External tools

Last modified: 18 May 2021

You can define third-party applications as external tools and run them from GoLand.

GoLand allows you to pass contextual information from your project to the external tool as command-line arguments (for example, the currently selected file or the project source path), view the output produced by the tool, configure to launch the tool before a run/debug configuration, and more.

Add a local external tool

This example demonstrates how to add OptiPNG as an external tool and use it to optimize images in your project.

  1. Press Ctrl+Alt+S to open IDE settings and select Tools | External Tools.

  2. Click the Add button and specify the following settings:

    • Name: The name of the tool that will be displayed in the GoLand interface.

    • Group: The name of the group to which the tool belongs. You can select an existing group or type the name of a new group.

    • Description: A meaningful description of the tool.

    • Program: The path to the application executable file.

    • Arguments: The arguments passed to the executable file, as you would specify them on the command line.

      note

      Use spaces to separate individual arguments. Use double quotes for arguments and paths that contain spaces. Use a backslash to escape double quotes that are part of the argument or path. For example: -Dmy.prop=\"quoted_value\" "second arg" third" "arg

    • Working directory: The path to the current working directory from which the tool is executed.

    The Create Tool dialog

    In our case, OptiPNG will be run with the -o4 $FilePath$ arguments. You can use macros that can refer to the project name, the current file path, a path to the PHP executable, and so on. Clicking the Insert Macros icon will open the Macros dialog that lists all available macros and their values.

  3. Click OK to add the tool and then apply the changes.

Run the added local external tool

To open the selected file in the newly added tool image, do one of the following:

  • From the main menu, select Tools | External Tools | Optimize PNG.

  • Right-click a file in the Project tool window and select External Tools | Optimize PNG from the context menu.

    Run External tool

  • In the Settings/Preferences dialog Ctrl+Alt+S, select Keymap, find the Optimize PNG action under the External Tools node, and assign a shortcut for it. Use the shortcut to run the tool.

    Create a shortcut for an external tool

When the tool runs, the output is displayed in the Run tool window:

Run the added tool on a remote server

  • From the main menu, select Tools | Remote tools | Date and time.

  • In the Settings/Preferences dialog Ctrl+Alt+S, select Keymap, find the Date and time action, and assign a shortcut for it. Use the shortcut to run the tool.

After you specify the host, port, and credentials, GoLand will connect to the server via SSH and run the date command, returning the output to the Run tool window in GoLand.

Web browsers

You can use a web browser to open any file from your project. By default, it is used to preview the output of an HTML file or run and debug web applications.

Open a file in a web browser

To open a file that is intended to be rendered by a web browser (HTML, XML, JSP, and so on), do one of the following:

  • Press Alt+F2.

  • Right-click a file and select Open in Browser.

  • From the main menu, select View | Open in Browser.

  • Use the browser popup in the top right part of the editor window. Click the browser button to open the web server file URL, or Shift+Click it to open the local file URL.

    Show in browser

The Open in Browser action is not available for other file types. However, you can still execute it using Find Action Ctrl+Shift+A.

View and configure the list of browsers

note

By default, GoLand supports some of the most popular browsers, which are configured automatically, if available.

  • In the Settings/Preferences dialog Ctrl+Alt+S, select Tools | Web Browsers.

The Web Browsers page in Preferences

If a browser was installed using a standard procedure, the alias in the Path field should point to the right location. If it does not, specify the path to the corresponding executable file.

tip

To add a custom browser, click the Add button and specify the browser name, family, and location of the executable file or macOS application.

Use custom profile and settings

You can configure custom profiles for Firefox and Chrome family browsers.

  1. In the Settings/Preferences dialog Ctrl+Alt+S, select Tools | Web Browsers.

  2. Select the browser in the list and click the Edit button.

    • For Firefox, specify the path to the profiles.ini file and choose the profile to use. For more information, see Firefox browser profile.

    • For Chrome, select Use custom user data directory and specify the location of the user data directory.

      You can also specify additional command-line options to use when running Chrome from GoLand. For more information, open chrome://flags in the Chrome address bar.