Tutorial: Deployment in IntelliJ IDEA

What is specified in the Connection tab?

Select the directory where the project files will be uploaded. In our case, this is the C:\xampp\htdocs local folder. You can either type the path manually, or press Shift+Enter.)

What is specified in the Mappings tab?

Next, switch to the Mappings tab. By default, the Local path field contains the path to the project root. However, you can select any other directory within your project tree. Let's assume the default value.

In the Deployment path field (which is by default empty), specify the folder on your server, where IntelliJ IDEA will upload data from the folder specified in the Local path field: in this example, it's ij\MetersToInchesConverter. This path is specified relative to the web server root folder, which is C:\xampp\htdocs.

Finally, accept the default / value for Web path:

After you apply the changes, the server is ready to use.

Uploading

First, let's upload one of the files to the remote server.

In the Project tool window, right-click a file you want to upload. In our case, let it be the file MetersToInchesConverter. From the context menu, choose Upload to MyRemoteServer, and see the upload results.

You can also upload contents of each directory within your project. For example, right-click the parent directory of the MetersToInchesConverter, namely, src and choose Deployment | Upload to MyRemoteServer from the context menu. We now have the entire directory uploaded to the server:

Comparing remote and local versions

There is a local and a remote copy of the file MetersToInchesConverter, and they are identical. Let's modify the local version.

To do that, place the caret at the method declaration, and press Control+Alt+Shift+T (or choose Refactor | Refactor This from the main menu). The popup menu shows all refactorings, available in the current context. Let's choose Rename refactoring, and rename a method:

Perform refactoring and see the method name and its usage changed.

Now we've changed the local version. Let's make sure IntelliJ IDEA knows about these changes. To do that, go to the Remote host tool window tool window, and right-click MetersToInchesConverter. From the context menu, choose Compare with Local Version. IntelliJ IDEA opens the differences viewer.

Downloading

In the Remote host tool window tool window, right-click the file MetersToInchesConverter, and choose Download from here in the context menu. IntelliJ IDEA shows a warning:

Click Continue:

You can also download an entire directory, if it has been previously uploaded to the server. For example, if you click the parent src directory and choose the same command, all nested files will be downloaded from the server.

Defining a server as default

A deployment server is considered default if its settings apply by default during automatic upload of changed files. To define a deployment server as the default one, follow these steps:

Enabling automatic upload

As soon as the default server is set, you can make upload to this server automatic. This can be done in the following two ways:

• Open the deployment Options (Settings | Deployment | Options or Tools | Deployment | Options from the main menu), and in the Upload changed files automatically to the default server field choose Always, or On explicit save action. The difference between these two choices is explained in the field description.

• In the main menu, select Tools | Deployment | Automatic upload. Note that automatic upload in this case is performed in the Always mode.

It is worth noting that the Always mode is not recommended for deploying to production: incomplete code can be uploaded while developing, potentially breaking the production application.