intellij-sdk-code-samples/topics/user_interface_components/popups.md

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# Popups

<link-summary>Creating different kinds of popups.</link-summary>

The IntelliJ Platform user interface makes extensive use of popups \- semi-modal windows that have no chrome (explicit closing buttons) and disappear automatically on focus loss.
Making use of these controls in your plugin ensures a consistent user experience between your plugin and the rest of the IDE.

Popups can optionally display a title, are optionally movable and resizable (and support remembering their size), and can be nested (show another popup when an item is selected).

The [`JBPopupFactory`](%gh-ic%/platform/platform-api/src/com/intellij/openapi/ui/popup/JBPopupFactory.java) interface allows you to create popups that display different kinds of components, depending on your specific needs.
The most commonly used methods are:

| Method                          | Description                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        |
|---------------------------------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| `createComponentPopupBuilder()` | Generic, allows showing any [Swing](https://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/uiswing/start/index.html) component.<br/><br/>**Example**: [`IntentionPreviewPopupUpdateProcessor`](%gh-ic%/platform/lang-impl/src/com/intellij/codeInsight/intention/impl/preview/IntentionPreviewPopupUpdateProcessor.kt) creating a popup rendering the intention preview.          |
| `createPopupChooserBuilder()`   | For choosing one or more items from a plain `java.util.List`.<br/><br/>**Example**: [`ShowMessageHistoryAction`](%gh-ic%/platform/vcs-impl/src/com/intellij/openapi/vcs/actions/ShowMessageHistoryAction.kt) creating a popup with recent commit messages history in the commit message text area.                                                                 |
| `createConfirmation()`          | For choosing between two options, and performing different actions depending on which option is selected.<br/><br/>**Example**: [`VariableInplaceRenamer`](%gh-ic%/platform/lang-impl/src/com/intellij/refactoring/rename/inplace/VariableInplaceRenamer.java) creating confirmation popup after invalid variable name is provided in the inplace rename action.   |
| `createActionGroupPopup()`      | Show actions from an [Action Group](grouping_action.md) and executes the action selected by the user.<br/><br/>**Example**: [`ShowRecentFindUsagesGroup`](%gh-ic%/platform/lang-impl/src/com/intellij/find/impl/ShowRecentFindUsagesGroup.java) invoked via <ui-path>Edit / Find Usages / Recent Find Usages</ui-path> and showing recent find usages group popup. |

### Action Groups

Action group popups support different ways of choosing an action from the keyboard, in additional to the normal arrow keys.
By passing one of the constants in the [`JBPopupFactory.ActionSelectionAid`](%gh-ic%/platform/platform-api/src/com/intellij/openapi/ui/popup/JBPopupFactory.java) enumeration, you can choose whether an action can be selected by pressing a key corresponding to its sequential number, typing part of its text (speed search) or pressing a mnemonic character.
For popups with a fixed set of items, the recommended selection method is sequential numbering;
for popups with a variable and potentially large number of items, speed search typically works best.

### List Popups

If you need to create a list-like popup which is more flexible than a simple
[`JList`](https://docs.oracle.com/javase/8/docs/api/javax/swing/JList.html)
but don't want to represent the possible choices as actions in an action group, you can work directly with the
[`ListPopupStep`](%gh-ic%/platform/ide-core/src/com/intellij/openapi/ui/popup/ListPopupStep.java)
interface and the
[`JBPopupFactory.createListPopup()`](%gh-ic%/platform/platform-api/src/com/intellij/openapi/ui/popup/JBPopupFactory.java)
method.
Normally you don't need to implement the entire interface; instead, you can derive from the [`BaseListPopupStep`](%gh-ic%/platform/platform-api/src/com/intellij/openapi/ui/popup/util/BaseListPopupStep.java) class.
The key methods to override are `getTextFor()` (returning the text to display for an item) and `onChosen()` (called when an item is selected).
By returning a new popup step from the `onChosen()` method, you can implement hierarchical (nested) popups.

### Showing Popup

Once you've created the popup, you need to display it by calling one of the `show()` methods.
You can let the IntelliJ Platform automatically choose the position based on the context, by calling `showInBestPositionFor()`, or specify the position explicitly through methods like `showUnderneathOf()` and `showInCenterOf()`.

> The `show()` methods return immediately and do not wait for the popup to be closed.
>
{style="note"}

If you need to perform some action when the popup is closed, you can either attach a listener to it using the `addListener()` method, override a method of the popup contents such as [`PopupStep.onChosen()`](%gh-ic%/platform/core-ui/src/openapi/ui/popup/PopupStep.java), or attach an event handler to your own component within the popup.