JRebel Quick Start

By IDE Standalone
JetBrains IntelliJ IDEA logo.

IntelliJ IDEA

1. Installation

  1. Access Settings (Preferences on Mac OS). Select Plugins.
  2. Press Browse Repositories.
  3. Find JRebel and XRebel. Press Install plugin.

Didn't Work?

The plugin can also be downloaded as a ZIP archive from https://plugins.jetbrains.com/idea/plugin/4441-jrebel-for-intellij. Once downloaded, open Plugins and press Install plugin from disk. Browse to the downloaded file and follow the prompts.

Did This Work?

If the installation was a success, your IDE will restart. After the restart, JRebel will alert you via a notification.

2. Activation

  1. Open Help > JRebel > Activation.
  2. Fill out the form.
  3. Press Activate JRebel.

Have a license?

Press I already have a license in the activation window.

  • Activation code. Paste your activation code if you have one already.
  • License file from the hard drive. Point to your jrebel.lic file. You get this file via email when you purchase JRebel.
  • Connect to ZeroTurnaround License Management or an on-premises License Server. Enter your team URL and email. You get the team URL from your network administrator.

Did This Work?

JRebel will let you know that your license is activated via a notification.

You can also see your license status from Help > JRebel > Activation.

3. Project Configuration

  1. Open View > Tool Windows > JRebel. The JRebel Panel window opens.
  2. For local setup: Enable JRebel for the desired modules by selecting the jrebel-ide-icon column checkboxes. This will generate rebel.xml.
  3. For remote setup: Now select the jrebel-cloud-icon check-box next to your project. This will generate rebel-remote.xml.
  4. Redeploy your application (or restart your standalone application)!

Didn't Work?

Did This Work?

When building your application rebel.xml should be included within the application archive.

  • In case of JAR files, rebel.xml should be included in the root folder.
  • When working with WAR files, the rebel.xml should be located within the WEB-INF/classes folder.
  • EAR files require a rebel.xml for each internal EAR module (that means JARs and WARs).

4. Startup Configuration

Run Via IDE

  1. Press the jrebel-ide-icon Run with JRebel button on the toolbar to run your application with JRebel enabled.

Good to Know

To debug your application with JRebel, press the Debug with JRebel button instead. Not running your server from the IDE? Follow another application server startup method.

Did This Work?

When successful, you will see the JRebel banner in the console right at server startup. This is what the JRebel banner should look like:

2016-11-15 12:19:20 JRebel:  #############################################################
2016-11-15 12:19:20 JRebel:  
2016-11-15 12:19:20 JRebel:  JRebel Agent 7.0.0 (201611081555)
2016-11-15 12:19:20 JRebel:  (c) Copyright ZeroTurnaround AS, Estonia, Tartu.
2016-11-15 12:19:20 JRebel:  
2016-11-15 12:19:20 JRebel:  Over the last 1 days JRebel prevented
2016-11-15 12:19:20 JRebel:  at least 0 redeploys/restarts saving you about 0 hours.
2016-11-15 12:19:20 JRebel:  
2016-11-15 12:19:20 JRebel:  Licensed to ZeroTurnaround.
2016-11-15 12:19:20 JRebel:  
2016-11-15 12:19:20 JRebel:  #############################################################
  1. Open Help > JRebel > Configuration > Startup.
  2. Select Run locally from command line.
  3. Pick your desired Java and target environment.
  4. Follow the instructions provided to set up JRebel for your application server.

Good to Know

Not running your server from a command line? Follow another application server startup method.

You can find the same command line instructions in the JRebel reference manual.

Did This Work?

When successful, you will see the JRebel banner in the console right at server startup. This is what the JRebel banner should look like:

2016-11-15 12:19:20 JRebel:  #############################################################
2016-11-15 12:19:20 JRebel:  
2016-11-15 12:19:20 JRebel:  JRebel Agent 7.0.0 (201611081555)
2016-11-15 12:19:20 JRebel:  (c) Copyright ZeroTurnaround AS, Estonia, Tartu.
2016-11-15 12:19:20 JRebel:  
2016-11-15 12:19:20 JRebel:  Over the last 1 days JRebel prevented
2016-11-15 12:19:20 JRebel:  at least 0 redeploys/restarts saving you about 0 hours.
2016-11-15 12:19:20 JRebel:  
2016-11-15 12:19:20 JRebel:  Licensed to ZeroTurnaround.
2016-11-15 12:19:20 JRebel:  
2016-11-15 12:19:20 JRebel:  #############################################################
  1. Open Help > JRebel > Configuration > Startup.
  2. Select Run on a remote server.
  3. Pick your desired Java, target environment and operating system.
  4. Follow the instructions provided to set up JRebel for your remote application server.

Good to know

Not running your server remotely Follow another application server startup method.

You can find more help for setting JRebel up with a remote server over here.

Did this work?

When successful, you will see the JRebel banner in the console right at server startup. This is what the JRebel banner should look like:

2016-11-15 12:19:20 JRebel:  #############################################################
2016-11-15 12:19:20 JRebel:  
2016-11-15 12:19:20 JRebel:  JRebel Agent 7.0.0 (201611081555)
2016-11-15 12:19:20 JRebel:  (c) Copyright ZeroTurnaround AS, Estonia, Tartu.
2016-11-15 12:19:20 JRebel:  
2016-11-15 12:19:20 JRebel:  Over the last 1 days JRebel prevented
2016-11-15 12:19:20 JRebel:  at least 0 redeploys/restarts saving you about 0 hours.
2016-11-15 12:19:20 JRebel:  
2016-11-15 12:19:20 JRebel:  Licensed to ZeroTurnaround.
2016-11-15 12:19:20 JRebel:  
2016-11-15 12:19:20 JRebel:  #############################################################

5. Reload Your Code

  1. Restart your application server or Java application using jrebel-ide-icon Run with JRebel (or from the command line).
  2. Change something in the application code.
  3. Use Build > Build Project command to compile classes and update your application.
  4. Refresh the application in the browser to see the changes!

Why do this?

JRebel relies upon your IDE to do the compiling. Enabling Build Automatically ensures that your .java files are compiled to .class files.

Tip: you can also try enabling automatic compilation to further improve your JRebel experience.

Learn More From JRebel Documentation

View Docs