IntelliJ IDEA 12.1.0 Web Help

Support for external tools enables integration with the third-party applications without creating plugins.

Configuration options for the external tools enable passing contextual information (like the current file name or project source path) to the application via command-line arguments.

The list of external tools is preserved as a part of the IDE setting, and can be shared among the development team. For managing the list of external tools, IntelliJ IDEA provides the External Tools dialog.

Once added, the external tools appear as the new menu commands.

This section describes how to add a new tool to IntelliJ IDEA, and define the menus to which the tool command will be added.

To add a new tool to the product, or change an existing one
  1. Under the IDE Settings, click the External Tools page.
  2. Click add to create a new entry, or select an existing tool, and click edit1. The Edit Tool dialog box appears.
  3. Specify the tool name, the group where the tool should belong, and optional description.
  4. In the Menu section, check the menus, where you want the tool to appear. You can opt to add menu items for the new tool to the main menu, context menus of the Project views and the editor, and the search results.
  5. In the Program field, specify the name of the executable, which defines the program to run.
  6. In the Parameters field, specify the list of arguments or parameters, as if you were entering them on the command line.
  7. In the Working directory field, specify the directory where the tool should run.
  8. Apply changes, and close the dialog. The new tools can now be accessed via Tools | <Group Name>:

    toolsMenu.png

    Note

    If you want to use a keyboard shortcut to invoke your external tool, bind this tool with a shortcut.

See Also

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