PhpStorm 2018.1 Help

Creating Live Templates

The following example procedure illustrates how to create a template for a TODO comment with the current date and user name:

  1. On the Live Templates page of the Settings / Preferences Dialog, select the template group where you want to create the new live template (for example, other).
  2. Click Add The Add button on the toolbar. A new template item is added and selected.
  3. Specify the following values:

    Text boxDescriptionExample value
    AbbreviationSpecify the characters to expand the templatetodo
    DescriptionSpecify an optional description to identify what the template is forInsert TODO comment with the current date and user name
    Template textSpecify the body of the template with variables//TODO $DATE$ $USER$: $END$
  4. Click Define at the bottom to select the applicable contexts (for example, Java if it should apply to Java source files).
  5. Click Edit Variables and select the date() function for $DATE$ and user() for $USER$. Also select Skip if defined for both variables and click OK.

  6. Click OK to apply changes.

Depending on the current system date and user name, the newly created todo template will expand to a line which is similar to the following:

//TODO 15/02/2018 jsmith:

If you want to reuse the same template in multiple groups, or you want to create a new template based on another one, you can duplicate an existing template.

To copy an existing template:

  1. On the Live Templates page of the Settings / Preferences Dialog, select the template which you want to copy.
  2. Click Duplicate (The Duplicate button) on the toolbar. A new template item is added to the same group as the original, and is selected.
  3. Specify a new abbreviation for the template, an optional description (to identify what the template is for), and modify the template body if necessary. If the template has variables defined, click Edit Variables to configure the variables.
  4. Click OK to apply the changes.

To create a new template from a fragment of code:

  1. In the editor, select the text fragment to create a live template from.
  2. On the Tools menu, click Save as Live Template. The Live Templates page opens, with the new template created and selected.
  3. Specify an abbreviation for the template, an optional description (to identify what the template is for), and modify the template body. If the template has variables defined, click Edit Variables to configure the variables.
  4. Click OK to apply the changes.
Last modified: 27 July 2018