Build a Netty‑Powered Instant Chat Plugin for IntelliJ IDEA – Full Guide

XEChat‑Idea

Based on Netty, an IDEA instant‑chat plugin

Project Introduction

Main features:

Instant chat

Game battle

Project Structure

.
├── LICENSE
├── README.md
├── xechat-commons // public module
│   ├── pom.xml
│   └── src
├── xechat-plugin // IDEA plugin side
│   ├── build.gradle
│   ├── gradle
│   ├── gradle.properties
│   ├── gradlew
│   ├── gradlew.bat
│   ├── settings.gradle
│   └── src
└── xechat-server // server side
    ├── pom.xml
    └── src

Project Environment

Server & Public Module

JDK 8

Maven 3.6.x

IDEA Plugin Side

JDK 11

Gradle 6.x

IDEA 2021.2.x

Run & Deploy

Reminder: package the public module first

Package Public Module

# Enter the public module root directory
cd xechat-commons

# Install to local Maven repository
mvn install

Server

Create or adjust the log directory in src/main/resources/logback.xml:

<property name="ROOT_LOG_PATH" value="/var/log/xechat-server"/>

Run

Execute the main class XEChatServer.java directly.

Deploy

# Enter server root directory
cd xechat-server
# Package
mvn package
# Start the server
java -jar target/xechat-server-xxx.jar

IDEA Plugin Side

Adjust IDEA Version

Edit build.gradle to set the IDEA version you use:

intellij {
    version '2021.2'
}

Local Run

Tasks > intellij > runIde

Package Plugin

Tasks > build > assemble

Resulting file:

build/distributions/xechat-plugin-xxx.zip

Install Plugin

IDEA > Preferences > Plugins

Add plugin repository:

http://plugins.xttblog.cn

Search for “xechat” and install.

If possible, deploy the server yourself.