GoLand 2018.3 Help

Managing Plugins

Plugins extend the core functionality of GoLand. For example, they can:

  • provide integration with version control systems, application servers, and other tools

  • add support for various languages and frameworks

  • boost your productivity with shortcut hints, live previews, file watchers, and so on

  • help you learn a new programming language with coding exercises and verification

Open plugin settings

  • In the Settings/Preferences dialog (Ctrl+Alt+S), select Plugins.

    The Plugins settings dialog

In the Plugins dialog, you can:

  • Use the Marketplace tab to browse and install plugins from the JetBrains Plugin Repository or from a custom plugin repository.

  • Use the Installed tab to browse installed plugins, enable, disable, or remove them. Disabling unnecessary plugins can increase performance.

  • Use the Updates tab to browse the plugins that require an update.

Most plugins can be used with any JetBrains product. Some are limited only to commercial products. There are also plugins that require a separate license.

If a plugin depends on some other plugin, GoLand will notify you about the dependencies. If your project depends on certain plugins, add them to the list of required plugins.

If some functionality is not covered by existing plugins, you can create your own plugin for GoLand. For information about developing plugins, see Develop you own plugins.

By default, GoLand includes a number of bundled plugins. You can disable bundled plugins, but they cannot be removed. You can install additional plugins from the plugin repository or from a local archive file (ZIP or JAR).

Install plugin from disk

  1. In the Settings/Preferences dialog (Ctrl+Alt+S), select Plugins.

  2. In the Plugins dialog, click The cogwheel icon and then click Install Plugin from Disk.

  3. Select the plugin archive file and click OK.

  4. Click OK to apply the changes and restart the IDE if prompted.

Custom plugin repositories

By default, GoLand is configured to use plugins from the JetBrains Plugin Repository. This is where all the community plugins are hosted, and you are free to host your plugins there. However, if you develop plugins for internal use only, you can set up a custom plugin repository for them.

A plugin repository is a web server with the updatePlugins.xml file, which contains your plugin definitions. It must correspond to the following Document Type Definition (DTD):

<!DOCTYPE plugins [ <!ELEMENT plugins(plugin)*> <!ELEMENT plugin (#PCDATA)> <!ATTLIST plugin id CDATA #REQUIRED url DATA #REQUIRED version CDATA #REQUIRED> ]>

For example, if you host your plugin at http://plugins.example.com:8080/myPlugin.jar, add the following definition to updatePlugins.xml:

<plugins> <plugin id="MyPlugin" url="http://plugins.example.com:8080/myPlugin.jar" version="1.0"/> </plugins>

Once you set up your plugin repository, add it to GoLand:

  1. In the Settings/Preferences dialog (Ctrl+Alt+S), select Plugins.

  2. In the Plugins dialog, click The cogwheel icon and then click Manage Plugin Repositories.

  3. In the Custom Plugin Repositories dialog, click The Add icon and specify your repository URL. It must point to the location of the updatePlugins.xml file. The file can be on the same server as your custom plugins, or on a dedicated one.

    How to add a custom plugin repository

    Click Check Now in the Add Repository dialog to make sure that the URL is correct. Then click OK to add the repository URL.

  4. Click OK in the Custom Plugin Repositories dialog to save the list of plugin repositories.

  5. Click OK in the Plugins dialog to apply the changes.

To browse the custom plugin repository, type repository: followed by the URL of the repository in the Marketplace tab of the Plugins dialog. For example:

repository:"http://plugins.example.com:8080/updatePlugins.xml" myPlugin

Alternatively, you can replace the default JetBrains Plugin Repository with your custom repository URL. This can be helpful if you want only your custom repository plugins to be available from GoLand. To do this, edit the platform properties or VM options file as described below.

Replace the default plugin repository with a custom one

  1. On the main menu, select either Help | Edit Custom Properties or Help | Edit Custom VM Options.

  2. Add the idea.plugins.host property to the platform properties file or the -Didea.plugins.host option to the VM options file. For example:

    idea.plugins.host="http://plugins.example.com:8080/"
    -Didea.plugins.host="http://plugins.example.com:8080/"

    Make sure that there is no plugins.jetbrains.com URL.

  3. Restart GoLand.

If you replace the default plugin repository with your custom one, the search field on the Marketplace tab of the Plugins dialog will browse only the plugins in your custom repository.

Develop you own plugins

You can use any edition of GoLand to develop plugins. It provides an open API, a dedicated SDK, module, and run/debug configurations to help you.

The recommended workflow is to use Gradle. The old workflow using the internal GoLand build system is also supported. For more information, see the IntelliJ Platform SDK Developer Guide.

Last modified: 6 February 2019