Installing Lombok in Spring Tool Suite (STS) on macOS – Multiple Methods

Lombok is a popular Java library that helps reduce boilerplate code by automatically generating getters, setters, constructors, and more. Integrating Lombok with Spring Tool Suite (STS) on macOS can significantly enhance your development efficiency.

In this tutorial, we’ll walk you through multiple methods to install Lombok in STS on your Mac machine.

Prerequisites:

1. Spring Tool Suite (STS) is already installed on your macOS.
2. Basic familiarity with STS and Java development.

Method 1: Installing Lombok using Eclipse Marketplace:

1. Launch Spring Tool Suite (STS) on your macOS.
2. In the menu bar, navigate to Help > Eclipse Marketplace.
3. In the Eclipse Marketplace dialog, search for “Lombok” using the search bar.
4. Locate the “Lombok” entry in the search results and click the Go to the full listing link.
5. Click the Install button next to the Lombok listing.
6. Follow the on-screen instructions, including reviewing the list of features to be installed. Click Confirm to proceed.
7. Accept the terms of the license agreement and click Finish.
8. STS will download and install Lombok. Once the installation is complete, you will be prompted to restart STS. Click Restart Now.
9. After STS restarts, Lombok is successfully installed and integrated.

Method 2: Installing Lombok Manually:

1. Open a web browser and navigate to the Lombok project’s official website: Project Lombok.
2. On the homepage, locate and click the “Download” link in the navigation bar.
3. Scroll down to the “Direct Download” section and click the “lombok.jar” link to download the Lombok JAR file.
4. Open a terminal on your macOS.
5. Navigate to the directory where you downloaded the “lombok.jar” file using the cd command. For example: cd ~/Downloads
6. Run the following command to execute the Lombok JAR and install it in your STS: java -jar lombok.jar
7. The Lombok installation wizard will appear. Follow the on-screen instructions to install Lombok into STS.
8. Once the installation is complete, restart STS to apply the changes.

Method 3: Installing using Gradle:

1. If your project uses Gradle, open your project’s build.gradle file.
2. Add the Lombok dependency to your dependencies block
3. Save the build.gradle file.
4. Sync your Gradle project to apply the changes.

dependencies {
    // other dependencies...
    compileOnly 'org.projectlombok:lombok:1.18.22'
    annotationProcessor 'org.projectlombok:lombok:1.18.22'
}

Verifying Lombok Installation:

To verify that Lombok is successfully installed and working in your STS environment, create a simple Java class and use Lombok annotations such as @Data or @Getter/@Setter. If you do not encounter any compilation errors and see the generated methods, Lombok is properly integrated.

Conclusion

In this tutorial, we explored different methods to install Lombok in Spring Tool Suite on macOS. Whether you choose to install Lombok via Eclipse Marketplace, manually download the JAR, or integrate it through Gradle, Lombok will enhance your development process by reducing boilerplate code and increasing your productivity. Now you’re ready to start leveraging Lombok’s features in your Java projects within STS.