Just to lend my support. I'm Andy Clement, the project lead for the AspectJ project. SpringSource has received many requests from IntelliJ users for more complete ITD support within IntelliJ (so they can use the new Spring Roo project). If I can help at all - let me know. If you need to know more about the format of intertype declarations, we can discuss that. As Chris suggests, their basic syntax is relatively straightforward although their generic form is a little complicated. If you wish to discuss the AspectJ model that exists after an AspectJ build (which includes the AST for parsed aspects and a relationship map describing which types were affected by ITDs), we can do that too. The AspectJ compiler is developed as an standaline project that can be slotted into any IDE wishing to provide AOP support. Over the last few months the compiler interface has been enhanced to improve the way it can tie into IDEs and offer a more responsive incremental compilation story. I will say the interface is rather ill defined right now (consisting of some interfaces over here and some over there...), but if we need to formalize what the interface really is, or even open up AspectJ further to ease its ability to be embedded/invoked, we can look at doing that too.

As Chris mentions, we may be able to exploit some code that already exists in AJDT for parsing ITD structures - Andrew Eisenberg (responsible for AJDT) would be able to help with that. And finally, there may actually be a subset of the full ITD functionality which would be enough for Roo, and Ben Alex (Spring Roo project lead) would be able to help us determine what that precise subset is.

Developer of the AspectJ weaving plugin here.

It should be noted that currently the plugin weaves (adds aspects to) the classes after they have been compiled by the normal (JDK/Eclipse/Jikes) compiler. For ITD to be properly supported, classes would need to be compiled by the AspectJ compiler.

At the initial development of the plugin (for IntelliJ 4.5) I couldn't find a way to replace the project compiler. Possibly it's easier to add plugin compilers with later versions of IntelliJ and I'm willing to look at that, however pointers are welcome since time is limited.

I am voting for this functionality to be in the next version of IntelliJ.

I'd prefer this is delivered as a plugin update if at all possible, and that we don't wait until the next major IntelliJ version.

Its got my vote. Was impressed with ROO when I saw it and then was immediately depressed when I realized that IDEA didn't support ITD. Another case of IDEA lacking relevant framework support (e.g. JavaFX). p.s. couldn't find the "Vote" functionality in YouTrack???

Could it be a part of an interim release (such as 9.0.2)? If so, then that would be fine, if not, I would also prefer the plugin.

+1 Vote! I am stuck with memory hungry Eclipse right now until this is completed.

+1 vote. ROO is great, ROO and IntelliJ is even greater :) It would hate to switch to another IDE but I really like ROO, so please add support for it.

Yes please, roo support in intellij would be AWESOME!

I vote for it. Working with Roo is great but I dont like to be tied down to Eclipse, so please provide support in Intellij.

+1 vote. roo is great and I would like to continue working inside one IDE

Another +1 vote for ITD support in _the_ IDE. Mainly to support Roo.

Another +1. Would not mind to pay for a plugin.

Another +1

+1 for this feature

add my +1

+1 vote.

+1 for me. Can't wait to use IntelliJ for Roo, or just about EVERYTHING !

+1

Please click on the number above to register your vote. Just saying +1 does not increment the count.

Would like to hear from Jetbrains guys about an estimated release time for this functionality. Dmitry Jemerov said we'll be able to get this functionality in some 9.x release here http://www.jetbrains.net/devnet/message/5253094;jsessionid=ED685D8B82A4F9D0B3CFA452126F8B4A it's 9.2 coming up and i don't see this youtrack issue addressed in the EAP release notes. Hope this will be addressed sooner.

Initial version of AspectJ plugin added to the repository; requires latest Maia EAP (94.585).

Now that is an awesome news

Brilliant, just did a little basic testing and it works like a charm.... now I can really get down to playing with this Roo stuff... Great work Idea guys! :)

Working great! Good riddance to Eclipse!

I copied the plugin JAR to the plugin directory, started my freshly installed 94.585, created a project from the ten-minutes example, but unfortunately wasn't able to get the plugin to do anything. Are there any special steps required to activate the ITD support?

