News

Announcing WebStorm 2019.2 Roadmap

It’s been over a month since the WebStorm 2019.1 release, we are done (almost!) with the bug fixes and we are now starting work on the new features and improvements for the WebStorm 2019.2 release, which is scheduled for the end of July.

We will start the Early Access Program for WebStorm 2019.2 in the next couple of weeks. In the meantime, we would like to share with you our roadmap for WebStorm 2019.2. This is something we haven’t done since the end of 2015, when we moved to having three major releases a year.

The main goals for the upcoming release are:

  • Boost productivity when working with JavaScript and TypeScript with smart intentions, quick-fixes, and refactorings.
  • Make the Vue.js support better.
  • Improve performance, quality, and usability of the existing features.

Here’s a more detailed overview of the things the WebStorm team will focus on for the 2019.2 release:

JavaScript and TypeScript

  • New intentions around destructuring.
  • New control-flow-based inspection and intentions.
  • Improve the Rename refactoring:
    • Do not rename dynamic references by default.
    • Investigate how we can improve the UI and UX of the refactoring preview (e.g., better grouping for usages).
  • Improve the presentation of completion suggestions: remove excessive information, make it more consistent and clear.
  • Better support (including formatting) for template strings with injections of other languages.
  • Support for the upcoming TypeScript releases and ECMAScript proposals.

Frameworks

  • Improve Vue.js support:
    • Cleanup and refactoring in the core Vue.js support.
    • Support for the slot syntax.
    • Investigate how we can provide better support for the popular UI component libraries.
  • Create new React components from unresolved usages.
  • Prepare for the upcoming Angular 8 release.

Tools

  • Code completion in JavaScript configuration files for ESLint, Babel, Prettier, and others.
  • Investigate nvmrc support.

Debugger

  • Improve presentation of DOM elements in the debugger console.
  • Blackbox library/framework calls in the debugger.

IDE

  • Option to open another project in the current IDE window.
  • Investigate support for the JavaScript tooling in the Run Anything popup.

This plan includes some bigger tasks and features we are planning to work on in the development cycle for WebStorm 2019.2. It doesn’t include smaller improvements and bug-fixes we are going to implement. And of course, we have put some time aside for on-going performance and stability improvements.

We will be listening to your feedback and keeping an eye on the changes in the ecosystem and adapt our plan if needed.

We have about 6 weeks of active development ahead, with weekly EAP builds before the feature freeze that will happen about 4 weeks before the release. Some features might need to be moved to the next release.

We also expect a lot of improvements to come from the IntelliJ IDEA platform (as you might know, WebStorm is built on top of this platform; things like support for VCS, editor, and the UI in general, are part of IJ platform and developed by the IJ platform team).

If you have any ideas for a new feature or you would like to share your feedback with us, please file an issue on our tracker. We’re listening!

Stay tuned!

The WebStorm team

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