Idea is a Java integrated development environment developed by JetBrains software, which is arguably the best Java development IDE available today.

However, Idea is a commercial IDE. Its flagship edition is a license, which can be obtained for free through educational email, open source projects, etc., but not everyone has this condition. So the majority of engineers play the program ape’s traditional art, some crack operation. But recently, a lot of Idea cracking is invalid — the new day, open Idea, on the number, found that the need for permission…… 😓

It’s time to turn to our old friend Eclipse. In fact, the Java backend is already dominated by Spring, and Spring development has an artifact — STS.


STS:Spring Tool Suite(STS) is an Eclipse-based development environment for developing Spring applications. It provides a ready-to-use environment to implement, debug, run, and deploy your Spring applications. Includes integration support for key server and cloud computing, Git, Maven, AspectJ, and the latest Eclipse releases.

In other words, Spring Tool Suite is a custom version of Eclipse, which is an official version of the Spring Framework wrapped with Spring plug-ins on top of the Java EE version of Eclipse, with the Java EE version of Eclipse at its core.


First, STS installation


1. STS download

  • Spring official website: Spring. IO /tools



  • The Eclipse plug-in: marketplace.eclipse.org/content/spr…


STS has Eclipse plug-in download mode and full version download mode, we download the full version here.

It should be noted that this download is very slow and often breaks due to network reasons. Found a way, see [2], to configure Chrome to enable breakpoint transfers.


2. STS installation

The blogger downloaded version 4.8.1.

  • After the STS download is complete, there is a Jar package.

  • Uncompress the Jar package, which contains a ZIP package, and uncompress the package again.

  • After unpacking, you can find a working installer. Click Run.

  • Selecting a workspace

  • OK, our STS installation is complete


Ii. Use of STS


STS itself is a wrapper for Eclipse, so the configuration is basically the same.


1. STS configures JDK

  • Open, the window, — — >preferences –> javaA page is displayed.

  • Select · Installed jres·, and the configured JDK variables will be displayed on the right side. Here we select the JDK path we installed



2. Configure Maven on STS

Next, configure our local Maven for STS.

  • window— – >preferences— – >maven

  • maven— – >installations — – >add



  • Select the local Maven installation directory.

  • Configure the settings. XML location and load it into the local repository

  • Window –showView –other – maven – maven repository , open the repository management view (resources are required to use the jars downloaded from the repository)



Create SpringBoot project using STS

  • To Create a Spring Boot Project, click “Create New Starter Project” in the Package Explorer

  • Select the appropriate Java version and fill in the relevant configuration for the project (no additional dependencies are introduced here)

  • The SpringBoot project has been created

  • Right-click the project menu and selectRun As->Spring Boot App, run the project. The console output is as follows.


Optimize STS

Up here we have STS installed and a SpringBoot project running, and it’s nothing new.

To improve our experience, we can refer to another development magic, VS Code, which is not enough by itself. STS is a wrapper for Eclipse, so all of Eclipse’s plug-ins are available.


1, theme beautification

Many of us are used to dark themes, here we can beautify our STS with the DevStyle plugin.

  • Help – >Eclipse Marketplace— – >PopularThe first one to see our target, clickinstall



  • Wait until the installation is complete and restart



  • After the reboot, you will see the boot page of the dark theme selection. After the selection, you can use it

  • OK, STS has changed a lot

  • If you feel that the theme of the boot page is not good to choosewindow –> preferences -> DevStyleTo change the theme, Icon style and editor style, click apply IDE to restart.



2. Other plug-ins

Eclipse has many other useful plug-ins, such as:

  • Git plugin: EGit
  • Code inspection :Spotbugs
  • Code tip :Codota
  • Code specification check :CheckStyle

…

Instead of going through all the installations here, check out this blog post: Take Eclipse Off the ground — these plug-ins are a must-know.

You can also explore more plug-in usage directly through the Eclipse plugin list: Most Popular Plug-ins of the past 30 days.




conclusion

STS is a great open source development tool and a great alternative when Idea is not available or machine performance is poor.






reference

[1] : Spring Tool Suite(STS) introduction [2] : Spring Boot development tools STS (Spring Tool Suite 4) download and install [3] : Download and install Spring Tools Suite (STS) from Google Drive [5] : Eclipse configuration JDK [6] : Configure Maven in STS(Spring Tool Suite), and configure the unsuccessful solution [7] : Eclipse appearance level landscaping