Building a Better Codebase with Lint - Kotlin Mumbai

Lint is a powerful static analysis tool that can be used to enforce coding styles and also find common bugs across a codebase. Google provides a bunch of lint checks by default for Android. On popular demand, the Lint API was extended to support non-Android Kotlin projects too.

In this talk, Subhrajyoti discusses some examples of custom lint checks we use on the Tickertape app to enforce out design guidelines. He will go through the source code of some Android lint checks and then show how to write a custom lint rule. This talk also demonstrates how to write test cases for the rules. By the end of the talk, you will be able to understand how lint works and how you can add custom lint rules to your projects.

Transcript

1. Building a Better Codebase
   with Lint
   Subhrajyoti Sen
   @iamsubhrajyoti
   

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2. What is Lint?
   

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3. What is Lint?
   ● Static analysis tool
   

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4. What is Lint?
   ● Static analysis tool
   ● Open Source
   

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5. What is Lint?
   ● Static analysis tool
   ● Open Source
   ● Works on .java, .kt, .gradle and a lot more
   

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6. What is Lint?
   ● Static analysis tool
   ● Open Source
   ● Works on .java, .kt, .gradle and a lot more
   ● Can be used outside Android as well
   

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7. What is Lint?
   ● Static analysis tool
   ● Open Source
   ● Works on .java, .kt, .gradle and a lot more
   ● Can be used outside Android as well
   ● Can be extended to write custom rules
   

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8. What is Lint?
   ● Static analysis tool
   ● Open Source
   ● Works on .java, .kt, .gradle and a lot more
   ● Can be used outside Android as well
   ● Can be extended to write custom rules
   ● Can be run from both Android Studio and CLI
   

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9. What does it look like?
   

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10. Internationalization
    

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11. Security
    

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12. Performance
    

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13. Accessibility
    

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14. Why Consider Lint
    

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15. Why Consider Lint
    ● Opinionated codebase
    

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16. Why Consider Lint
    ● Opinionated codebase
    ● Simpler code reviews
    

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17. Why Consider Lint
    ● Opinionated codebase
    ● Simpler code reviews
    ● Adherence to style guide
    

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18. Setup
    

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19. Setup
    dependencies {
    compileOnly "org.jetbrains.kotlin:kotlin-stdlib:$kotlin_version"
    compileOnly 'com.android.tools.lint:lint-api:26.6.3'
    compileOnly 'com.android.tools.lint:lint-checks:26.6.3'
    }
    

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20. Setup
    class Registry : IssueRegistry() {
    override val api: Int = CURRENT_API
    @get:NotNull
    override val issues: List
    get() = listOf()
    }
    

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21. Setup
    jar {
    manifest {
    attributes 'Lint-Registry-V2': 'me.subhrajyoti.lint.Registry'
    }
    }
    

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22. Setup
    dependencies {
    lintChecks project(':lint')
    }
    

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23. The Basic Elements
    Scope
    The kind of files the lint rule will apply to
    ● JAVA_FILE_SCOPE (also applied to Kotlin)
    ● GRADLE_SCOPE
    ● MANIFEST_SCOPE
    ● PROGUARD_SCOPE
    ● RESOURCE_FILE_SCOPE
    

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24. The Basic Elements
    Severity
    How severe is the issue
    ● INFORMATIONAL
    ● WARNING
    ● ERROR
    ● FATAL
    

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25. The Basic Elements
    Category
    The category the issue falls in, from a pre-defined list of categories
    ● SECURITY
    ● PERFORMANCE
    ● I18N
    ● A11Y
    

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26. A Use case - TextView
    

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27. A Custom Rule Structure
    val ISSUE: Issue = Issue.create(
    "MissingStyleAttribute",
    "style attribute is missing",
    "We should use style to style a TextView " +
    "in order to provide consistent design",
    Category.CORRECTNESS,
    5,
    Severity.ERROR,
    Implementation(
    MissingStyleAttributeDetector::class.java,
    Scope.RESOURCE_FILE_SCOPE
    )
    )
    

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28. A Custom Rule Structure
    class MissingStyleAttributeDetector : ResourceXmlDetector() {
    }
    

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29. A Custom Rule Structure
    class MissingStyleAttributeDetector : ResourceXmlDetector() {
    @Nullable
    override fun getApplicableElements(): Collection? {
    return listOf(“TextView”)
    }
    }
    

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30. A Custom Rule Structure
    class MissingStyleAttributeDetector : ResourceXmlDetector() {
    @Nullable
    override fun getApplicableElements(): Collection? {
    return listOf(SdkConstants.TEXT_VIEW)
    }
    }
    

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31. A Custom Rule Structure
    class MissingStyleAttributeDetector : ResourceXmlDetector() {
    override fun appliesTo(folderType: ResourceFolderType): Boolean {
    return folderType == ResourceFolderType.LAYOUT
    }
    }
    

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32. class MissingStyleAttributeDetector : ResourceXmlDetector() {
    override fun visitElement(context: XmlContext, element: Element) {
    if (!element.hasAttribute(SdkConstants.ATTR_STYLE)) {
    context.report(
    ISSUE,
    element,
    context.getLocation(element),
    "Add style to TextView"
    )
    }
    }
    }
    

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33. A Custom Rule Structure
    class Registry : IssueRegistry() {
    @get:NotNull
    override val issues: List
    get() = listOf(MissingStyleAttributeDetector.ISSUE)
    }
    

