Overview
The BlueJ Checkstyle extension is a
wrapper for Checkstyle,
a development tool to help programmers
write Java code that adheres to a coding standard.
Features
Uses Checkstyle v4.3.
The user can choose the Checkstyle configuration file
that specifies which checks
are applied to the Java code. The extension distribution includes
sample configuration files for the
Sun Code Conventions,
the Big Java
Coding Guidelines, and a sample course-specific configuration
file used at Virginia Tech.
The user can specify the properties file for
Checkstyle
properties expansion.
Both configuration and properties files can be
dynamically loaded from the web.
The extension presents the Checkstyle results in an
output window.
Requirements
- BlueJ running on JDK 5
(1.5.x) or higher.
Download
The latest release of the BlueJ Checkstyle extension can be downloaded
from
the
SourceForge download page.
Installation
Download the latest version of the
extension
jar file.
Place it in BlueJ's extensions directory:
Under Windows or Unix, place the jar in
<BLUEJ_HOME>/lib/extensions, where
<BLUEJ_HOME> is the directory where BlueJ is
installed. Under Mac OSX, place the jar in
/Applications/BlueJ.app/Contents/Resources/Java/extensions
(Control-click BlueJ.app and choose Show Package Contents).
If you are upgrading from an earlier version, remove the
older checkstyle-extension*.jar file, as well as the
checkstyle subdirectory, from your extensions directory.
If you have added any customized configuration files yourself, be
sure to keep them.
Usage
Settings
User Preferences
The extension uses its built-in
default_checks.xml
file unless you specify a different configuration file in your
preferences. To specify the Checkstyle configuration file or properties
file, choose Preferences... from the Tools menu (or from the
BlueJ menu under Mac OSX). In the preferences panel, click on
the Extensions tab. In the "Checkstyle" section, enter the
file name for the checkstyle configuration XML file and/or
properties file you wish to use. In addition to local file names, you can also use URLs
in the preferences settings. To use one of the built-in configuration files, simply enter
one of these file names with no path or directory in the
Preferences panel:
Shared/Lab Configuration
If you are preparing a collection of machines that
use a shared or cloned copy of a BlueJ distribution, you may want
them all to use the same configuration setup. There are several
ways you can achieve this goal.
Write your own custom checks and place them in a file named
default_checks.xml in BlueJ's lib/extensions (or lib)
directory. Then the extension will use your custom file, instead
of its built-in version of default_checks.xml. To use one of the built-in configurations instead of your
own custom configuration, add a line like this to the
lib/bluej.defs file in your master copy of BlueJ:
extensions.com.puppycrawl.tools.checkstyle.plugins.bluej.CheckstyleExtension.settings.checkstyle.configfile=bigjava_checks.xml This has the same effect as pre-initializing the preferences
setting for the extension. Users will still be able to override
this setting in their own preferences, but all will start out using
the default you provide. You can use the name of any of the built-in
configuration files, or the path name of your own custom file. You
can set the properties file setting using the same technique:
extensions.com.puppycrawl.tools.checkstyle.plugins.bluej.CheckstyleExtension.settings.checkstyle.propsfile=/path/to/my/file.properties The options above will work if you want to distribute
a single static configuration choice that will work for a long time.
If your configuration changes more frequently, however, you can
use a URL instead. Set the configfile property in
lib/bluej.defs as described above, but give a URL
that points to your configuration file. The same technique works with
the properties file, too. Now the extension will dynamically load
your configuration over the web. If the extension cannot retrieve
the remote configuration it will issue and appropriate warning and
fall back to using default_checks.xml.
Contact
rick.giles at acadiau.ca
edwards at cs.vt.edu
|
