Notes from a long term Eclipse user moving to IntelliJ IDEA

This post is here to document issues/challenges faced when using IntelliJ Idea editor.

I have been using Eclipse as an IDE for development purpose where the main development language is Java. For expanding my existing knowledge base, I am working on a Groovy Project. A quick Google search revealed IntelliJ Idea as having the best Groovy Language support. Very quickly I downloaded the Community Edition of Idea and fired it up. This editor is Swing based and it shows from the look and feel, but I would admit that it is quick and doesn't block the user interaction as Eclipse does. Below I am documenting few issues I have faced and a working resolution.

• Using Eclipse keyboard shortcuts in Intellij IDEA - For any IDE user, when moving to a completely new IDE the first and foremost challenge faced is different set of keyboard shortcuts in new IDE compared to the one previously used. Thankfully JetBrains (the company behind IDEA) developers acknowledge the presence of other IDE's. It is very easy to set the keymap same as that of Eclipse. In IDEA go to File -> Settings. Search for ‘keymap’ in the textbox. Select ‘Eclipse’ from the keymap dropdown as shown below. Click on ‘OK’. After this configuration change, your default Eclipse keymap will work.

• Removing svn: unknown host exception in Intellij IDEA SVN Plug-in - While trying to configure a remote subversion repository, I received the error below.

This error was happening because the IDEA needed a proxy configuration to access internet. I had configured proxy at IDE level (using HTTP Proxy from settings). After searching through few forums and IDEA bug tracker, I found that proxy needs to be configured separately for subversion plug-in.  Go to File -> Setings. Search for 'sunversion' and you will get setting page located at 'Version Control -> VCS -> Subversion'. 

Select the checkbox for using proxy configured for IDEA or Select Edit Network options button to configure proxy.