NPE when updated to IntelliJ EAP 5

IntelliJ Platform Testing
1

Hi. I am updating my IntelliJ plugin to support IntelliJ 2025.1 EAP 5 ( 2025.1 EAP build 251.21418.62) and ran into an issue with terminal widget compatibility.
Previously, I used:

TerminalWidget terminalWidget = terminalToolWindowManager.createShellWidget(
    project.getBasePath(), libertyModule.getName(), true, true);

the returned widget was an instance of JBTerminalWidget$TerminalWidgetBridge . I was able to convert it to ShellTerminalWidget using:

ShellTerminalWidget shellWidget = ShellTerminalWidget.toShellJediTermWidgetOrThrow(terminalWidget);

However, in IntelliJ 2025.1 EAP build 251.21418.62 , createShellWidget(...) now returns TerminalWidgetImpl , which is not compatible with ShellTerminalWidget .
Attempting to convert it using JBTerminalWidget.asJediTermWidget(terminalWidget) returns null , leading to an incompatible types error when assigning it to ShellTerminalWidget .
What is the correct way to handle TerminalWidgetImpl in 2025.1? Is there an official way to retrieve a ShellTerminalWidget from TerminalWidgetImpl.
Has ShellTerminalWidget been deprecated or replaced in the new API?

Any guidance on handling these API changes would be greatly appreciated! Thanks

1 Like
2

Inside asJediTermWidget, the following check is performed:

if (widget instanceof TerminalWidgetBridge bridge) {
    var10000 = bridge.widget();
} else {
    var10000 = null;
}

In previous versions, widget instanceof TerminalWidgetBridge bridge returned true because the created TerminalWidget was com.intellij.terminal.JBTerminalWidget$TerminalWidgetBridge . However, starting from IntelliJ EAP 5, this check now returns false since the created TerminalWidget is org.jetbrains.plugins.terminal.block.TerminalWidgetImpl , causing asJediTermWidget to return null .

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4

@Anusree_Lakshmi have you been able to figure this out yet? If not, have you tried looking at how current code in community is creating ShellTerminalWidget at all yet?

5

Or have you had a chance to look at this response to either question yet? :backhand_index_pointing_right: Execute command in Intellij terminal - #10 by Sergey.Simonchik

6

@chriscarini Thanks for your reply. This no longer occurs in the latest beta versions. So I have not investigated it further

7

This is caused by enabling an updated terminal implementation in 2025.1 EAPs. Please avoid casting to ShellTerminalWidget with ShellTerminalWidget.toShellJediTermWidgetOrThrow(terminalWidget). Instead, please use com.intellij.terminal.ui.TerminalWidget directly. Is there any API missing for you?

8

Thanks, @Sergey.Simonchik. We no longer encounter this NPE in the beta builds. Were there any API changes between the transition from EAPs to beta? We experienced this issue in EAP 5, 6, and 7 but not in beta.

Additionally, we attempted to use com.intellij.terminal.ui.TerminalWidget directly, but we noticed that some APIs are missing, such as hasRunningCommands(), executeCommand(), getTerminal(), and grabFocus(). Do you have any alternatives for these?

9

Were there any API changes between the transition from EAPs to beta?

Yes, the change was in switching default TerminalWidget implementation. After the switch it can be casted to ShellTerminalWidget via ShellTerminalWidget.toShellJediTermWidgetOrThrow(terminalWidget).

hasRunningCommands()

It will be available as com.intellij.terminal.ui.TerminalWidget#isCommandRunning in 2025.2

executeCommand()

It’s available as com.intellij.terminal.ui.TerminalWidget#sendCommandToExecute

grabFocus()

It’s available as com.intellij.terminal.ui.TerminalWidget#requestFocus

getTerminal()

No, it won’t be available. What are the particular cases requiring this API?

10

Thanks for the explanation. I wanted to clarify—since you mentioned avoiding casting to ShellTerminalWidget with ShellTerminalWidget.toShellJediTermWidgetOrThrow(terminalWidget) , but also noted that after the switch, it can be cast using the same method—does that mean it’s okay to use ShellTerminalWidget.toShellJediTermWidgetOrThrow(terminalWidget) , or should we strictly rely on com.intellij.terminal.ui.TerminalWidget instead? Because in the current Beta build 251.23774.109 we do not face any issues regarding this. So are you planning to make any changes in 2025.2 ?

11

How to add a completion listener with TerminalWidget (aka TerminalWidgetListener in ShellTerminalWidget)?