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IntelliJ Plug-in for Azure DevOps Services & TFS Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

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TFS 2018 | TFS 2017 | TFS 2015

Where can I learn more about installing the IntelliJ plugin?

Watch a how-to video on installing the plugin on our YouTube channel.

Does the IntelliJ plug-in support TFVC?

Yes, TFVC support is available in the IntelliJ plug-in.

TFVC support

The current TFVC features supported are:

TFVC support is available in the IntelliJ plug-in. The current features supported are:

  • Checkout a TFVC repository from Azure DevOps Services or Team Foundation Server 2015+.
  • Execute all basic version control actions such as add, delete, rename, move, etc.
  • View local changes and history for your files.
  • Create, view, and edit your workspace.
  • Checkin and update local files.
  • Merge conflicts from updates.
  • Create and merge branches.
  • Create labels.
  • Lock and unlock files and directories.
  • Associate work items with checkins.
  • Supports using a TFS proxy.
  • Local workspace support only.

The TFVC functionality is available from the VCS dropdown menu in the toolbar or from right clicking in the Project window. A TFVC menu item will display the options available for you to use. A demo of the TFVC features can be found here.

TFVC setup requirements

You must have the TF command line tool installed to be able to use TFVC features. The minimum version supported by the plugin is 14.0.3. To install the tool, download the latest "TEE-CLC-14.*.*.zip" file and extract it to a known location. After extracting the files, you must accept the license agreement. To do so, open a Command Prompt/Terminal window, navigate to the extracted directory, and run tf eula. After reading the EULA, enter y to accept it. NOTE: If you forget to do this, the plugin may fail to load with a RuntimeException.

For the tool to be detected by the plugin, you must set the location of the executable in the Settings/Preferences menu by following these instructions:

  1. Go to File then Settings in the toolbar for Windows and Linux. For Mac, go to Android Studio then Preferences.
  2. Choose Version Control from the left menu then TFVC.
  3. In the Path to tf executable text field, navigate to the location of the tf executable.
  4. Click Test to test that the executable has been found and is working as expected.
  5. Click Apply then OK to save and exit.

If you intend to use the tf tools from the command line, you may want to add this folder to your PATH environment variable as well.

If you do not want to get prompted to enter your credentials for each tf command that you run, set the TF_AUTO_SAVE_CREDENTIALS environment variable to 1.

Setting TFVC as the version control system

If TFVC does not come up as your version control system (VCS) then it can be set manually. Go to the VCS dropdown menu in the toolbar and select Enable Version Control Integration. Select TFVC from the dropdown menu and click OK.

How can I import my IntelliJ project into Azure DevOps Services?

Watch a how-to video on importing projects on our YouTube channel.

How can I checkout an Azure DevOps Services Git repo from within IntelliJ?

Watch a how-to video on checking out projects on our YouTube channel.

How can I create a pull request using the IntelliJ plugin?

Watch a how-to video on pull requests on our YouTube channel.

Where can I learn more about the Azure Repos Pull Request feature?

This Conduct a Git pull request tutorial provides more details.

What if I can't see any repositories after signing in?

In some rare cases, the list of repositories is empty after signing in to your organization. If that happens, you can click the Team Foundation Server tab and enter the URL to your organization in the Server URL textbox and then click Connect. If you don't know the URL to your organization, the organizations you have access to in Azure DevOps will be listed at https://app.vssps.visualstudio.com.

When I test the tf executable, I get a warning that the version detected is 0.0.0. How can I make it detect the actual version?

This has been seen in version 14.0.3 and below of the TF Command Line Tool when it defaults to not use English for the output. This has been fixed in the newer versions of the tool which can be downloaded from GitHub.

How do I collect logs to help troubleshoot an issue?

First enable logging for com.microsoft.alm, reproduce the issue and send us the idea.log file:

  1. Help->Configure Debug Log Settings...
  2. In the Custom Debug Log Configuration textbox, add the following on its own line: com.microsoft.alm
  3. Click OK
  4. Try to reproduce the issue you encountered.
  5. Help->Show Log in Finder/Explorer/File Manager
  6. The file idea.log should be highlighted. You can open it with a text editor to review its contents for sensitive information and to make sure there are entries containing microsoft.
  7. Compress the file.
  8. Create a GitHub issue and attach the file to it.