PhpStorm 2021.2 Help

Meteor

Meteor is a full-stack framework that lets you use JavaScript both on the client-side and on the server-side. PhpStorm integrates with Meteor so you can use it from inside the IDE. Meteor support in PhpStorm includes:

  • Automatic recognition of Meteor projects by detecting the .meteor folder and excluding the .meteor/local folder from project. See Hiding excluded files for details.

  • Attaching the predefined Meteor library to the project automatically. This enables syntax highlighting, resolving references, and code completion.

  • Support of Spacebars via Handlebars with completion for if and each directives. PhpStorm recognizes Spacebars templates, but as a side effect marks HTML files in Meteor projects with the Handlebars/Mustache icon. PhpStorm provides navigation between JavaScript source code and templates with go to Declaration Ctrl+B.

  • A dedicated complex Meteor run/debug configuration for debugging both the client-side and the server-side code within one debugging session, see Debugging a Meteor application.

Before you start

Install the Meteor and Handlebars/Mustache plugins on the Settings/Preferences | Plugins page, tab Marketplace, as described in Installing plugins from JetBrains repository.

Installing Meteor

The installation procedure depends on the operating system you are using. Learn more from the Meteor official website.

  • In the embedded Terminal (Alt+F12) , type:

    $ curl https://install.meteor.com | /bin/sh

  • In the embedded Terminal (Alt+F12) , type:

    $ curl https://install.meteor.com | /bin/sh

Creating a new Meteor application

If you have no application yet, you can generate a PhpStorm project with Meteor-specific structure from a Meteor boilerplate template. Alternatively, create an empty PhpStorm project and configure Meteor support in it as described in Starting with an existing Meteor application below.

To create a Meteor project from a boilerplate template

  1. Click Create New Project on the Welcome screen or select File | New | Project from the main menu. The Create New Project Dialog opens.

  2. In the left-hand pane, choose Meteor.

  3. In the right-hand pane:

    1. Specify the path to the folder where the project-related files will be stored.

    2. Specify the location of the Meteor executable file (see Installing Meteor).

    3. From the Template list, choose the sample to generate. To have a basic project structure generated, choose the Default option.

    4. In the Filename field, type the name for the mutually related .js, .html, and .css files that will be generated. The field is available only if the Default sample type is selected from the Template drop-dow list.

To create an empty PhpStorm project

  1. Click Create New Project on the Welcome screen or select File | New | Project from the main menu. The Create New Project Dialog opens.

  2. In the left-hand pane, choose PHP Empty Project. In the right-hand pane, specify the application folder and click Create.

Starting with an existing Meteor application

If you are going to continue developing an existing Meteor application, open it in PhpStorm, configure Meteor in it, and download the required dependencies as described in Downloading Meteor dependencies below.

To open the application sources that are already on your machine

  • Click Open on the Welcome screen or select File | Open Directory from the main menu. In the dialog that opens, select the folder where your sources are stored.

To check out the application sources from your version control

  1. Click Get from VCS on the Welcome screen. Alternatively, select File | Project from Version Control or <Your_VCS> | Get from Version Control from the main menu.

    <Your_VCS> stands for the Version Control System with which your currently opened project is associated.

  2. In the dialog that opens, select your version control system from the list and specify the repository to check out the application sources from. See Check out a project (clone) for details.

To configure Meteor support in an existing project

  1. In the Settings/Preferences dialog Ctrl+Alt+S, go to Languages and Frameworks | JavaScript | Meteor. The Meteor page opens.

  2. Specify the path to the Meteor executable file. If you followed the standard installation procedure, PhpStorm detects the file automatically.

  3. To involve the .meteor/local folder and its contents in indexing, clear the Automatically exclude ".meteor/local" directory on open project checkbox. For details, see Hiding excluded files below.

  4. Make sure the Automatically import Meteor packages as external library checkbox is selected.

    • When the checkbox is selected, PhpStorm automatically imports the external packages from the meteor/packages file. As a result, PhpStorm provides full range coding assistance: resolves references to Meteor built-in functions, for example, check(true), and to functions from third-party packages, provides proper syntax and error highlighting, supports debugging with source maps, and so on.

    • When this checkbox is cleared, PhpStorm does not automatically import the external packages from the meteor/packages file. As a result no coding assistance is provided. To improve the situation, open the meteor/packages file in the editor and click the Import packages as library link or run the meteor --update command.

  5. Make sure PhpStorm has attached the Meteor library to the project.

    1. In the Settings/Preferences dialog Ctrl+Alt+S, go to Languages and Frameworks | JavaScript | Libraries.

    2. On the Settings: JavaScript Libraries page that opens, make sure the checkbox next to the Meteor project library in the Libraries list is selected.

