are a great way to get solutions to these common bottlenecks. The IDE’s intelligent completion feature uses machine learning to put the most relevant code suggestions at the top of the list. Live templates help developers code faster by letting them insert standard code constructs through predefined abbreviations.
JetBrains provides solid Git integration right in the IDE to help teams handle version control challenges. Developers can manage branches, commits, and merges quickly. The built-in profiler helps teams solve performance issues by showing them what slows down their application.
JetBrains Space combines chat, project management, and version control into one platform to help teams work better together. Code With Me lets team members program together live on shared projects.
The IDE’s built-in terminal removes the need to switch between applications. The search functionality helps developers find any element in their codebase through the Search Everywhere dialog.
JetBrains IDEs analyze code continuously and highlight potential issues as developers type. The IDE works with major testing frameworks like JUnit, TestNG, and Cucumber, and shows test results right after code changes. The built-in decompiler turns bytecode into readable code, which makes debugging easier.
Quick Code Analysis Tools
JetBrains’ productivity arsenal features code analysis tools that help developers catch and fix issues early while coding.
Live error detection
JetBrains IDEs watch your code for potential problems through on-the-fly analysis. The IDE marks suspicious code segments right in the editor when it finds issues. Yellow and red error strips appear in the right-hand gutter to help you quickly jump between detected problems.
The IDE’s data flow analysis tracks local function-level issues and global translation unit problems. This dual-layer approach gives you complete error detection throughout your codebase.
Code quality checks
JetBrains tools come with over 2,500 code inspections that work with multiple programming languages. These inspections spot various issues from probable bugs to unused declarations.
Your files get analyzed quietly in the background from the moment you open them until you close them. The IDE does more than just point out problems – it suggests fixes through its quick-fix feature. You can see potential solutions to fix highlighted issues by pressing Alt+Enter.
Developers can run batch inspections on specific parts or entire solutions in bigger projects. This feature creates detailed reports of all detected problems to help you improve code systematically.
Performance insights
JetBrains tools go beyond simple error detection with deep performance analysis features. The built-in profiler helps you spot:
- Call execution timing data
- UI freeze analysis
- Garbage collection inefficiencies
- File I/O bottlenecks
Timeline profiling mode connects call-time data to a chronological view that shows performance issues where event order matters. The profiler blends naturally with continuous integration systems through a dedicated TeamCity plugin to prevent performance slowdowns.
Static methods can be profiled instantly without building the whole solution. This feature becomes valuable when you optimize specific code segments or run performance checks on unit tests.
Built-in Version Control
Version control integration is the life-blood of JetBrains products. It gives developers an uninterrupted way to manage their code repositories right from the IDE.
Git integration basics
The Version Control tool window acts as the central hub for all VCS operations. Developers can access multiple views from this interface. The Log tab tracks branch changes while the Repository tab monitors local modifications.
The IDE’s unified interface supports version control systems of all types, with Git as the main focus. Developers can handle these simple operations:
- File modifications show up instantly in the editor gutter
- Visual tools help resolve merge conflicts
- Code analysis runs during commit operations
JetBrains tools detect Git installations on your system automatically. The whole project links to a single Git repository once you enable version control integration. You won’t need to add files individually.
Branch management simplified
JetBrains IDEs make branch operations straightforward with an accessible workflow. The Git Branches popup sits in the main window header and handles all branching operations.
Your branches appear in these distinct categories:
- Recent branches (up to five of your latest checked-out branches)
- Local branches
- Remote branches
- Tags
One standout feature is the IDE’s way of keeping your working context intact. When you switch branches, it saves and restores:
- Opened files
- Current run configuration
- Active breakpoints
JetBrains offers synchronized branch control for teams with multiple repositories. You can perform branch operations on all project roots at once, as if they were one repository. In fact, if something goes wrong in any repository, the IDE prevents branch issues by offering rollback options.
The IDE’s smart checkout keeps your uncommitted changes safe by shelving them before a branch switch. It then unshelves the changes and asks you to resolve any conflicts that pop up.
Project Management Features
JetBrains tools go beyond simple coding features. They offer sophisticated task handling and history tracking that optimize development workflows.
Task tracking integration
JetBrains IDEs come with the Task Management plugin pre-installed. This plugin blends naturally with issue trackers like YouTrack. Developers can:
- Open tracker issues directly as IDE tasks
- Associate code changes with specific issues
- Monitor task updates without leaving the development environment
The plugin creates dedicated changelists for each task. This ensures code modifications stay well-organized. Developers can customize commit message templates and set up branch naming formats to keep projects consistent.
Teams using YouTrack get immediate issue updates and notifications right in their IDE. This direct communication channel removes the need to switch between email clients or external messaging platforms.
Local history tracking
Local history works like a personal version control system. It keeps revisions for all meaningful changes. Unlike traditional version control systems, local history saves modifications at different work stages automatically. This gives developers an extra safety net.
The system keeps changes for five days by default. Developers can adjust this retention period in advanced settings. Developers can:
- View chronological lists of file revisions with timestamps
- Restore specific text fragments from previous versions
- Track changes even for external modifications
Local history becomes valuable especially when you have to recover unsaved changes after switching branches or during system crashes. Right-clicking in the editor opens the Local History dialog. Here, developers can look through detailed modification histories and restore previous versions quickly.
The system has labels for key events like successful builds or test runs. These markers help developers find their way through work history and spot important change points. Developers can also create custom labels before bug fixes or refactoring sessions. This makes it easy to track related changes across multiple files.
Conclusion
JetBrains tools are the foundations of productivity that modern development teams need. These features reshape the scene of everyday coding tasks and help teams deal with development challenges better. Up-to-the-minute code analysis spots problems early before they get pricey to fix. The continuous connection with Git makes version control easier, which lets developers write quality code instead of managing repositories.
The project management features make tracking tasks and managing history easy, especially when combined with tools like YouTrack. The local history tracking works like a safety net that protects work from unexpected problems or system crashes.
Learning these tools takes time at the beginning, but the benefits substantially outweigh the learning curve over time. Teams that welcome JetBrains features complete development cycles faster with fewer technical roadblocks. The tools help teams maintain high code quality standards while reducing the mental load on developers.
