ViewHelper

Foresee your folders, forget the mess!

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Inspiration

We wanted to create something that helped developers like us, especially while working on big projects or code that has been given to us, so we have a brief idea of what every folder and file does and we don't get lost in the endless sea of directories!

What it does

The plugin adds a new tool window to your IDE, the ViewHelper. With it, you can click on folders and files to instantly see their descriptions, giving you a quick understanding of what each part of your project does — without having to open anything manually.

Some features of the plugin include:

  • Automatic file descriptions powered by AI, helping you understand the purpose of each file without having to inspect them one by one.
  • Manual folder descriptions, giving developers full control over documenting their project structure exactly the way they want.
  • Practical project documentation support, helping teams keep track of what each part of the project does in a clean, centralized way.
  • Personalized colors for files and folders, allowing you to visually structure your project and find things faster.

How we built it

We built it using Kotlin, with the help of Copilot because we didn't have experience with building plugins for Jetbrains IDEs.

Challenges we ran into

The integration of AI within the project (as it was something brand new for us), the understanding of a new programming language (Kotlin).

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We managed to solve our difficulties and successfully integrate the AI in the project. Moreover, we got to build an actually useful tool that could help us developers in our daily tasks.

What we learned

Sometimes challenges arise and the common solutions don't work, so we are forced to take on new perspectives and be creative. Coding is hard and can be frustrating, but the final result is so rewarding!

What's next for ViewHelper?

There're many future possibilities for ViewHelper, these are only a few we thought of:

  • Adding more visuals to make it even more attractive and easier to understand.
  • Updating AI-generated descriptions when substantial changes are made in the file.
  • Currently it's made for IntelliJ IDEA and works well for both Java and Kotlin but it could easily be adapted to other IDEs and work for many programming languages.
  • Applying AI for folder descriptions too but always giving the option of not using AI and only having custom descriptions for the folders, or files or both.

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