Project security

A webpack configuration file from external sources may contain some potentially malicious code that can cause problems when PhpStorm executes the configuration on opening a JavaScript file with import statements. For the sake of security, when you open a Meteor project with webpack, PhpStorm analyzes it, resolves the located data, and displays a warning that lets you decide whether the project is trustworthy or not.

Untrusted project warning

If you click Skip, PhpStorm disables analysis of the webpack configuration in the current project. As a result, PhpStorm might not resolve some of the imports in the project or add imports that don't use resolution rules configured in the webpack configuration.

Learn more from Webpack and Project security.

Importing Meteor packages

Besides the predefined Meteor library that ensures basic Meteor-specific coding assistance, you can download additional packages that are defined in the .meteor/local/packages file.

To download additional Meteor packages

  1. Open the .meteor/local/packages file in the editor.

  2. Click the Import Meteor Packages link in the upper right-hand corner of the screen.

  3. In the dialog that opens, specify the packages to download depending on the type of the application you are going to develop in your project.

    • Client

    • Server

    • Cordova: select this option to import the packages that support development of Meteor applications for iOS and Android, see Meteor Cordova Phonegap Integration for details.

PhpStorm automatically marks the .meteor/local folder, which is intended for storing the built application, as excluded but still shows it in the project tree.

To hide the .meteor/local folder

  • Click the Show Options Menu button on the toolbar of the Project tool window and remove a tick next to the Show Excluded Files option.

Running a Meteor application

PhpStorm runs Meteor applications according to a run configuration of the type Meteor. If you created your application from a boilerplate template, PhpStorm generates this run configuration for you.

To create a Meteor run configuration

  1. On the main menu, go to Run | Edit Configurations, click Icons general add and select Meteor from the list. The Run/Debug Configuration: Meteor opens.

  2. In the Configuration tab, specify the path to the Meteor executable file according to the installation (see Installing Meteor).

  3. Specify the folder under which the application files to run are stored. This folder must have a .meteor subfolder in the root so PhpStorm recognizes your application as a Meteor project.

    By default, the working directory is the project root folder.

Optionally

  1. In the Program Arguments field, specify the command-line additional parameters to be passed to the executable file on start up, if applicable. These can be, for example, --dev, --test, or --prod to indicate the environment in which the application is running (development, test, or production environments) so different resources are loaded on start up.

  2. By default, PhpStorm shows the application output in the Run tool window. To view the results of the client-side code execution, in the Browser / Live Edit tab select the After Launch checkbox and choose the browser to open from the list. In the field below, specify the URL address to open the application at. The default value is http://localhost:3000.

To run a Meteor application

  1. Select the newly created run configuration from the list on the main toolbar and click the Run button next to the list.

  2. View the application output in the Run tool window or in the browser if you configured the browser to open on application start as described above.

Debugging a Meteor application

With PhpStorm, you can debug both the client-side and the server-side of Meteor JavaScript code within one debugging session. A debugging session is initiated only through a dedicated Meteor run configuration.

Technically, several Meteor projects that implement different applications can be combined within one single PhpStorm project. To run and debug these applications independently, create a separate run configuration for each of them with the relevant working directory. To avoid port conflicts, these run configurations should use different ports. In the Program Arguments field, specify a separate port for each run configuration in the format --port=<port_number>.

To debug a Meteor application

  1. Set the breakpoints in the code where necessary.

  2. Create a Meteor run/debug configuration as described above. In the Browse / Live Edit tab, select the After launch checkbox, choose Chrome from the list, and select the with JavaScript debugger checkbox.

  3. To initiate a debugging session, select the required debug configuration from the list on the main toolbar and click the Debug button next to the list or select Run | Debug <configuration name> from the main menu.

    The Debug tool window opens showing two tabs: one for debugging the server-side code marked with the Meteor icon and the other one for debugging the client-side code marked with the JavaScript icon.

  4. Explore the suspended program and step through the program.

  5. Optionally, preview the changes to the application on the fly as described below.

Previewing changes in the browser

During a debugging session, you can preview changes to your HTML, CSS, or JavaScript code on the fly. The live contents of the page you edit are shown in the Elements tab of the Debug tool window. The update policy depends on which part of your application you are editing.

To preview changes to the client-side code, do one of the following:

  • Switch to the <Configuration name> JavaScript JavaScript icon tab and click Update on the toolbar.

  • Configure automatic upload of updates by selecting the Enable Meteor Hot code push checkbox on the Meteor page. Learn more from the Meteor official website.

To preview the changes to the server-side code, dop one of the following:

  • Switch to the <Configuration name> Meteor icon tab and click Update on the toolbar.

  • Configure automatic upload with the Live Edit functionality as described in Live Edit in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. It is recommended that you select the Restart if hotswap fails checkbox on the page, then PhpStorm will attempt to reload the page if the changes couldn't be applied without that.

Last modified: 20 October 2021
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