We've seen that we can write, run and refactor Spock tests in IntelliJ IDEA. We can also install a plugin for extra support, if we want (note: this is written and supported by a third party, it's not a JetBrains plugin). It adds some helpful behaviour, like syntax highlighting for the labels, and inspections to help us see if we're using the labels correctly.

We need to go to the plugin settings and search the plugin marketplace for Spock plugins.

Using this plugin is entirely optional, IntelliJ IDEA provides all the support you need to write and run Spock tests.

Now you know how to install the Spock plugin to get extra information on the tests. Next, we'll see how Spock tests can be used to expect specific Exceptions in our application code.