actions

Actions

Guidelines for implementing IntelliJ actions (AnAction).

Documentation

• Action System - Architecture and usage of the action system

Best Practices

• NEVER instantiate Presentation in action constructors - Use no-argument constructors
• Define text, description, and icon in plugin.xml - Not in constructor parameters
• Use AnActionEvent#getCoroutineScope for launching suspending computations - actionPerformed runs synchronously with event invocation and may freeze the IDE.
• Follow the convention:
  1. Set the id attribute for the action in plugin.xml
  2. Optionally set the icon attribute if an icon is needed
  3. Set text and description in the message bundle (e.g., GitBundle.properties):
  • action.<action-id>.text=Translated Action Text
  • action.<action-id>.description=Translated Action Description

Good example:

Kotlin:

class MyAction : AnAction()

plugin.xml:

<action id="My.Action.Id"
        class="my.package.MyAction"
        icon="my.package.MyIcons.ICON"/>

Bundle.properties:

action.My.Action.Id.text=My Action
action.My.Action.Id.description=Description of my action