Intellij Idea Shortcuts

Shortcuts @ work to save your time and add fun

When it comes to success, there are no shortcuts.

While I was at work, I realized a very strange fact. A question rose in my mind and the asked myself about "What is the most repetitive task I do..??"

Very specific to work on a Windows machine, I always grab the small little mouse to move the cursor across the two monitors connected to my Computer. Switching Windows, Switching Tabs on a browser, Browsing directories, and many more common tasks to accomplish the day to day activities.

Along with these stuff, I spend a lot of time on IntelliJ Idea which is one of the most flexible tool for working with programming. This tool has so many features, works with version control tools, build configuration tools, java plugins, (what not...!!) and many more.

I thought sharing few experiences with this tool which might be helping others to save a minute of their daily tight-packed days..

Thinking how a simple key-board shortcut will save time..???
Give a try.. It doesn't take much effort...

Tip #1
Every time we load the IntelliJ Idea tool, there is a wizard showing "Tip of the day".

Don't ignore this pop-up.
May be the task which we spend 5 mins, could be done in a min by following the options given in the tool.

A lot can be made by just adding "A bit a day"

Tip #2
I realized that few handy shortcuts were placed just on the landing page of the tool.
(which I never cared to look at. After an year of using this tool, found the existence of these shortcuts which made my life simpler)

(To see these, close all the file/tabs in the IntelliJ Idea)

Tip #3
Then, here comes the general shortcuts which are always mentioned very next to the traditional menu options.
Most of the actions listed in the menus are mapped with keyboard shortcuts.

Tip #4
Last but not the least, there is a "KeyMap" configuration setting available in the Settings wizard.
Using this wizard, one can search/create/update/modify the shortcuts for the actions interested in.

A shortcut to launch the settings window "ctrl + alt + s"
Then search for "KeyMap" in the settings wizard, which looks like in the below screenshot

The Keymap gives option to customize the shortcuts to the extent depending on user interests.
The tool is smart enough to enable users to migrate from different other IDEs. IntelliJ can be configured to mimic the behaviour of other IDEs.

If a user had experience working with NetBeans, and new to the IntelliJ, it will be tough to correct everytime after hitting a shortcut which works for NetBeans.

Idea IDE gives an option to change the shortcut templates.

How encouraging it is to import our shortcut key combinations from a different tool. I love this feature a IDEA. 


Give a try to look at these help screens, and make it a routine in day to day life to use atleast one single NEW shortcut a day.

Happy programming...

TestNg Data Provider Annotation

While executing test cases with a multiple data sets, it is always ideal to parameterize the test cases.

The parameterization of the test data is always a smart task to be taken into consideration based on number of parameters like
 - Number of Iterations
 - Frequency of data is updated
 - Maintenance of test data
 - and many more...


Using TestNg, we can achieve this in multiple ways like
 - Passing as an input from the XML file
 - Using the DataProvider annotation

Using XML configuration, we can configure the variable and data in the xml as shown below:

<parameter name="username"  value="Martin">

And in the Test, the variable can be used like this :

@Parameters({ "username" })
@Test
public void testSingleString(String firstName) {
  System.out.println("Invoked testString " + firstName);
  assert "Martin".equals(firstName);
}

Passing data to the Test using @DataProvider annotation in TestNg

Code snippet to create the test data

@DataProvider(name = "sample")
public static Object[][] getData() {
 // Any code to fetch data.
 Object[][] a = { 
   { 1, "name" }, 
   { 2, "Place" },
   { 3, "email" },
   { 4, "skype" }
   };
 return a;
}

And the test looks like this:

 @Test(dataProvider = "sample")
 public static void runTest(int number, String s) {
  System.out.println("The value of a is : " + number + " and the string is : " + s);

 }

The output will be shown as :