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 https://github.com/codeclimate/codeclimate-pmd/blob/3c17c1ca4eb56ff2dbfa9566c512eb15853acd61/src/Config.groovy#L78-L84

[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 notifications@github.com 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?

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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.

[filipesperandio]

@rsoesemann @brandonmikeska We will have to prioritize that among other work, but I don't see it happening too soon considering what is in the pipeline, sorry.

/cc @katwchen

[filipesperandio]

@rsoesemann @brandonmikeska Would one of you be able to open a PR in order to support apex? I don't think we gonna be able to tackle that soon, but we could coordinate the communication related to the deprecation of the old engine.

[rsoesemann]

@filipesperandio not sure if you are working for codeclimate... But in case you are what you are offering is not much. To somewhat publish that I (on my own) decided to not work on ApexMetrics anymore is in you own interest as a quality engine provider.

And no, I am not willing to rewrite your internal engines simply because I don't have the time for it. I think Codeclimate should as other similar companies (e.g. Codacy) have enough interest to provide its paying customers the full spectrum of PMD supported languages. Delegating this to the community sounds like to much for me and was one reason to change provider.

I can just repeat, as the person who created the PMD module for Salesforce I am willing to help out communicate and help to efficiently communicate with the PMD world. Not less and not more.

@dblandin: Please feel free to deactivate my still active Codeclimate accounts. I don't use them anymore and they were somewhat granted to me as a thankyou for keeping the engine upgraded)

[filipesperandio]

@rsoesemann Apologies, I definitely misunderstood the context. We should organize our work to accommodate this.

[kevinohara80]

This is really a bummer that this isn't implemented yet. A temporary workaround would be simply...

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

@filipesperandio If I were to submit this as a PR, could this be merged? This would open up CodeClimate to the vast world of Salesforce developers. It doesn't address the other languages that PMD supports but that could be added later either in a similar fashion, or something more elegant.

[filipesperandio]

@kevinohara80 Sorry we couldn't prioritize this work yet. Having a PR would definitely help.

cc @ale7714

[kevinohara80]

@filipesperandio It's submitted!