IntelliJ IDEA 2021.2 Help

AngularJS

AngularJS also known as Angular 1 is a framework for developing single page web applications. IntelliJ IDEA suggests AngularJS-aware completion options for predefined and custom ng directives and for controller and application names, as well as code insights for data bindings inside curly-brace expressions {{}}. You can use built-in AngularJS live templates and navigate between the name of a controller in HTML and its definition in JavaScript or between ngView or &routeProvider and the template. For AngularJS entities, use the Go To Symbol navigation.

Before you start

  1. Download and install Node.js.

  2. Make sure the Angular and AngularJS plugin is enabled on the Settings/Preferences | Plugins page, tab Installed, see Managing plugins for details.

Create a new AngularJS application

You can use the AngularJS seed project or create an empty IntelliJ IDEA project and install AngularJS in it either manually, by downloading the AngularJS framework, or with the Bower package manager.

Create an application using the seed project

  1. Select File | New | Project from the main menu or click the New Project button on the Welcome screen.

  2. In the New Project dialog, select JavaScript in the left-hand pane.

  3. In the right-hand pane, choose AngularJS and click Next.

  4. On the second page of the wizard, specify the project name and the folder to create it in.

    From the Version list, choose the branch https://github.com/angular/angular.js to download the project template from. By default, master if shown.

  5. When you click Finish, IntelliJ IDEA generates the AngularJS-specific project structure with all the required configuration files based on the AngularJS seed project

Download AngularJS dependencies

  • In the embedded Terminal (Alt+F12) , type:

    npm install

  • Alternatively, select Run 'npm install' from the context menu of the package.json file in your project root.

Create an empty IntelliJ IDEA project

  1. Select File | New | Project from the main menu or click the New Project button on the Welcome screen.

  2. In the New Project dialog, select JavaScript in the left-hand pane.

  3. In the right-hand pane, choose JavaScript and click Next.

  4. On the second page of the wizard, specify the project name and the folder to create it in.

  5. When you click Finish, IntelliJ IDEA creates and opens an empty project.

Install and configure AngularJS in an empty project manually

  1. Download the AngularJS framework at http://angularjs.org/.

  2. Open the empty project where you will use AngularJS.

  3. Configure AngularJS as an IntelliJ IDEA JavaScript library, to let IntelliJ IDEA recognize AngularJS-specific structures and provide full coding assistance:

    1. In the Settings/Preferences dialog Ctrl+Alt+S, go to Languages and Frameworks | JavaScript | Libraries. The Settings: JavaScript Libraries page opens.

    2. In the Libraries area, click the Add button.

    3. In the New Library dialog that opens, specify the name of the library.

    4. Click the Add button next to the list of library files and select Attach Files or Attach Directory from the context menu, depending of whether you need separate files or an entire folder.

    5. Select the Angular.js, or Angular.min.js, or an entire directory in the dialog that opens. IntelliJ IDEA returns to the New Library dialog where the Name read-only field shows the name of the selected files or folder.

    6. In the Type field, specify which version you have downloaded and are going to add.

      • If you added Angular.js, select Debug. This version is helpful in the development environment, especially for debugging.

      • If you added the minified Angular.min.js, select Release. This version is helpful in the production environment because the file size is significantly smaller.

    Learn more from Configure JavaScript libraries.

Install AngularJS in an empty project with Bower

  1. Open the empty project where you will use AngularJS.

  2. Install Bower as described in Bower.

  3. In the embedded Terminal (Alt+F12) , type bower install angular to install the package as a project dependency.

Start with an existing AngularJS application

If you already have Angular sources in your project (for example, in the bower_components folder), just open your project and start working. If these sources are excluded from project, then you only need to configure AngularJS as a JavaScript library.

Check out the application sources from your version control

  1. Click Get from VCS on the Welcome screen. Alternatively, select File | Project from Version Control or <Your_VCS> | Get from Version Control from the main menu.

    <Your_VCS> stands for the Version Control System with which your currently opened project is associated.

  2. In the dialog that opens, select your version control system from the list and specify the repository to check out the application sources from. See Check out a project (clone) for details.

Download the dependencies

  • Click Run 'npm install' in the popup:

    Opening an Angular application and downloading the dependencies from package.json

Use AngularJS Router state diagrams

You can see a diagram illustrating the relations between views, states, and templates in AngularJS applications that use ui-router.

Generate and view a diagram

  • Open the desired file in the editor, and then choose Diagrams | Show AngularJS ui-router State Diagram from the context menu. IntelliJ IDEA generates a diagram and shows it in a separate editor tab.

Navigate from an element in the diagram to the code that implements this element

  • Select the element and choose Jump to Source from the context menu.

Last modified: 02 August 2022