This documentation is for an out-of-date version of Apache Flink. We recommend you use the latest stable version.
  1. Project Setup
  2. IDE Setup

IDE Setup

The sections below describe how to import the Flink project into an IDE for the development of Flink itself. For writing Flink programs, please refer to the Java API and the Scala API quickstart guides.

NOTE: Whenever something is not working in your IDE, try with the Maven command line first (mvn clean package -DskipTests) as it might be your IDE that has a bug or is not properly set up.

Preparation

To get started, please first checkout the Flink sources from one of our repositories, e.g.

git clone https://github.com/apache/flink.git

IntelliJ IDEA

A brief guide on how to set up IntelliJ IDEA IDE for development of the Flink core. As Eclipse is known to have issues with mixed Scala and Java projects, more and more contributers are migrating to IntelliJ IDEA.

The following documentation describes the steps to setup IntelliJ IDEA 2016.2.5 (https://www.jetbrains.com/idea/download/) with the Flink sources.

Installing the Scala plugin

The IntelliJ installation setup offers to install the Scala plugin. If it is not installed, follow these instructions before importing Flink to enable support for Scala projects and files:

  1. Go to IntelliJ plugins settings (File -> Settings -> Plugins) and click on “Install Jetbrains plugin…”.
  2. Select and install the “Scala” plugin.
  3. Restart IntelliJ
  1. Start IntelliJ IDEA and choose “Import Project”
  2. Select the root folder of the Flink repository
  3. Choose “Import project from external model” and select “Maven”
  4. Leave the default options and click on “Next” until you hit the SDK section.
  5. If there is no SDK, create a one with the “+” sign top left, then click “JDK”, select your JDK home directory and click “OK”. Otherwise simply select your SDK.
  6. Continue by clicking “Next” again and finish the import.
  7. Right-click on the imported Flink project -> Maven -> Generate Sources and Update Folders. Note that this will install Flink libraries in your local Maven repository, i.e. “/home/-your-user-/.m2/repository/org/apache/flink/”. Alternatively, mvn clean package -DskipTests also creates the necessary files for the IDE to work with but without installing libraries.
  8. Build the Project (Build -> Make Project)

Eclipse

NOTE: From our experience, this setup does not work with Flink due to deficiencies of the old Eclipse version bundled with Scala IDE 3.0.3 or due to version incompatibilities with the bundled Scala version in Scala IDE 4.4.1.

We recommend to use IntelliJ instead (see above)