Discontinue ApexMetrics (Apex-only PMD) in favour of General PMD engine

[rsoesemann]

When Codacy didn't provide a PMD engine I created my own called https://docs.codeclimate.com/docs/apexmetrics. It was for Salesforce apex classes only and suffered from me being the bottleneck to maintain and upgrade it.

By accident I learned that Codeclimate now has an all-languages PMD engine.

If this engine works with all languages, I'd like to:

1. Have Codeclimate take my engine out of their site. @brynary @dblandin
2. Remove my own engine repo
3. Get somewhat a safe feeling from Codeclimate that users of my engine are safe ;-)
4. Take out the Codeclimate specific parameters and dependancies I introduced to PMD Apex rules

[froucher]

Hi @rsoesemann, I just tried to launch PMD with Apex, but checking the source code seems this engine will only work with ".java" files

codeclimate-pmd/src/Config.groovy

Lines 78 to 84 in 3c17c1c

	def i = files.iterator()
	while(i.hasNext()) {
	def name = i.next()
	if(!name.endsWith(".java")) {
	i.remove()
	}
	}

[rsoesemann]

Would you mind making it work with alle Salesforce related file types as well?

Maybe @filipesperandio (the most active contributor) can help us find out if there is a technical reason to make it Java-only?

[filipesperandio]

Hey @rsoesemann / @froucher !
Yeah, the initial work we did with PMD was intended to be a specific for java. It probably don't have to be, though, let me check with the team.

@katwchen @toddmazierski

[rsoesemann]

I (and @froucher) would be happy to help. When I create ApexMetrics it was my intention to be able to update it independent of the Java changes. But now I became the bottleneck for upgrades ;-)

[Cameron637]

Can I just add that for those of us using Code Climate v2 ratings, ApexMetrics is broken because there is no longer a ratings option in the configuration file, and since Apex is not a supported language by Code Climate all of the Apex files get skipped in the analysis. So either a fix there or an upgrade here to support Apex is definitely a pressing concern.

[dblandin]

To clarify, when using the apexmetrics engine, apex files are analyzed and issues are emitted when found, but they're currently not included within a project's maintainability rating, which is backed by an internally curated 10-point maintainability checklist: https://codeclimate.com/blog/a-new-clearer-way-to-understand-code-quality.

We have plans to reintroduce ratings from third-party engines as an additional "pillar".

[Cameron637]

That makes sense, but having it as a separate pillar is also going to make my job more difficult. I'm pulling ratings from the API for all of our org projects, only a few of which use Salesforce, to go into a monthly QA report, but now I'll have to figure out a way to combine the ratings from apex and the ratings from other files (like JavaScript) for our salesforce projects, so I wish you would reconsider. I understand I'm probably one of the very few that has to worry about that though.

[dblandin]

I'm pulling ratings from the API for all of our org projects, only a few of which use Salesforce, to go into a monthly QA report

That's very cool! I'll definitely relay your feedback internally. Thanks for the input!

[rsoesemann]

Thanks for those insights. @dblandin as I wrote you on Slack (with no response) I am planning to discontinue ApexMetrics as keeping this engine up to date is a too big hurdle for me. I also know that similar services like Codacy.com have internally developed PMD engines for all PMD-supported language.

So I just can repeat myself. I am willing to help with the Salesforce-specific part (Apex,...) of such a PMD engine but I will not maintain it. Is this something Codeclimate could do? I mean making its PMD engine open for Salesforce files?

[froucher]

Agree with Robert, Apex is not solely the case, pmd is "an extensible cross-language static code analyzer", not just for java. So, if codeclimate "PMD engine" works with all these language (python, fortran, go, cpp, groovy, and long etc.), this could be a great feature for all those languages.

…

On Thu, Feb 15, 2018 at 8:22 PM, Robert Sösemann ***@***.***> wrote: Thanks for those insights. @dblandin <https://github.com/dblandin> as I wrote you on Slack (with no response) I am planning to discontinue ApexMetrics as keeping this engine up to date is a too big hurdle for me. I also know that similar services like Codacy.com have internally developed PMD engines for all PMD-supported language. So I just can repeat myself. I am willing to help with the Salesforce-specific part (Apex,...) of such a PMD engine but I will not maintain it. Is this something Codeclimate could do? I mean making its PMD engine open for Salesforce files? — You are receiving this because you were mentioned. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#26 (comment)>, or mute the thread <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AIjjj4Pqnacj_xKO379F0fFSJnce_Oa8ks5tVIPdgaJpZM4RzLmQ> .

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[dblandin]

@rsoesemann I'm sorry for not getting back to you in Slack. I've been tied up with the Code Climate: Velocity release recently.

I'm definitely in favor of pulling Apex support into the PMD engine. @filipesperandio will likely take the lead on making that happen.

[rsoesemann]

Great!

@filipesperandio please count on me. I am really active in the PMD repo when it comes to Apex and Salesforce as you can see here: https://github.com/pmd/pmd/issues?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=+is%3Aissue+author%3Arsoesemann+

I also helped Codacy.com to open their engine for Apex: https://github.com/codacy/codacy-pmdjava/issues?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=+is%3Aissue+author%3Arsoesemann+

[brandonmikeska]

Is there a rough timeline for this? Since the Apex Metrics is discontinued, trying to see if this is a couple weeks out or months out from happening.