dev-guide.md

Dev Docs

Last updated 8/12/22

Quick Start

• Clone the project with IntelliJ and click 'Run Plugin' to try an instance of extension
• Want to Persist Something? — add it to NoteStorageState.java and access it through an instance of NoteStorageManager.java
• Want to Add Text Editor Features? — look at editing NotePanel inside NoteWindow.java
• Want to Extend Linking Features? — look at autoLink() in NoteDocumentListener.java and creating your own visitors.

Project Structure

The main extension code is stored inside src/main/java/org/intellij/sdk/notetaker/.

Inside you'll find:

• storage/, which handles persistence for notes and saving/ representing Notetaker state
• visitors/, which holds the visitors used for finding method declarations from links
• window/, which holds all the code relating to the UI

Docs

Storage

NoteModel

• is the model of a note stored in the system
• contains name and content
  • name is a string representing the note name
  • content is the HTML representation of the file

NoteModelStorageConverter & NoteModelStorage

• because IntelliJ Persistent State Components do not support persisting custom Objects by default, we need to write a converter to store our NoteModels
• NoteModelStorageConverter uses GSON to serialize NoteModelStorage.
• NoteModelStorage is a class that only contains List<NoteModel>
  • There is no reason to have NoteModelStorage, as GSON can serialize lists as well as objects

NoteStorageManager

• is the interface by which we interact with storage
• a class to get access to the stored note list or stored open tabs

NoteStorageState

• currently stores all notes and all open notes
• is a Persistent State Component, which is an interface that tells IntelliJ what you want to persist between IDE Restarts
• the interface supports:
  • numbers (both primitive types, such as int, and boxed types, such as Integer)
  • booleans
  • strings
  • collections
  • maps
  • enums
• to support persistence of other classes, you need to write a converter (i.e. NoteModelStorageConverter)

Visitors

To search for through the entire project, you need to use Processors and Visitors. Processors traverse through the project structure and process files. Visitors traversw through individual files' Abstract Syntax Trees.

PSI is IntelliJ's way of providing an AST representation to the user.

FindIndividualMethodVisitor & FindIndividualMethodProcessor

• Finds a method based on its method signature: enclosingClass, methodName, & params.
• Used to navigate unambiguously to the right method specified by a link.

FindMethodVisitor & FindMethodProcessor

• Finds methods whose names start with a given prefix
• Used for autocomplete

Window

There are two windows in notetaker, a note index (file system manager) and a text editor for actual typing.

Note Index

NoteIndexToolWindowFactory

• ToolWindowFactory is the interface that IntelliJ uses to show the tool window.
• "When the user clicks on the tool window button, the createToolWindowContent() method of the factory class is called"

NoteIndexWindow

• Java Swing UI to show all stored notes.
• Uses a ToolbarDecorator for the add/delete/edit actions
• Actions implemented in ViewManager

SetNoteNameDialog

• Creates a popup dialog that asks for a text input, used for setting note names.

ViewController

• Responsible for coordinating the view between the text editor and the note index when notes are added/removed/renamed

Text Editor

CustomHTMLEditorKit

• An extension of the built in HTMLEditorKit that allows hyperlinks to be clickable with double-click while JTextPane is editable

MethodWrapper

• A utility class around PsiMethod for getting the method signature and navigating to method

NoteDocumentListener

• Responsible for:
  • Saving the note every insert
  • Checking to see if the user wants to insert a link with {

NoteToolWindowFactory

• Responsible for showing all open tabs at the time
• Contains a ContentManagerListener which updates which notes are open in the tab.

NoteWindow

• Handles creating the UI for the text editor and styling a given NoteModel
• Handles link clicking and link escaping