I'm definitely not the first developer to say that quick fix suggestions make my life ten times easier. With dynamic proposals for code actions, my life gets even easier.

Many quick fixes have multiple suggestions for text replacement. In the Eclipse IDE, these are displayed in a dropdown selection menu. Take a look at the type mismatch quick fix below, for example:

Very helpful, right? Now let's take a look at how VS Code handles the same quick fix:

No dropdown, no options, just the first item from Eclipse's list inserted statically. Definitely less helpful.

Why is this? Well, code actions in Eclipse support dropdown choices, as well as placeholders, which enable dynamic text insertion/replacement. Code actions in VS Code, on the other hand, do not. The closest we can get to simulating this behaviour in VS Code is by using snippets, which similarly have choices/placeholders. Unfortunately, we couldn't support snippet strings in code actions without violating the Language Server Protocol specification... until now!

With the introduction and support of SnippetTextEdit in LSP and VS Code, dynamic code actions will now be supported in the upcoming release of vscode-java 1.35.0! If you can't wait, they're also available now in pre-release.

Check out the relevant PR in vscode-java and its supporting PR in JDT-LS.

The Point​

Code actions, which were once completely static, now prompt you to alter relevant sections of text and give you multiple suggestions for insertion and replacement.

Pretty cool.

Limitations​

This improvement doesn't come without a few minor setbacks.

For code actions that propose new types, the import for the selected type cannot be automatically resolved. Instead, after applying the code action and selecting the new type from the dropdown, the user has to either manually import the type, apply the subsequent quick fix suggestion to import the type, or issue the 'Organize Imports' command (Shift + Alt + O).

Additionally, any code action that involves multi-line text insertion will see additional indentation on all lines excluding the first one. You can see this happen in the above example. This is due to a bug in VS Code that automatically adds indentation to snippet strings.

A percentage (~4%) of users trying out our latest release of vscode-java 1.33.0 were probably disappointed to note that we dropped support for Java versions prior to 1.8. This wasn't something we did intentionally but it happened in the JDT Core library that we rely on for much of our Java functionality. While losing existing functionality is frustrating, I'll go over why this change was necessary and how it will set up the JDT Core project, the Java language server (JDT-LS), and vscode-java for success in the longer term.

There's a JEP for that​

JEP-182 already defines a process for this exact thing. Although the policy would have to change to take into account the 6-month release cadence, it's clear that a move towards supporting fewer older releases is desired.

As of now, javac from the OpenJDK 22 developments tools no longer support a pre-1.8 source/target/release flag :

$ javac --help
  ...
  ...
  --release <release>
        Compile for the specified Java SE release.
        Supported releases:
            8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22
  ...
  ...

Maintenance burden​

Going through the discussion ( https://github.com/eclipse-jdt/eclipse.jdt.core/discussions/820 ) in JDT Core to drop the support, it's clear there's a cost to supporting the older versions. It also affects the time it takes to implement new features that must deal with the added complexity from those older versions. Simplifying the codebase will translate into more features, implemented more quickly and an easier maintenance.

Perspective​

So where does that leave affected users ? They could continue to stay on vscode-java 1.32.0, until they update their project to Java 1.8 or above. It's definitely not ideal for those depending on older Java versions but the newer features, and improvements should certainly make up for it.

LSP4IJ is a new, free and open-source Language Server Protocol (LSP) client for JetBrains-based IDEs, compatible with both community and enterprise flavors.

It provides outstanding features such as:

• The ability to configure LSP servers without developing a new plug-in (restricted to stdio-based connections for the moment).
• A set of API allowing third-party adopters to contribute LSP extensions to the JetBrains ecosystem
• a console view, allowing users to monitor and troubleshoot the communication between the IDE and the LSP servers.

The client already supports a significant amount of features from the LSP 3.17 specification, and more are on their way.

Why LSP4IJ?​

The Devtools team at Red Hat has been working on free and open-source language servers for many years. We have offered LSP implementations for Java, YAML, XML, MicroProfile, Quarkus and Qute, that were integrated into Visual Studio Code via several extensions. Some of those language servers have also been integrated into Eclipse IDE.

By 2019, JetBrains already provided some Quarkus support in IntelliJ IDEA Ultimate to their paid customers. But when Red Hat wanted to bring the same awesome Quarkus tools VS Code already had, to the wider IntelliJ IDEA Community, an LSP client for IntelliJ was needed.