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34. Remember!
    class MissingStyleAttributeDetector : ResourceXmlDetector() {
    @Nullable
    override fun getApplicableElements(): Collection? {
    return listOf(SdkConstants.TEXT_VIEW)
    }
    }
    

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35. A small Bug
    

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36. A Use case - Snackbar
    

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37. A Custom Rule Structure
    val ISSUE = Issue.create(
    "CustomSnackbarIssue",
    DESCRIPTION,
    EXPLANATION,
    Category.CORRECTNESS,
    5,
    Severity.ERROR,
    Implementation(
    MaterialSnackbarUsageDetector::class.java,
    Scope.JAVA_FILE_SCOPE
    )
    )
    

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38. A Custom Rule Structure
    class MaterialSnackbarUsageDetector : Detector(), SourceCodeScanner {
    }
    

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39. A Custom Rule Structure
    class MaterialSnackbarUsageDetector : Detector(), SourceCodeScanner {
    override fun getApplicableMethodNames() = listOf("make")
    }
    

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40. A Custom Rule Structure
    class MaterialSnackbarUsageDetector : Detector(), SourceCodeScanner {
    override fun visitMethodCall(context: JavaContext, node: UCallExpression, method: PsiMethod) {
    if (context.evaluator.isMemberInClass(
    method,
    "com.google.android.material.snackbar.Snackbar"
    )) {
    // report usage
    }
    }
    }
    

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41. Testing a rule
    

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42. Testing a rule
    ● JUnit tests
    

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43. Testing a rule
    ● JUnit tests
    ● lint-tests library
    

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44. Testing a rule
    ● JUnit tests
    ● lint-tests library
    ● IDE syntax checker and code highlight
    

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45. IDE syntax check
    

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46. lint-test dependency
    dependencies {
    compileOnly 'com.android.tools.lint:lint-api:26.6.3'
    compileOnly 'com.android.tools.lint:lint-checks:26.6.3'
    testImplementation "com.android.tools.lint:lint-tests:26.6.3"
    }
    

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47. A successful case
    

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48. @Test
    fun `check no lint error`() {
    lint()
    }
    

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49. @Test
    fun `check no lint error`() {
    lint()
    .files()
    }
    

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50. @Test
    fun `check no lint error`() {
    lint()
    .files(
    xml(
    "res/layout/layout.xml",
    """
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:id="@+id/textSpacerNoButtons"
    style="@style/TextAppearance.AppCompat"
    xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" />
    """
    )
    )
    }
    

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51. @Test
    fun `check no lint error`() {
    lint()
    .files(
    xml(
    "res/layout/layout.xml",
    """
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:id="@+id/textSpacerNoButtons"
    style="@style/TextAppearance.AppCompat"
    xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" />
    """
    )
    )
    .run()
    }
    

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52. @Test
    fun `check no lint error`() {
    lint()
    .files(
    xml(
    "res/layout/layout.xml",
    """
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:id="@+id/textSpacerNoButtons"
    style="@style/TextAppearance.AppCompat"
    xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" />
    """
    )
    )
    .run()
    .expectClean()
    }
    

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53. @Test
    fun `check no lint error`() {
    lint()
    .files(
    xml(
    "res/layout/layout.xml",
    """
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:id="@+id/textSpacerNoButtons"
    style="@style/TextAppearance.AppCompat"
    xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" />
    """
    )
    )
    .run()
    .expectClean()
    }
    

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54. An error case
    

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55. @Test
    fun `check exactly 1 lint error`() {
    lint()
    .files(
    xml(
    "res/layout/layout.xml",
    """
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:id="@+id/textSpacerNoButtons"
    xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" />
    """
    )
    )
    .run()
    }
    

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56. @Test
    fun `check exactly 1 lint error`() {
    lint()
    .files(
    xml(
    "res/layout/layout.xml",
    """
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:id="@+id/textSpacerNoButtons"
    xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" />
    """
    )
    )
    .run()
    .expectErrorCount(1)
    }
    

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57. @Test
    fun `check exactly 1 lint error`() {
    lint()
    //
    .run()
    .expectErrorCount(1)
    .expect(
    """
    res/layout/layout.xml:2: Error: Add style to TextView in order to provide consistent design
    [MissingStyleAttribute]
    ^
    1 errors, 0 warnings
    """
    )
    }
    

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58. Integration
    

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59. Integration
    ● Incremental fixes
    

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60. Integration
    ● Incremental fixes
    ● Use a baseline
    

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61. Baseline
    android {
    lintOptions {
    baseline file("lint-baseline.xml")
    }
    }
    

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62. Baseline
    

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63. Baseline
    

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64. Baseline
    

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65. Performance
    

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66. Performance
    ● Single-pass:
    ○ Missing attribute
    ○ Fast
    ○ Enable in IDE
    

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67. Performance
    ● Single-pass:
    ○ Missing attribute
    ○ Fast
    ○ Enable in IDE
    ● Multiple-pass :
    ○ Unused resources
    ○ Slow
    ○ Disable in IDE
    

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68. Kotlin Considerations
    ● No explicit return statements
    

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69. Kotlin Considerations
    ● No explicit return statements
    ● No explicit type declarations
    

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70. Kotlin Considerations
    ● No explicit return statements
    ● No explicit type declarations
    ● Write one test case for Kotlin
    

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71. References
    ● https://groups.google.com/g/lint-dev
    ● https://github.com/SubhrajyotiSen/LintTalk/
    ● https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8yX5-lPS6o
    

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72. Thank You
    @iamsubhrajyoti
    

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