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Creating Kotlin/JavaScript library with IntelliJ IDEA

This tutorials walks us through creating a simple Kotlin/JavaScript library using IntelliJ IDEA.

Setting up the environment

The tutorial works with IntelliJ IDEA Community Edition as well as IntelliJ IDEA Ultimate. For best experience developing Kotlin/JavaScript applications, we recommend using IntelliJ IDEA Ultimate, which includes the JavaScript debugger and other JavaScript support features.

  1. Create a New Kotlin/JavaScript Project.

    Kotlin New Project

  2. Specify the project name (e.g. sample-library), and click the Create for Kotlin JS library.

    Kotlin New Project

  3. Select “Use library from plugin”. Of cource, you can choose copy library to some directory in your project, if you prefer.

    Kotlin New Project

  4. Click the Finish.

    Kotlin New Project

  5. We should now have the new project created and the following folder structure

    Kotlin New Project

  6. Let’s create a new Kotlin file under the source folder. It can be named anything. In our case we will call it library:

    package org.sample
       
    fun factorial(n: Int): Long = if (n == 0) 1 else n * factorial(n - 1)
  7. Using File > Settings, check compiler settings for Kotlin compiler. Disable “Copy library runtime files”.

    Kotlin New Project

    Click the Build > Make Project, and check that out/production directory contains two new files.

    Kotlin New Project

  8. Open Project Structure Dialog (File > Project Structure), select Artifacts and add new empty artifact.

    Kotlin New Project

    Choose name for artifact and add module compilation output to the content of newly created artifact.

    Kotlin New Project

  9. Click the Build > Build Artifacts, and the resulting artifact is our library, which can be distributed.

    Kotlin New Project