At that time, we evaluated Ballerina's lsp4intellij library, which provides advanced LSP support but has the following limitations:

• Quarkus / Qute language servers have a complicated mechanism, delegating parts of the work to the IDE's Java support (JDT for Eclipse and Psi for IntelliJ), to avoid parsing Java classes twice (once by the language server, another the built-in Java support). We encountered numerous freezes.
• Ballerina implements certain LSP features without reusing IntelliJ built-in extension points (ex: hover, go to declaration)
• Tracing server status (starting, started, stopping, stopped) is difficult, which makes server startup issues hard to troubleshoot.
• Ballerina features are mostly based on a Timeout system, which stops LSP requests after a defined time.

To integrate our Quarkus and Qute language servers, the LSP support in IntelliJ needed to:

• never freeze, even when the language server cannot be started.
• not rely on a timeout system, but instead properly manage LSP request cancellations (when the file is modified for example)
• provide a UI allowing easy tracking of the state of the language servers
• provide an LSP console that displays LSP traces and server logs.

For these reasons, we developed the LSP support we needed directly within the Quarkus Tools for IntelliJ plugin. It actually started as a port of the Eclipse LSP4E project. It took us several years, but we ended up with an LSP support that was mature and efficient.

In 2023, JetBrains finally decided to start providing some LSP support, but to only make it available in their commercial products, which was a not a good fit for us as we couldn't use it for Quarkus Tools. It was also lacking some features we really, really, liked in our LSP client, notably the LSP Consoles view.

Seeing our own LSP support held up pretty well for Quarkus and Qute, we decided to extract it into its own standalone project, to provide generic LSP support, for all JetBrains products, notably the community ones. Hence LSP4IJ was born.

LSP support overview​

LSP features​

LSP4IJ implements basic LSP features like completion, validation, hover, go to definition, but also more advanced ones, such as codelens, inlay hints, quickfixes, rename, signature help and others.

Here's a quick example showcasing the gopls language server in action:

The LSP Support page provides a complete overview of what LSP4IJ supports and details how it leverages specific IntelliJ extension points. While most features work out-of-the-box, a few cases require special configuration.

Cancellation Support​

In order to avoid using timeouts (that might still freeze the IDE), LSP4IJ implements Cancellation Support to stop LSP requests when the file changes or when the IDE indicates the some requests (e.g. completion) are no longer relevant.

LSP consoles view​

Although not often useful to users, the LSP consoles view is extremely valuable when one needs to troubleshoot issues with the language servers. All servers can be configured to log traces, as simple or verbose messages. This console view is similar to Visual Studio Code's Output view, only more convenient, as message contents are collapsible:

Installation​

LSP4IJ requires at least Java 17 and IntelliJ-based IDEs 2023.2 at the moment.

The LSP4IJ plugin is available in the stable channel of the JetBrains Plugin Repository.

Quickly get started with LSP4IJ​

If you want to quickly test your language server with LSP4IJ without having to develop a plugin or if you're unfamiliar with IntelliJ plugin development, LSP4IJ offers the possibility of integrating any language server (only stdio mode is supported at the moment) with simple settings where you only need to define:

• the language server launch command
• the mapping between the language server and the files targeted by the language server

Example: Adding TypeScript support​

Free/community IntelliJ-based IDEs only provide basic support for TypeScript in the form of syntax highlighting. In this section, we'll explain step-by-step how to integrate the TypeScript language server into your IntelliJ IDE, without having to develop anything, and immediately benefit from TypeScript, React and JavaScript support (completion, validation, quickfixes, codelens, etc):

Step 1: Install the language server​

This step describes how to install the language server. In our case, typescript-language-server is Node.js application and thus requires the Node.js runtime to run.

You will need to:

• Install Node.js
• Install typescript-language-server. The simplest way is to open a terminal and execute the following command:

npm install -g typescript-language-server typescript

It will install:

• TypeScript language server: this project delegates the LSP operations (completion, diagnostics, etc) to the tsserver from TypeScript which doesn't support LSP itself.
• TypeScript which includes tsserver.
• As the command will add typescript-language-server to your OS PATH, you will probably have to close and reopen your IDE for the command to be accessible by LSP4IJ.

Step 2: Create a language server in LSP4IJ​

In order to create a new User-defined language server, you need to open the New Language Server dialog, either:

• from the menu on the right of the LSP console:

• or with the [+] on the top of the language server settings:

Once you clicked on either of them, the dialog will appear:

To quickly configure TypeScript support, you could use the TypeScript template which will pre-fill all fields (command and mappings), but in order to better understand the process, let's do that manually:

Define launch command​

In the Server tab, set:

• Name as TypeScript Language Server.
• Command as typescript-language-server --stdio

Note that you can use macros in your commands, to make them more portable, should you choose to export you server.

