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File | Settings | File Watchers

settings

The page is available when the File Watchers plugin is enabled.

The plugin is not bundled with IntelliJ IDEA, but it is available from the JetBrains plugin repository. Once enabled, the plugin is available at the IDE level, that is, you can use it in all your IntelliJ IDEA projects.

Use this page to create project File Watchers based on predefined IntelliJ IDEA File Watcher templates and thus enable transpilation in the project.

IntelliJ IDEA supports integration with various third-party transpilers that run in the background and perform the following:

Note that IntelliJ IDEA does not contain built-in transpilers but only supports integration with the tools that you have to download and install outside IntelliJ IDEA.

In IntelliJ IDEA, these transpiler configurations are called File Watchers. For each supported transpiler, IntelliJ IDEA provides a predefined File Watcher template. Predefined File Watcher templates are available at the IntelliJ IDEA level. To run a transpiler against your project files you need to create a project-specific File Watcher based on the relevant template, at least, specify the path to the transpiler to use on your machine.

You can download a transpiler of your choice and set it up as a File Watcher. However, in this case no predefined template is available so you will have to specify all the settings manually.

The output of a File Watcher is stored in a separate file. The predefined templates suggest the type of the file depending on the transpiler type. By default the output file is created in the same folder as the input file when the File Watcher is invoked for the first time, whereupon this file is only updated. You can customize all these settings during File Watcher creation.

JavaScript files generated by File Watchers are excluded from code completion and refactoring.

In the Project tree view, the output file is shown under the original file which is shown as a node. This is done to improve visibility so you can easier locate necessary files.

File watchers have two dedicated code inspections:

The File Watchers page consists of two parts:

  • A list of File Watchers available in the current project. To activate a File Watcher, select the check box next to it. If an error occurs while a File Watcher is running, the File Watcher is automatically disabled.
  • A toolbar to manage this list.

Item Tooltip/
and shortcut 		Description
new.png Add
Alt+Insert 		Click this button to open the Choose template pop-up list and choose the relevant type of File Watcher. After that IntelliJ IDEA opens the New Watcher dialog box for customizing the predefined File Watcher according to the settings of the current project.
edit1 Edit
Enter 		Click this button to update the settings of the selected File Watcher in the Edit Watcher dialog box. The update is applied to the current project File Watcher only, it does not affect the predefined IntelliJ IDEA-level template.
delete Remove
Alt+Delete 		Click this button to remove the selected File Watcher. The File Watcher is no longer applied to the files in the current project. Note that this action does not affect the corresponding predefined template which is still available at the IntelliJ IDEA level.
arrowUp.png arrowDown.png Up(Ctrl+Alt+Up)
Down (Ctrl+Alt+Down) 		Use these buttons to change the order of File Watcher in the list which determines the order in which File Watchers are launched if more than one of them are enabled.

See Also

Procedures:

Reference:

Web Resources: