What’s New in IntelliJ IDEA 2018.3 Beta? Top 10 Features Explained

1. Refactor Classes, Files, Symbols, Action Search

IDEA’s search capabilities now include class, file, symbol, action, and string search, all unified under the double‑Shift SearchEverywhere window, allowing instant navigation across any code element.

2. Redesigned Structural Search/Replace Dialog

Structural search lets you find code patterns; for example, to locate all try‑catch blocks you can use the following template:

try {
    $TryStatement$;
}
catch($ExceptionType$ $Exception$) {
    $CatchStatement$;
}

The new version adds smart template completion, recent‑search history, and quick insertion of predefined templates.

3. Run Anything

Pressing Ctrl twice opens the RunAnything window, where you can launch Tomcat, run unit tests, execute Gradle/Maven commands, or even run shell commands. Holding Shift runs the selected command in debug mode.

4. Refactored Plugin Marketplace

The plugin manager now shows three sections: Marketplace (search for plugins), Installed (view and filter installed plugins, including custom ones), and Updates (available updates). You can also configure custom plugin repositories and HTTP proxies.

5. Improved Version‑Control System

IDEA adds native GitHub Pull Request support, allowing creation and review of PRs directly from the IDE, as well as better handling of Git submodules and an option to ignore whitespace changes during diff and merge.

6. New High‑Contrast Theme

A new default high‑contrast theme is introduced, catering to users who prefer a darker, more readable color scheme.

7. Editor Improvements

Multi‑line TODO comments : TODOs spanning several lines are now displayed when each line starts with a space.

Indentation status bar : Shows the current file’s indent size and lets you change it with a click.

Tab‑based file switching : Use Tab+number to jump quickly between open files.

Multi‑line string search : Search for whole paragraphs, not just single strings.

8. JVM Debugger Enhancements

Attach to any Java process and view thread and memory state.

Remote debugging with asynchronous stack traces, requiring the debugger‑agent.jar on the remote machine and the -javaagent:debugger‑agent.jar JVM argument.

9. Run Configurations

Macro‑based parameters : Define launch parameters as macros to avoid manual edits and clearly indicate test purposes.

File‑based console input : Specify a text file as console input for repeatable testing.

10. Built‑in JVM Profiler

The profiler provides flame‑graph CPU analysis, method‑call graphs, and method invocation counts, eliminating the need for external profiling tools.

11. Miscellaneous Small Updates

Numerous minor enhancements are included throughout the IDE, further polishing the overall development experience.