Config & System location

There's an opinion that Windows version of IDEA should save config & system
file under user folder (like ~\Application Data\idea\). What do you think?

For EAP, maybe even production usage I think it desireable to have the
chance to save this data in different places, in order to be able to
fallback to an old format / an old version.

I thus welcome the idea of a configurable setting, maybe even defaulting
to the place mentioned above. Please note that that location depends on
the Win country version (e.g., German is ~\Anwendungsdaten\). For
simplicity, I'd suggest using ~/.idea/ on every platform.

I'd also suggest to have the plugins directory join config and system.

Karsten
--
Karsten Tinnefeld tinnefeld@adesso.de
adesso AG
Stockholmer Allee 24 T +49 231 9309211
44269 Dortmund, Deutschland M +49 172 4542646 F +49 231 9309331

Karsten Tinnefeld wrote:
>> There's an opinion that Windows version of IDEA should save config &
>> system
>> file under user folder (like ~\Application Data\idea\). What do you
>> think?

For EAP, maybe even production usage I think it desireable to have the
chance to save this data in different places, in order to be able to
fallback to an old format / an old version.

I thus welcome the idea of a configurable setting, maybe even defaulting
to the place mentioned above. Please note that that location depends on
the Win country version (e.g., German is ~\Anwendungsdaten\). For
simplicity, I'd suggest using ~/.idea/ on every platform.

I'd also suggest to have the plugins directory join config and system.

Karsten

I agree with Karsten

~/.idea is better than ~\Application Data\idea\

Edo

There's an opinion that Windows version of IDEA should save config &

system

file under user folder (like ~\Application Data\idea\). What do you

think?
>

For EAP, maybe even production usage I think it desireable to have the
chance to save this data in different places, in order to be able to
fallback to an old format / an old version.

>

I thus welcome the idea of a configurable setting, maybe even defaulting
to the place mentioned above. Please note that that location depends on
the Win country version (e.g., German is ~\Anwendungsdaten\). For
simplicity, I'd suggest using ~/.idea/ on every platform.

I'd suggest to follow each platform's conventions here. The location
~/.idea/ is perfect for every *nix, but it should be ~\Application Data\idea
on Windows.
The localization issue can be resolved by looking up the path from the
registry.

Anyway, whatever path is used, storing settings in user's home is a good
idea
since it enables the settings to be replicated with the user's profile (if
using server-
side profiles) for backup, mobility, etc.

However it should be possible to override this path - e.g. with a
system-property -
to allow the user to specify a different location. One possible reason for
this could
be that the user is not using a server-side profile, but a mapped network
drive
where the settings should be stored.


Regards,

Sascha

In fact, configuration is already available (see -D parameters in bat/lax
files).
The question is only about default settings.

--
Best regards,
Mike Aizatsky.
-

JetBrains, Inc / IntelliJ Software
http://www.intellij.com
"Develop with pleasure!"

One possible reason for
this could
be that the user is not using a server-side profile,
but a mapped network
drive
where the settings should be stored.

Another reason is that in a company practicing XP, computers don't belong to a single developer. When a pair needs one, it takes the next free one. In such settings, there are company code style guides and maybe also live templates. Having to configure IDEA each time one uses a new computer is anti-productive and prevents the maintainance by an administrator.
On my own box at home I also preffer to have the settings at one place so that I may use it with my normal account as well as with the administrator account.

Sascha,

The localization issue can be resolved by looking up the path from the
registry.

Do you know the exact registry key we should use?

--
Best regards,
Mike Aizatsky.
-

JetBrains, Inc / IntelliJ Software
http://www.intellij.com
"Develop with pleasure!"

Do you know the exact registry key we should use?

He is right. How about:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User
Shell Folders\AppData

Karsten
--
Karsten Tinnefeld tinnefeld@adesso.de
adesso AG
Stockholmer Allee 24 T +49 231 9309211
44269 Dortmund, Deutschland M +49 172 4542646 F +49 231 9309331

He is right. How about:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User
Shell Folders\AppData

Exactly.

Sascha

I agree with Karsten

~/.idea is better than ~\Application Data\idea\

Same here. Every JAVA application I had on my disk put it's data into
~\.<application-name>.

Tom

I think that would be a good idea. I like the ~\Application Data folder because it is the standard.