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The Rule Designer is a graphical tool that helps PMD users develop their custom rules

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# PMD Rule Designer

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The Rule Designer is a graphical tool that helps PMD users develop their custom
rules. Main features:
* [AST inspection](https://docs.pmd-code.org/latest/pmd_userdocs_extending_designer_reference.html#ast-inspection): inspect AST structure for any language, including XPath attributes
* [XPath rule design](https://docs.pmd-code.org/latest/pmd_userdocs_extending_designer_reference.html#xpath-rule-design): integrated XPath editor, and rule metadata editor
* [Rule test edition](https://docs.pmd-code.org/latest/pmd_userdocs_extending_designer_reference.html#testing-a-rule): create or edit rule test files for the [PMD testing framework](https://docs.pmd-code.org/latest/pmd_userdocs_extending_testing.html)

![testing-designer](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/24524930/61461094-504a7900-a970-11e9-822e-30cc121b568c.gif)

## Installation

The designer is part of PMD's binary distributions. To install a distribution, see the
[documentation page](https://docs.pmd-code.org/latest/pmd_userdocs_installation.html) about installing PMD.

The app needs either Oracle Java 8 (which includes JavaFX) or OpenJDK 11+ and a separately installed
OpenJFX distribution. Visit [JavaFX - Gluon](https://gluonhq.com/products/javafx/) to download an SDK distribution,
extract it, and set the `JAVAFX_HOME` environment variable.

If the `bin` directory of your PMD distribution is on your shell's path, then you can **launch the app** with
* `pmd designer` on Linux/ OSX
* `pmd.bat designer` on Windows

Alternatively, you can launch the program "from source" with Maven. There are two different ways
1. If you are running an OpenJDK build *without* JavaFX bundled:  
  `$ ./mvnw -Prunning exec:java` will launch the Designer after compiling it and add the JavaFX dependencies on
  the classpath.  
  Note: JavaFX will be on the classpath and not module path, which might behave a bit differently.  
  You can change the version of those dependencies with e.g. `-Dopenjfx.version=21.0.9` for OpenJFX 21.
  See the list of available versions [here](https://search.maven.org/artifact/org.openjfx/javafx).

2. If you are running an OpenJDK build *with* JavaFX bundled (e.g. Azul Zulu, Bellsoft Liberica):  
  `$ ./mvnw -Prunning exec:java -Dopenjfx.scope=provided` will launch the Designer after compiling it
  without putting the JavaFX dependencies on the classpath.  
  Note: JavaFX will be on the module path and several packages need to be opened for reflection.
  Since everything (Maven, Designer) runs in the same JVM, the opened packages are defined in
  `.mvn/jvm.config`. Depending on the Java version, you might need additionally
  `MAVEN_OPTS="--enable-native-access=javafx.graphics --sun-misc-unsafe-memory-access=allow"`.

### Updating

The latest version of the designer currently **works with PMD 7.0.0 and above**.
You can simply replace `pmd-designer-7.X.Y.jar` with the [latest build](https://github.com/pmd/pmd-designer/releases/latest)
in the installation folder of your PMD distribution.

## Usage

### [Usage documentation is on the website](https://docs.pmd-code.org/latest/pmd_userdocs_extending_designer_reference.html)

## Building from source/ contributing

See [CONTRIBUTING.md](CONTRIBUTING.md) for instructions to build the project from source and setup your IDE.

##### Building a runnable JAR

You can package a runnable jar containing the PMD dependencies with maven. For
now the only option is to build a jar that contains pmd-core and pmd-java:

```
./mvnw clean package -Dfat-java -Dpmd.core.version=7.0.0-SNAPSHOT
```
The `pmd.core.version` property selects the version of pmd-core *and pmd-java*
that will be included. The built jar can then be found in your `target` directory.
**Such a jar cannot be used in a PMD distribution** and must be used in a
standalone fashion, otherwise classpath conflicts may arise.
You can additionally add `-Dopenjfx.scope=compile` to include openjfx as well.

You should never run the `install` goal with the `-Dfat-java` property! This
would install the fat jar in your local repo and may cause dependency conflicts.

pmd-designer

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