How to create custom PhpStorm plugins

Resources

Websites

Working example files

Setup IDE

Download

To be able to create IntelliJ (included PhpStorm) plugins you first need to download IntelliJ IDEA Ultimate edition.

This version is not free but you can go for a 3 months free trial.
To note: It is said that the Community version that is free should work for creating PhpStorm plugins but it seems it does not because it does not provide the mandatory PHP plugins.

First configuration

At the first launch of IntelliJ IDEA, you will be asked what default plugins you want to use.
Ensure that Gradle is selected in Build Tools and Plugin DevKit is enabled in Plugin Development.foo

Install JDK

Be sure to have a JDK installed in order to run Java.

For Linux, just run the following commands:

sudo apt-get install openjdk-8-jre
sudo apt-get install openjdk-8-jdk

See full documentation: OpenJDK - How to download and install prebuilt OpenJDK packages.

Install Gradle

You can directly install Gradle using apt-get:

sudo apt install gradle
gradle cleanIdea idea

Create a new plugin

Follow this documentation about how to create your first plugin using Gradle:
JetBrains - Getting Started with Gradle

Add support of PHP libraries

In order to write a plugin for PhpStorm, you need to import com.jetbrains.php.
In build.gradle add the following:

intellij {
    version '2018.2.6'
    plugins = ['com.jetbrains.php:182.4892.16']
}

Look for a version of the plugin that match your IDE requirements: List of releases.

Then require the PHP library in your src/main/resources/META-INF/plugin.xml by adding the following lines:

<depends>com.jetbrains.php</depends>
<depends>com.intellij.modules.platform</depends>

Test your configuration

If everything is well setup, you should be able to run Gradle > Tasks > intellij > verifyPlugin in the Gradle window (tab at the very right of IDE window).

Test your plugin

Default behavior of Gradle when you do Gradle > Tasks > intellij > runIde in order to test your plugin, is to launch another instance of IntelliJ.

To note: In order to configure your build.gradle file, the easiest thing is to follow exemple of Symfony Plugin.