Different between IDEA Modules and Eclipse Project

Modules vs. Projects

FROM: https://zeroturnaround.com/rebellabs/getting-started-with-intellij-idea-as-an-eclipse-user/3/

Now, back to the Modules vs Projects dilemma. Before, I wrote that you should think of IDEA projects as of Eclipse workspaces. This analogy is good enough for the beginning, but it isn’t exactly correct, as projects in IDEA are not generally used in the same way as Eclipse workspaces.

In Eclipse, you would usually put a lot of different projects into the same workspace and then filter them with Working Sets or by closing the projects that aren’t relevant at the moment. That said, in Eclipse workspaces are rarely used for grouping arbitrary projects. Workspaces are used rather as a common root and the projects are added to or removed from the workspace. The average Eclipse user would have a limited number of workspaces in the file system.

In contrast, IDEA’s project is an umbrella for logically connected modules, whereas the modules are rather similar to Eclipse projects with the only difference that IDEA modules can be nested within the project tree.

A module is a part of the project that can be built independently.

Normally, you wouldn’t put the disconnected modules under the same project. Technically, you can, but that’s not idiomatic. You would rather open a new IDE window with the second project than importing another non-related module into the existing project.