Navigation

Direct Navigation

Direct navigation is the navigation from PsiElement to another PsiElement, such as navigation from break keyword to the end of a loop in Java, without showing any popups.

To provide PsiElement for direct navigation, implement and register DirectNavigationProvider in com.intellij.lang.directNavigationProvider EP.

Symbol Navigation

If there is no Direct navigation available under the caret, then the IntelliJ Platform proceeds with Symbol navigation. In this step the IntelliJ Platform computes the navigation targets based on target symbols, which it obtains by resolving a reference. If there are several target symbols or several navigation targets defined for a symbol, then the IDE shows the navigation popup to ask the user to choose where to go.

The NavigationTarget is essentially a pair of a Navigatable and a TargetPresentation instances (where to go and what to show in the popup).

To provide navigation targets by a Symbol, either:

• implement and register SymbolNavigationProvider in com.intellij.symbolNavigation EP;

• or implement NavigatableSymbol in the Symbol.

Showing Usages

If there are no navigation targets available, then the IntelliJ Platform starts finding usages of the target symbol obtained by resolving a reference or from a declaration.