Activity 2 - Introduction to IntelliJ: Coding the palindrome

In this activity we will walk through the basic steps for creating a new project in IntelliJ.

Starting up

• Create a directory for your CS321 work.
• Start the IntelliJ application (under Development).
• The license server is http://alpha.hanover.edu.
• Follow through the startup process.
• Select File -> New -> Project;
  • Make sure the Project SDK is set to Java 11 or later.
  • Follow the Next buttons until you can choose a project name and location.
  • Give a name to the project; call it “WordPalindrome”.
  • Navigate to the CS321 directory you created. Create a new folder named WordPalindrome.
• Click Finish.

You are now looking at the main IntelliJ window. The left side has what we call the project structure.

Creating your first class file

• Expand the arrow next to WordPalindrome in the project structure. You should see a blue source folder (src). You’ll also see two other items there, the WordPalindrome.iml file and the .idea folder. Both of these hold IntelliJ’s information about your project.
• Right-click on the src folder to bring up the context menu. Choose New -> Java Class and name your class PalindromeChecker. A new tab will open with the newly-created class file, PalindromeChecker.java, containing a basic class definition.
• Starting with the import java.util.Scanner; line, type in the code from the handout we discussed earlier. One person can be reading out while the other one is typing. Switch halfway through.
  • Pay attention to IntelliJ’s visual queues about what is going on with your code. Did you notice how it denotes syntax errors?

Testing it out

• Save your file if it is not saved already.
• Right-click the class name and choose “Run”. This will bring up a “Run” window at the bottom. You can also click the greeen arrow to the left of the start of the class clause in your code.
• If there were errors during compilation, you will instead see them under a Messages tab. Fix your errors and run again.
• Click in the “Run” window to shift your focus there.
• You should now be able to type in a phrase and press Enter, and the program will tell you if it is a word palindrome or not.
• To end, click the red Stop button on the left, or type Ctrl-D.