JetBrains, maker of the most popular independent Java integrated development environment, has announced the new version of its IDE, IntelliJ Idea 8, which introduces support for SQL, UML-like class diagrams, JBoss Seam and more.
IntelliJ Idea 8’s support for SQL allows editing database scripts and running queries right in the IDE, according to JetBrains officials. And the product offers a full range of coding assistance features for several SQL dialects, they said.
In addition, many core Java features have been added to the tool set, including seven new refactorings, many new code inspections, new tools for working with unit tests, and new features such as even smarter code completion. JetBrains also has delivered a significant performance boost across the product, including reduced startup times, faster project builds and version-control updates, the company said.
Other new features in IntelliJ Idea 8 include the following:
- UML (Unified Modeling Language) style class diagrams for exploring code structure visually
- support for the Seam framework from JBoss
- built-in debuggers for JavaScript and Adobe Flex
- improved Maven support, with repository browser and archetypes support
- FreeMarker and Velocity template languages, with full coding assistance in embedded HTML and CSS code
- extended support for Spring frameworks, with Spring 2.5, Spring Web Flow, Spring MVC and Spring Dynamic Modules
- support for Struts 2 and Google Web Toolkit 1.5 frameworks
- REST (Representational State Transfer) Web services support
“Although IntelliJ Idea has grown a lot during the recent years and added support for many frameworks and languages, at the heart it remains a code-centric IDE,” said Max Shafirov, IntelliJ Idea project lead. “This has always been our main focus, and this is what we believe to be a natural approach to developing even complex applications with pleasure.”
JetBrains officials said IntelliJ Idea 8 breaks additional new ground with the new JetBrains IDE platform. This platform is the base for two stand-alone Ruby and Python IDEs that JetBrains plans to release in the coming months, the company said.
To learn more about IntelliJ Idea and download the latest build, go to here. A free 30-day evaluation is available here.