Define mappings​

In the Mappings > File name patterns tab, associate *.ts, *.tsx, *.jsx files to the language server as shown below :

The value in the Language Id column must be one of the language identifiers defined in the LSP specification.

Define configuration​

By default, codelens and inlayhint are not available in the TypeScript Language Server, you can enable them by filling the Configuration tab with the following JSON settings:

{
  "typescript": {
    "inlayHints": {
      "includeInlayEnumMemberValueHints": true,
      "includeInlayFunctionLikeReturnTypeHints": true,
      "includeInlayFunctionParameterTypeHints": true,
      "includeInlayParameterNameHints": "all",
      "includeInlayParameterNameHintsWhenArgumentMatchesName": true,
      "includeInlayPropertyDeclarationTypeHints": true,
      "includeInlayVariableTypeHints": true,
      "includeInlayVariableTypeHintsWhenTypeMatchesName": true
    },
    "implementationsCodeLens": {
      "enabled": true
    },
    "referencesCodeLens": {
      "enabled": true,
      "showOnAllFunctions": true
    }
  }
}

Click the OK button, and you should see the TypeScript Language Server in the Language Servers view:

Create a ts file and open it. The TypeScript Language Server should start and you should now be able to use TypeScript support with completion, hover, linting...

Using a Template​

LSP4IJ provides a few templates for various language servers. You can select the TypeScript Language Server template which will pre-fill all fields previously described (server name, command and mappings).

Export server​

If you want to share your language server settings, you can export it to generate a zip file, that, once shared and unzipped to a directory, can be imported.

How to integrate your language server in an IntelliJ plugin.​

Manually defining a language server via settings allows you to add a language server into IntelliJ in a few minutes, but if you need to provide better integration with the IDE, embedding the language server definition in an IntelliJ plugin will be a better solution:

• it is possible to embed the language server and/or provide a mechanism to download/update the language server, etc. make it easier for users to get started.
• advanced language servers require implementing specific client-side commands, which is only possible through the development of an IntelliJ plugin.

The Developer Guide provides step-by-step instructions for contributing an LSP language server in your IntelliJ plugin.

The following example shows how to integrate the TypeScript Language Server in an IntelliJ plugin. In your plugin.xml, you would declare the server like this:

<extensions defaultExtensionNs="com.redhat.devtools.lsp4ij">
    <server id="typeScriptLanguageServerId"
            name="TypeScript Language Server"
            factoryClass="com.yourplugin.lsp.TypeScriptLanguageServerFactory">
        <description><![CDATA[
        Some description written in HTML, that will be displayed in the LSP consoles view and Language Servers settings.
        ]]>
        </description>
    </server>
</extensions>

and mappings like this by using File name pattern mapping:

<extensions defaultExtensionNs="com.redhat.devtools.lsp4ij">

    <fileNamePatternMapping patterns="*.ts"
                            serverId="typeScriptLanguageServerId"
                            languageId="typescript"/>

</extensions>

The com.yourplugin.lsp.TypeScriptLanguageServerFactory factory class looks like this:

package com.yourplugin.lsp;

import com.intellij.openapi.project.Project;
import com.redhat.devtools.lsp4ij.LanguageServerFactory;
import com.redhat.devtools.lsp4ij.client.LanguageClientImpl;
import com.redhat.devtools.lsp4ij.server.StreamConnectionProvider;
import org.jetbrains.annotations.NotNull;

public class TypeScriptLanguageServerFactory implements LanguageServerFactory {

    @Override
    public @NotNull StreamConnectionProvider createConnectionProvider(@NotNull Project project) {
        return new TypeScriptLanguageServer(project);
    }

}

package com.yourplugin.lsp;

import com.redhat.devtools.lsp4ij.server.ProcessStreamConnectionProvider;

import java.util.List;

public class TypeScriptLanguageServer extends ProcessStreamConnectionProvider {

    public MyLanguageServer() {
        List<String> commands = List.of("typescript-language-server", "--stdio");
        super.setCommands(commands);
    }
}

This code assumes typescript-language-server is available on the PATH, but it could be improved to target an embedded TypeScript language server inside your IntelliJ plugin.

Conclusion​

This article only scratches the surface of what LSP4IJ provides. You can find more documentation in:

• the user guide, describing how to use the LSP consoles view and Language Server preferences.
• the LSP Support overview, detailing which LSP features are implemented, and how.
• the User-defined language server documentation, explaining how to integrate a language server in LSP4IJ with minimal settings.
• the developer guide, providing step-by-step instructions on how to integrate a language server in LSP4IJ in an external IntelliJ plugin.

