Remote Pair Programming in IntelliJ

Question

Is there a way to use IntelliJ when pair-programming? It would be nice to have the option in v7 and v8 but I would upgrade to v9 if needed.

The question is a bit like this question, but for IntelliJ users instead.

And also similar to another question of mine here which relates to mixed environments.

SO has a perfect audience to see questions and answers like this one. Questions on the SO are not only about code itself but also SO should be a place for: "a specific programming problem" or "software tools commonly used by programmers" or "a practical, answerable problem that is unique to software development" In other words, I strongly disagree with closing questions like this, especially that these tools evolve. — Sławomir Lenart, Jul 13 '20 at 08:38

score 12 · Answer 1 · answered Nov 25 '15 at 22:28

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A good alternative to VNC is screenhero. It's very lightweight, but unfortunately does not support Linux.

Floobits creates a pairing session at the IDE level. It supports many popular IDEs from IntelliJ, Eclipse, to emacs.

answered Nov 25 '15 at 22:28

oneself

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I have just started to use ScreenHero and I think it is very good – Paul McKenzie Dec 05 '15 at 17:55
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Floobits looks very interesting. Can you please share your thoughts now that you've got six months with it? – David Harkness May 14 '16 at 00:09
It seems that floobits transmits code thru their servers which is of course not wanted in a corporate context – DevJ3rry Mar 06 '20 at 08:39
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Sadly, screenhero got stolen by slack, and is dead. – BeepDog Mar 27 '20 at 01:51
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https://screen.so/ is the new screen hero, same team trying again – dcsan Apr 17 '20 at 03:39

score 9 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 15 '10 at 12:14

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For simple working from home, I can start a vncserver session on my box at work, then start vncviewer to connect to that session, start up all my design tools (including IntelliJ). When I get to work, I connect to the corporate network and run a second instance of vncviewer. I'm not sure what the limits are, but I've had vncviewer running on both my laptop and my (work) desktop before, with the input from both keyboards and mice fighting it out. I've never done pair programming, but I thought the idea is two sets of eyes/fingers but on monitor/keyboard. Add skype and you may have all you need.

answered Jul 15 '10 at 12:14

wprager

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Just to note, we've occasionally had pair programming stations at work where we it's one computer (remoted into one of the dev's box) with 2 sets of monitor, keyboard, mouse. – eflat Mar 10 '16 at 05:43
I've a lot of experience using the above solution though I use Apache Guacamole so you don't need to have anything but a browser. This is a good solution though CodeTogether is even simpler if all you care about is IDE sharing. – Lance Kind Aug 24 '20 at 22:05

Brian Fernandes · Answer 3 · 2020-08-03T13:57:15.220

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About nine years too late for OP, but others interested can try CodeTogether - available now for IntelliJ, Eclipse and VS Code. Participants join in a browser, but get a full IDE-like experience with IntelliSense, validation, reference searches, navigation, etc. The JetBrains Plugin registry link is here and here's a short video.

Full disclosure: I work for Genuitec, makers of CodeTogether.

edited Aug 03 '20 at 13:57

answered Apr 30 '20 at 14:12

Brian Fernandes

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When linking to your own products, please at least make that clear in the post (not just your profile). See: [**What signifies “Good” self promotion?**](//meta.stackexchange.com/q/182212) – Paul Roub Apr 30 '20 at 14:28
@PaulRoub Thanks, I had no idea there were rules/guidelines for this - post has been edited. – Brian Fernandes May 01 '20 at 16:24
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I highly recommend CodeTogether. Here is a podcast about CodeTogether and pair programming: https://agilenoir.biz/en/agilethoughts/codetogether-internet-powered-pair-programing/ – Lance Kind Aug 24 '20 at 22:02

dawez · Answer 4 · 2021-06-03T20:25:01.760

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There is an open request for this feature (opened back in 2005). You can vote there and maybe that would be implemented at some stage.

http://youtrack.jetbrains.com/issue/IDEABKL-708

Update: It seems that this request finally materialized in 2021 version.

edited Jun 03 '21 at 20:25

answered Feb 11 '14 at 19:03

dawez

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score 5 · Answer 5 · answered Jun 17 '14 at 10:05

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There is an effort to bring the Saros Eclipse plugin to the IntelliJ platform:

www.saros-project.org

Saros for IntelliJ - the plan

answered Jun 17 '14 at 10:05

Ich

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score 1 · Answer 6 · answered Mar 10 '16 at 06:08

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This tool looks promising. It's called Floobits and here is a link to an IntelliJ Idea blog post about it. Let's you conference, share code, and even edit the same file at the same time.

answered Mar 10 '16 at 06:08

eflat

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As of 2017 this is the way to go. – Marcelo Glasberg Mar 31 '17 at 19:29
seem back now as of 2020.1 - but i haven't tried it myself – dcsan Apr 17 '20 at 03:38

Nico Van Belle · Answer 7 · 2020-11-25T11:21:21.897

Late 2020, Jetbrains revealed their own plugin for remote pair-programming. It's called Code With Me.

It is available as an experimental feature in IntelliJ IDEA 2020.2.1 and later and can be found in the plugin marketplace.

Be warned though as the plugin will be promoted to a paid service in the future. Only early access is free. (See blog post attached)

An excerpt from the help page:

You can start a session with one of the following basic scenarios:

You can do pair-programming, in this case you share your IDE with a single participant and either use the Full sync mode, or follow each other and collaborate on different parts of code. Unlike classic pair-programming where developers share a single screen and a keyboard, you can work independently and achieve the goal faster.
You can have a teacher-students scenario where you have many participants who follow you. Let's say you need to explain a problem and show your team members different parts of your project. You can achieve that with the Force Others to Follow You mode.
You can do simultaneous multi editing of your code with other participants. In this case, participants can quickly change the code and even work on other files of the project at the same time. However, there is a limitation on how many participants can actively type together. The limit is 5, and if it's reached, IntelliJ IDEA will display a popup suggesting to wait. Additionally, it might slow down the performance.

More information on the plugin page, the getting started page and the blog post.

score -3 · Answer 8 · answered Oct 31 '11 at 15:35

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If you can switch to Eclipse you can try: http://www.eclipse.org/ecf/

Here you have some screenshots: http://wiki.eclipse.org/DocShare_Plugin

For idea, the most I can think of is: http://www.jetbrains.com/idea/webhelp/idetalk.html

answered Oct 31 '11 at 15:35

Metal Fan

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if we are talking about eclipse(which we shouldn't be) http://www.saros-project.org, it has some pretty good features like sharing of all your source code, allowing both users to be looking at different points, fairly light wire weight as once you are set up, you are just sending text changes. Their XMPP server is light years faster than the gtalk servers, and doing a clean prior to sharing a project seemed to decrease the initial setup time. – np0x Oct 05 '12 at 19:48

Remote Pair Programming in IntelliJ

8 Answers8

You can start a session with one of the following basic scenarios:

Linked