Getting started with Play 2.x
Before you start generating your Play project, make sure that the Scala plugin is downloaded and enabled in IntelliJ IDEA.
IntelliJ IDEA supports Play versions 2.4 and later.
Let's look at the following common scenarios for generating a Play 2 project in IntelliJ IDEA:
If you have an already existing Play 2 project, you can import it or check out from version control. In this case you can follow the regular procedure for importing or cloning a project.
If you are not familiar with Play 2 framework and want to learn how to use it, create a Play project via IntelliJ IDEA that will generate an executable application.
If you want to manually add a support for Play 2 framework, create an sbt project.
Create a new Play 2 project
Launch the New Project wizard. If no project is currently opened in IntelliJ IDEA, click New Project on the welcome screen. Otherwise, select from the main menu.
From the options on the left, under the Generators node, select Play 2.x.
Follow the steps suggested in the wizard and click Create.
IntelliJ IDEA generates the Play 2 project with the appropriate structure, dependencies and an executable application.
Create an sbt project with Play 2 framework
Create an sbt project.
Follow the steps suggested in the wizard and click Finish.
IntelliJ IDEA creates an sbt project.
Open the build.sbt file in the editor and add Play as a project dependency.
libraryDependencies ++=Seq("com.typesafe.play" %% "play" % "2.7.3")In the Project tool window, in the project source root directory, select to create the plugins.sbt file.
Open the plugins.sbt file in the editor and add the Play 2 plugin.
addSbtPlugin("com.typesafe.play" % "sbt-plugin" % "2.7.3")
IntelliJ IDEA downloads the appropriate dependencies and adds them to the Dependencies node in the sbt projects tool window.
Please note that the Play 2 framework project structure is not generated and you need to add everything manually. Check the Play 2 project structure.
At this point you can start creating Play 2 templates since IntelliJ IDEA supports them as soon as support for Play 2 framework is added and develop your project further. You can use code completion, navigation and on-the-fly code analysis features in your Play 2 files. IntelliJ IDEA also supports code assistance for routes files and code inspections.
Open an existing Play 2 project
On the welcome screen, select Open. Alternatively, from the main menu, select .
In the dialog that opens, locate your project and if it is an sbt project, select the build.sbt file and click Open.
In the dialog that opens, click Open as Project.
IntelliJ IDEA opens the project and loads all the necessary dependencies.
If your project is not an sbt project, refer to the import project section.
Run and debug Play 2 application
If you want to run the application:
In the project tool window, right-click the application.
In the context menu, select Run Play 2 App.
If you need to access the Run/Debug Configurations dialog:
On the main menu, select .
Click the
and select Play 2 App to create a new configuration.Specify run/debug configuration settings. The default settings are enough for running and debugging purposes.
On the main toolbar, click the
icon to run or the 
icon to debug your application.
You can check the output of your application in the default browser http://localhost:9000. If you want to stop the server session, press Alt+D (Cmd+P for macOS).
Work with Play2 settings
You can use Play 2 settings to configure compiler options and configure formatting for route files. You can also view and edit a list of default template imports.
Press Control+Alt+S and from the options on the left select .
Depending on what settings you want to configure, on the Play2 settings page, select the appropriate tab and adjust the settings. Use the Other tab to check and edit the list of template imports that get retrieved from the descriptor when you refresh your project.
To manually add a template, delete, or edit the existing ones, select the Select template imports manually option so the Imports section becomes active and adjust the list of imports accordingly.