How to customise PHP_CodeSniffer (writing custom coding standards)

PHP_CodeSniffer is a PEAR package which detects potential coding problems and enforces your style guide.

The default is the PEAR coding standard, but you can easily change that.

First,

pear install PHP_CodeSniffer

and

pear install PEAR_PackageFileManager_Cli

.

Second, create a new folder somewhere -

PHP/CodeSniffer/Standards/Foo

Third, you'll want to make a

FooCodingStandard.php

in that directory.

It should look somewhat like:

<?php
if (class_exists('PHP_CodeSniffer_Standards_CodingStandard', true) === false) {
    throw new PHP_CodeSniffer_Exception('Class PHP_CodeSniffer_Standards_CodingStandard not found');
}

class PHP_CodeSniffer_Standards_Foo_FooCodingStandard extends PHP_CodeSniffer_Standards_CodingStandard
{

    public function getIncludedSniffs()
    {
        return array(
                'Generic/Sniffs/Functions/OpeningFunctionBraceKernighanRitchieSniff.php',
                'Generic/Sniffs/NamingConventions/UpperCaseConstantNameSniff.php',
                'Generic/Sniffs/Metrics/NestingLevelSniff.php',
                'Generic/Sniffs/PHP/DisallowShortOpenTagSniff.php',
                'Generic/Sniffs/PHP/ForbiddenFunctionsSniff.php',
                'Generic/Sniffs/PHP/LowerCaseConstantSniff.php',
                'Generic/Sniffs/WhiteSpace/DisallowTabIndentSniff.php',
                'PEAR/Sniffs/Files/IncludingFileSniff.php',
                'PEAR/Sniffs/Functions/FunctionCallArgumentSpacingSniff.php',
                'PEAR/Sniffs/Functions/FunctionCallSignatureSniff.php',
                'PEAR/Sniffs/ControlStructures/ControlSignatureSniff.php',
               );

    }//end getIncludedSniffs()


}//end class

Spend a little time searching for the sniffs you want to use - some can be a huge help, or a huge pain.

Next, use the CLI tool

pfm

to create a package.xml in

PHP/

. You want to set the base install directory to PHP/; and you want to watch out for case senstivity and the like.

Once you have your package.xml; you just want to type

pear package

in the same directory - if it works, you should have a new .tgz with you can install -

pear install PHP_CodeSniffer_Standards_Foo-0.0.1.tgz

Testing it:

phpcs -i

should show your new coding standard listed here if everything is working correctly.

To set it to your default coding standard:

phpcs --config-set default_standard Foo

What next?
You could set it up to run via Cron across your entire project, or you could integrate it with an SVN post commit hook.