Features

Invoking Run/Debug Actions in IntelliJ IDEA 9

In IntelliJ IDEA 9 (Maia), we’ve slightly changed the way you run and debug your applications. You’re still able to quickly run or debug a previous configuration (Shift+F10/F9), as well as to create and run/debug a temporary configuration in a context-dependent manner (Ctrl+Shift+F10/F9). However, it’s now much easier to select and run/debug different configurations from the keyboard.

In IntelliJ IDEA 9, you can choose a configuration that you wish to run with one of the following shortcuts:

  • Alt+Shift+F9 to debug your application.
  • Alt+Shift+F10 to run it.

Invoking any of these actions displays a pop-up window with available configurations, like this:

You can edit a configuration before launch (press F4) or show a configuration dialog box to edit all your configurations and their default settings (press 0). You can also instantly delete a temporary configuration by pressing Delete.

That’s not the end of the story: you’re now able to temporary switch to an opposite action directly from this pop-up window by pressing and holding Shift. When you do that, Run becomes Debug and vice versa.

And even more: we’ve extended the pop-up window with context-dependent configurations. That means whenever you press Alt+Shift+F10 right in a test method’s body, the pop-up displays a temporary configuration to run the current method only or all tests from the current test class.

We’ve also added a number of quick access shortcuts:

  • 1 for a previously selected configuration.
  • 2 and 3 for context-dependent configurations.
  • 0 to display the Edit Configuration dialog box.

One more tip: we’ve mapped this pop-up to F9 (debugger’s Resume Program action). The pop-up now displays on pressing F9 when you’re unable to actually resume anything – that is, when you’re not yet running any debug session.

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