UPDATE: Thanks to Roman, I have been able to resolve the issue. There was an old file type association that made IntelliJ interpret *.aj as text files. Moving it manually to AspectJ files under "Settings -> File Types" did the trick.

Does the plugin show up in the installed plugins settings?

AspectJ plugin updated to 0.2; support for Ajc compiler added (Settings - Compiler - Java Compiler).

Is push-in refactoring available? Can't find it.

Nabeel, not yet. Feel free to create feature request (project IntelliJ IDEA, subsystem AspectJ).

An issue has been created to support push-in refactoring (IDEA-53928) to support better Spring Roo development experience. Interested guys are requested to vote.

+1

Intellij idea 9.0.2 alongwith AspectJ support plugin makes AspectJ ITD's code-completion support available. We now need Push-in refactoring support which becomes essential while working with Spring Roo. So people, please vote for IDEA-53928.

I would just like to point out that the AspectJ support plugin uses the same directory name as the existing AspectJ Weaver which has caused trouble for existing users. I have changed the directory name of the AspectJ Weaver but there have been cases where this plugin needs to be removed and re-installed in order to work together with AspectJ support plugin.

+1

@Mattias Sorry about that. But as AspectJ support plugin is going to supersede AspectJ Weaver's functionality this may be justified.

Running Junit tests that use ITDs does not work yet with this plugin (using 0.3 of plugin with Maia 95.146). Either you'd need to be able to run tests in an .aj file, or "see" the test from the referenced test .java file. All the test debugging goodness of Idea is lost otherwise. But great work, I can say that Roo support alone may be enough to convince my group to purchase licenses.

@Alex you can run JUnit tests from .aj in 0.3 – but one by one only. To run them all at once execute target class. Debugging support is planned of course – watch/vote for IDEA-54710.

Thanks Roman, but that's what I tried... I get java.lang.Exception: No tests found matching Method testCountBases when running from .aj file. When running from .java file, it just runs the markerMethod test (which doesn't do anything)

@Alex Looks like test class wasn't weaved. Please make sure that Ajc compiler is selected in Settings | Compiler | Java Compiler, then rebuild project.

Ah yes, that took care of that, but now I get this:
java.lang.IllegalStateException: Entity manager has not been injected (is the Spring Aspects JAR configured as an AJC/AJDT aspects library?)
Searched around for this, but only found a solution for Eclipse: http://javatech.org/tag/roo/
Any idea on how to do this in Idea (no pun intended)? Should we move this to a support forum entry?

@Alex at the moment Ajc compiler doesn't perform weaving steps required for Spring. Until it fixed you can use Maven targets.

+1

+1

Any chance we could get Aspectj statement support with Idea X or Aspectj support plugin?

@Nabeel Chances are. If you file an issue you'll be notified immediately :)

@Roman Thanks. I din't know this issue is strictly limited to ITD's support only. Any ways i've created another issue IDEA-57644 about first class AOP development support concerns. Everybody is requested to vote in order to have AOP support in Intellij Idea as excellent as Java support is.

+1

+1

After playing with Roo for some time I decided to take my vote back - your mileage may vary, but I see quite a few potential for Roo behind prototyping data models. As to AspectJ in general, while having its upport in Idea would be a good feature, I do not see convincing examples that would justify using AOP at levels exceeding standard Java EE features.

@Alexander Roo has a good potential for prototyping web-based UIs - and it definitely moves in that direction.

+1

+1

+1

+1 I would not mind to pay even if it is released as a separate plugin.

@Dmitry That's an awesome news. Waiting for the next EAP build to try this. IDEA-53928 is also important for Spring-Roo projects' development and
IDEA-57644 is really important to have general AOP development capabilities(something many people prefer other ide's over IDEA for) in Intellij Idea. Will these both be fixed within upcoming EAP builds?

You don't need to wait for the next EAP; the plugin is in there for a few months already.