IntelliJ IDEA 2021.1 Help

Create and edit notebooks

When you have installed the required plugins and established connections to the servers, you can start working with your notebooks.

Right-click any notebook in the Big Data Tools window to open the context menu for the basic operations with the notebook. You can also use the following shortcuts:

Move to trashDelete
Create NoteAlt+Insert
Zeppelin Connections SearchCtrl+F

Creating notebooks

You can create a new notebook on the target server (remote notebook) or in the current IntelliJ IDEA project (local notebook ).

Create a remote notebook

  1. In the Big Data Tools window, right-click any of the configured servers, folder, or note and select Create Note from the context menu or press Alt+Insert.

    Zeppelin context menu

  2. In the Create note dialog, enter the name of the notebook. You can use the / symbol to create a notebook within a folder. Click OK.

    Creating a remote notebook

    The newly added notebook appears in the Big Data Tools window.

    Newly added notebook

In IntelliJ IDEA, you can create notebooks that are stored locally.

Create a local notebook

  1. In the Project tool window, select the project root, press Alt+Insert, and select Zeppelin Notebook.

    Adding a new local notebook

  2. In the Create Zeppelin Notebook dialog, enter the notebook name and press Enter.

    Create a local notebook

    The newly added local notebook appears in the Project tool window.

    Newly added notebook in the Project window

You can search for a particular notebook in the established Zeppelin connections.

  1. Select a target Zeppelin connection in the Big Data Tools window.

  2. Click the Search a notebook on the Big Data Tools window toolbar. Alternatively, right-click and select Zeppelin Connections Search.

    Search Zeppelin connection menu

  3. Type anything in the Search field. The matching notebooks will be shown in the list of findings.

    Search in Zeppelin connections

Editing notebooks

Once you create a notebook, it opens in the editor. The newly added notebook has one executable paragraph marked with the % delimiter.

Newly added notebooks in the editor

Work with paragraphs

  • Press Enter and start editing your notebook right away.

    IntelliJ IDEA enables code assistance to facilitate editing and validating Scala code:

    • Code completion helps you complete the names of classes, functions, and variables. Start typing the name of the code construct, and the suggestion list appears.

      Code completion for Scala
      Code completion for Scala
    • Renaming (Shift+F6) local variables or private methods can be done easily inline since only the limited scope is affected. Renaming classes or public methods could potentially impact a lot of files. Preview potential changes before you refactor.

      Renaming refactoring for Scala code in a notebook
    • The Extract Method (Ctrl+Alt+M) refactoring lets you take a code fragment that can be grouped together, move it into a separated method and replace the old code with a call to the method.

      Extracting a method
    • The Find Usages action (Alt+F7) allows you to search for the references of your code element throughout the entire notebook.

      Find usages of the symbol in the notebook
    • With code inspections, IntelliJ IDEA analyzes your code, searches for ways to optimize it, and detects potential and actual problems. You can always press Alt+Enter to show intention actions and select an available fix. For example, you can add a missing import statement:

      Adding a missing import
    • You can navigate to the initial declaration of a symbol and symbol's type from its usage. Select a variable and press Ctrl+B.

      Go to declaration
    • For quick navigation between the notebook paragraphs and code constructs, use the Structure tool window. Press Alt+7 to toggle its visibility.

      Structure view

    Any time you need to add more paragraphs or delete the current paragraph, just right-click to open a context menu and select the required action.

    Available actions for the current paragraph

    You are not limited to adding only Scala code paragraphs. For example, to add any markdown code, just add md right after the delimiter or sql for an SQL statement.

Note, that you don't need to save your edits. Auto-saving is triggered by various events, for example, closing a notebook or a project, or quitting the IDE. Nevertheless, you can import local notebooks and save remote notebooks on your machine.

Export and import notebooks

  • To import a notebook, right-click any directory, note, or Zeppelin connection node in the Big Data Tools window and select Import... from the context menu. Specify a path to the target .json or .zpln file.

  • To export a notebook, right-click any notebook on a Zeppelin server in the Big Data Tools window and select Export... from the context menu. Specify a path to the directory where you want to save the exported notebook.

To preview your notebook in the external browser, click Open in a browser on the notebook editor toolbar and select the corresponding option.

Open notebook in the external browser

You can also copy the link to the notebook to the clipboard.

Manage interpreter bindings

Once you have added code to your notebook, you're ready to execute it and analyze the data. However, you can customize the interpreters used to execute paragraphs by the target server.

  1. On the notebook editor toolbar, click Interpreter bindings.

  2. In the Interpreter Bindings dialog, use the arrow buttons to alter the priority of an interpreter.

    Interpreter bindings
    You can also deselect an interpreter and explicitly disable it or restart any interpreter when, for example, the corresponding session got expired.

Last modified: 08 March 2021