# Confluent Plugin for JetBrains IDEs for Confluent Platform The Confluent Plugin for JetBrains IDEs lets you connect to Confluent Platform and other Apache Kafka® clusters from inside IntelliJ IDEA and other JetBrains IDEs to browse clusters, create topics, and produce and consume messages without leaving your editor. 
The Confluent Plugin for JetBrains IDEs enables you to work with Kafka directly from an IntelliJ-based IDE, like IDEA. The plugin provides a comprehensive set of tools for monitoring and managing Kafka event-streaming processes. The plugin enables you to: - Connect to Kafka clusters with support for various authentication methods - Produce and consume messages in different formats, like JSON, Avro, and Protobuf - Manage topics and monitor consumer groups - Integrate with schema registries: Confluent Schema Registry and AWS Glue Schema Registry - Use SSH tunneling and SSL connections - Integrate with Spring Boot for Kafka connections The plugin provides a dedicated tool window with an intuitive UI for interacting with Kafka clusters, making it easier to develop and test Kafka-based applications. ## Install in IntelliJ IDEA The following steps show you how to install the Confluent Plugin for JetBrains IDEs in IntelliJ IDEA. 1. Open IntelliJ IDEA. 2. In the navigation menu, click **Plugins**, or press ⌘+Option+S (macOS) or CTRL+ALT+S (Windows/Linux) to open the **Settings** dialog, and select **Plugins**. 3. In the search text box, type “confluent” and select the **Confluent** plugin. 4. Click **Install**, and in the Third-Party Plugins dialog, click **Accept**. 5. Restart IntelliJ IDEA. Open an existing project or create a new project. 6. In the Tool window bar, click **Confluent**. Or, open the tool window with **View** > **Tool Windows** > **Confluent**. The Confluent tool window opens. ## Add a new connection to a Kafka cluster 1. Click **+** to add a new connection to a Kafka cluster. 2. Select **Message Brokers** and click **+**, or select Confluent Cloud and **Sign in** to access your clusters in Confluent Cloud from the IntelliJ plugin. 3. If you selected a new Kafka cluster not hosted in Confluent Cloud, click **Test connection** after entering details. 4. When the test result is **Connected**, click **OK**. The Confluent tool window updates to show the topics in the cluster. ## Create a new topic The Confluent Plugin for JetBrains IDEs enables creating Kafka topics within the IDE. 1. Right-click on a cluster or the **Topics** tab and click **+ Create Topic** to create a new topic. The **Create Topic** dialog opens. 2. In the **Topic name** text box, enter “input_topic”. For the **Partition count** and **Replication factor** settings, accept the default values. 3. Click **OK**. The new topic appears in the **Topics** list. ## Produce to a topic The Confluent Plugin for JetBrains IDEs enables producing messages to Kafka topics within the IDE. In this step, you produce a message to the topic you created in the previous step. 1. After creating a new topic, click **Producer** above the topic to configure and launch a producer. A new tab opens with a corresponding **Configuration** section. 2. Select **String** for the key and value type. 3. In the **Flow** section, select **Generate random keys** and **Generate random values**. 4. Click **Produce**. The **Data** section updates to show the message you produced. 5. In the **Data** section, double-click on the topic name. The **Details** panel opens and shows the message’s **Key** and **Value**. Scroll down to see the message’s header and metadata. ## Consume from a topic The Confluent Plugin for JetBrains IDEs enables consuming messages from Kafka topics within the IDE. In this step, you consume a message from the topic you created earlier. 1. Click **Consumer** above the topic you created to configure and launch a consumer. A new tab opens with a corresponding **Configuration** section. 2. In **Range and Filters**, select **From the beginning** and click **Start Consuming**. The **Consumer** starts consuming messages from the topic. 3. Click the **Producer** tab, and click **Produce**. 4. Return to the **Consumer** tab. The **Data** section shows the message you produced in the previous step. 5. Click **Stop Consuming**. ## Related content - [Confluent for VS Code](vscode/overview.md#cp-vscode-extension) - [Client Applications](overview.md#cp-build-apps) #### NOTE This website includes content developed at the [Apache Software Foundation](https://www.apache.org/) under the terms of the [Apache License v2](https://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0.html).