Using WebStorm and IntelliJ at the same time

Question

I have code for an existing web application built with java, jsp, and js.

I would like to use WebStorm for the JS part of the development and the free edition of IntelliJ for the rest of the code, but it doesn't look like I can open the same project in both as they seem to step on each other.

Is there a way I can do this without having to close/switch the IDEs all the time?

Answer 1

Opening Idea project in WebStorm and vice versa is not a recommended approach. Different Idea-based IDEs (RubyMine, PHPStorm, WebStorm, PyCharm, IDEA) have the same project format (.idea) but different settings/module types that aren't compatible. So we strongly recommend to avoid sharing the same project between IDEs. If you like to work on the same front-end sources in different IDEs, I'd suggest sharing the sources folder(s) but keeping the .idea folders separated: just create a new empty project in WebStorm and add your sources root as additional content root in Settings/Directories