What’s New in IntelliJ IDEA 2022.1? A Deep Dive into Key Features

IntelliJ IDEA 2022.1 has been officially released, bringing a suite of new features aimed at improving developer productivity.

Key Updates

Dependency Analyzer

The Dependency Analyzer provides comprehensive information about all project dependencies, including transitive ones, enabling easy detection and resolution of conflicts, filtering duplicate entries, and quick navigation.

Enhanced New Project Wizard

The wizard interface has been redesigned for faster project creation, offering pre‑configured options for Java, Kotlin, Groovy, JavaScript, and generator‑based setups.

New Notifications Tool Window

Events are now displayed in a dedicated Notifications tool window, highlighting important suggestions and organizing them for easier access.

User Experience Improvements

Maven Archetype Search

The New Project wizard now includes a type‑ahead search for Maven Archetypes and better management of archetype directories during module creation.

Even Tab Splitting

Editor tabs can now be evenly distributed across the workspace, giving each tab the same width.

UML Export Formats

UML diagrams can be exported to yEd .graphml, JGraph .drawio, Graphviz .dot (with and without positions), Mermaid .md, PlantUML, and IntelliJ IDEA .uml files for better third‑party tool compatibility.

Structure Search and Replace Dialog

The dialog has been redesigned to list all templates, simplifying navigation between them.

Security

Package Inspector Plugin

The IDE now checks Maven and Gradle dependencies against the Checkmarx SCA database and national vulnerability databases to detect known security issues.

Java Support

Java 18

IntelliJ IDEA 2022.1 supports new Java 18 language features such as pattern matching for switch expressions and code snippets.

Java Decompiler

The decompiler now works better with Java 17, supporting sealed classes, pattern matching, improved string decompilation, type annotations, and constant detection.

JUnit 5 Enhancements

Support for new JUnit 5.7 annotations such as @EnabledIf, @DisabledIf, @NullSource, @EmptySource, and @TempDir has been added.

Try/Catch Template Update

The Surround with try/catch template now re‑throws exceptions wrapped in a RuntimeException instead of swallowing them.

Kotlin Support

IntelliJ IDEA 2022.1 supports Kotlin 1.6.20, bringing parallel compilation, context receivers, and better code sharing across targets.

Kotlin IDE Performance

Package indexing has been optimized, resulting in faster code completion, highlighting, and reference searches, with fewer and smaller re‑indexing operations after code changes.

Frameworks and Technologies

Go Microservice Support

Adds URL path references, endpoint navigation, Search Everywhere, and icons for Go microservices (requires Go plugin in Ultimate edition).

Provides HTTP method and header completion in Go files, with an icon to suggest possible actions.

Spring Data Mongo Improvements

JSON queries are highlighted, operators and document fields are completed, and navigation to the Database tool window from mapped entities is added.

.proto File Support

A new intention adds missing import statements for unresolved message references, after which the IDE offers completion for those messages.

gRPC Reflection Support

When .proto files are present, the IDE provides completion for service names, method names, and request bodies, and adds a run icon.

If no .proto files exist but the server supports reflection, the IDE can still run requests and complete service and method names.

Kubernetes Support

Edit Resources on Cluster

Resources loaded from a cluster can now be edited directly from editor tabs.

Custom kubectl Path

If kubectl is not in the standard location, its path can be manually configured.

Port Forwarding

Pods now support port forwarding via a toolbar icon or context menu item.

Describe Resource Action

All resources in the Services view have a new “Describe Resource” action accessible from the context menu or toolbar.

Cluster Events

Cluster events are displayed as a separate node in the Services view, providing recent event data; the “Describe Resource” action can be used to view the Events section for a specific pod.

Build Tools

Gradle Progress Bar

A deterministic progress bar for Gradle processes now shows download and import progress, helping users estimate completion time.