Creating a new LSP client for JetBrains-based IDEs has been a very humbling and rewarding experience. With each new language server we tested, we found slightly different behaviors to account for, eventually making LSP4IJ more and more robust. The initial feedback from the community has been very encouraging so far. We hope you will find LSP4IJ useful!

If you find any bugs or can think of ideas for some great new features, please don’t hesitate to head over to our Github repository and open a ticket. Since our test framework is built around LSP requests, you just need to copy traces from the LSP Consoles view so we can reproduce issues you find with your language server and fix them.

Motivation​

You are working on a software tool that interacts with Kubernetes clusters. You would like to troubleshoot bugs arising due to insufficient permissions by simulating an environment where the user has heavily restricted permissions on the cluster.

Prerequisites​

• This tutorial assumes you are using Linux or macOS. The same general steps should work on Windows, except the paths and commands might be slightly different.
• Install kind, needed to create the cluster.
• (Optional) install kubectx, helpful for switching Kubernetes contexts.

Steps​

Creating the Cluster​

First, create the kind cluster:

kind create cluster

This should take around a minute.

Creating the Service Account​

Once the cluster is up and running, create a service account:

kubectl create serviceaccount my-service-account

And create a token associated with the service account:

kubectl create token my-service-account --duration 72h

This second command will output the token into the console. Make sure to copy this token into your clipboard.

Open up your kube config (~/.kube/config), and create a new user entry in the users section:

 users:
+- name: my-service-account
+  user:
+    token: # PASTE TOKEN HERE AND REMOVE NEWLINES
 - name: kind-kind
   user:

Then, go up to the contexts section, and add the following new context:

 contexts:
 - context:
     cluster: kind-kind
     namespace: default
     user: kind-kind
   name: kind-kind
+- context:
+    cluster: kind-kind
+    namespace: default
+    user: my-service-account
+  name: my-service-account-ctx
 current-context: kind-kind
 kind: Config

Creating the Role and Role Binding​

Next, create the following file, service-account-permissions.yaml:

---
apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
kind: ClusterRole
metadata:
  name: can-list-pod
rules:
  - apiGroups: [""]
    resources: ["pods"]
    verbs: ["get", "list", "watch"]
---
apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
kind: ClusterRoleBinding
metadata:
  name: can-list-pod-binding
subjects:
- kind: User
  name: system:serviceaccount:default:my-service-account
  apiGroup: rbac.authorization.k8s.io
roleRef:
  kind: ClusterRole
  name: can-list-pod
  apiGroup: rbac.authorization.k8s.io

Then, apply this YAML to the cluster using the following command:

kubectl create -f service-account-permissions.yaml

This creates a ClusterRole, which is a set of actions that an account is allowed to perform across all namespaces in a cluster. The ClusterRole is called "can-list-pod", and it allows the user to list pods in all namespaces. The YAML file also creates a ClusterRoleBinding, which specifies that "my-service-account", the service account we just created, should have the ClusterRole "can-list-pod".

Next, we need to switch to the newly created service account. To do this, run kubectx my-service-account-ctx to switch to the context that we created by editing ~/.kube/config.

Testing the account​

In order to test that the account was created successfully, try listing the namespaces on the cluster:

kubectl get namespace

You should get an "unauthorized" warning, because the only thing the service account is allowed to do on the cluster is list pods.

Next, let's verify that you can list pods. We should create a pod on the cluster so that there is something to list. Use kubectx kind-kind to switch back to the kind-kind context, so that you have permissions to create pods.

Then, run:

kubectl create deployment --image quay.io/davthomp/pet-alpine my-deployment

This creates a deployment, which will automatically create and manage a pod.

Then, switch back to the my-service-account-ctx context using kubectx my-service-account-ctx, and then try to list the pods:

kubectl get pods

You should see one pod that's listed: the pod managed by the deployment we created.

Next Steps​

You've successfully set up a service account with heavily restricted access to the cluster.

If you want to give the service account more permissions, you can modify and reapply service-account-permissions.yaml. You will need to switch back to the kind-kind user in order to reapply the changes. Refer to the Kubernetes documentation on role-based access control for more information on setting up the permissions for the account.

Cleaning Up​

Once you are done with the cluster, make sure to delete it. Also, make sure to remove the new user and context that you created from your ~/.kube/config, since they will no longer exist when you delete the cluster.