php

• Bug fix: CC is compatible with Java 1.5, but the phpUnderControl 0.4.6 sources were compiled against Java 1.6.

Visit phpUnderControl's download page for release packages.

• Fixed #621: phpUnderControl dashboard is broken with CruiseControl 2.8 - [4085]
• Closed #609: Use artifacts directory for artifacts - [4118]
• Closed #611: opera: code coverage not visible - [4119]
• Closed #622: phpUnderControl needs a custom error page - [4116]

Yesterday the ElePHPant pride arrived and now the kingpin has ten brothers and sisters

Die Karawane zieht weiter...

There was a documentation error in the previously presented ant build file for the new merge-phpunit command of phpUnderControl. The @failonerror-attribute of the <exec />-tag in the merge target was set to false, which results in not failed CruiseControl builds To fix this behaviour, you must modify the merge target in your build.xml, so that it looks similar to the following example.

Beside this documentation error, there was a bug in version 0.4.3 related to the same topic, which is fixed now. So please make sure you have the latest version (at least 0.4.4) installed.

I recently released a bugfix version of phpUnderControl. Beside some minor view errors like the odd/even rows problem, the 0.4.4 release of phpUnderControl fixes a bug in the new merged phpunit logs feature, which doesn't cause CruiseControl to fail for such builds.

I currently released a new version of phpUnderControl. Beside some minor fixes this release comes with a new feature to aggregate test results of multiple PHPUnit runs.

Use the new cli command merge-phpunit of phpUnderControl to merge multiple log files produced with PHPUnit, as shown in the following example build file for ant.

phpUnderControl merged phpunit log view

Even if there is not much noise around phpUnderControl and PHP_Depend at the moment, the development of both projects still goes on. Due to the fact that there are some personal movements in these days I have modified my priorities and everything evolves slower, but I plan to spend more time on these projects, at least from the last quarter of this year.

To put your minds on rest, the next release of phpUnderControl is nearly finished, so stay tuned.

Greetings Manuel

Isn't she cute?

Dear google, msn, yahoo, etc. please forget this photo in N years when my daughter will use the internet...

The proud dad.

Today I released the stable 0.8.0 version of PHP_Depend.

• Fixed: Endless loop for inline html.
• Fixed: Handle class and interface names case insensitive.
• Fixed: PHP_Depend should print an error if no @package information is available.
• The Logger interface should not force a default ctor-signature.
• Remove Logger <-> XML Config dependency.
• Support for pattern based package filter.
• Tooltip for the Overview Pyramid.
• Add option --bad-documentation.
• Handle internal classes and interfaces.
• Use an SVG-Template for the jdepend chart.
• Introduce a CodeAware interface for loggers.

The previous list was taken from the PHP_Depend issue tracker. Feel free to report issues, bugs or just leave a comment here.

Yesterday kore asked me about a strange behavior of phpUnderControl. The last arbit build done by phpUnderControl has failed, but when we looked over the different result pages everything looks fine.

phpUnderControl overview page of arbit

Strange! What has happened?

After an analysis session of the 6MB XML log file I detected the following self explaining entry. The PHPUnit tests for arbit had completely failed.

Ok, the test run failed, but why did phpUnderControl say: All Tests passed?

The answer is really simple. Due to the fact that phpunit died, it didn't generate any log file and previous log files still reside in build/logs. Because CruiseControl cannot know anything about these outdated build artifacts, it still publishes them as result for last build.

At this moment I realized that I have never mentioned a clean-target for the ant build.xml file, neither in the example file nor in a blog post or the FAQ. So now its time to catch up on this topic.

You should add an additional target to your ant build.xml file, that removes all log files and build artifacts of previous builds, before the main build cycle starts.

That's it. Now you will get the expected(not really) result: No Tests Run - This project doesn't have any tests.

This should be the final beta release for PHP_Depend 0.8.0. Beside some minor bugfixes, it contains a last API change for the log sub component. This change removes constraints to the ctor signature of a logger implementation, which is now part of a separate interface.

The following list shows all changes in this version. A detailed description of all issues can be found in the PHP_Depend issue tracker!

• #29 Tooltip for the Overview Pyramid.
• #34 Support for pattern based package filter.
• #37 Remove Logger - XML Config dependency.
• #38 The Logger interface should not force a default ctor-signature.

As always you can use PHP_Depend's pear channel or its svn repository, to check out this new version. And feel free to discuss and follow the PHP_Depend development on its dedicated mailing list.

The Overview Pyramid is used to visualize a complete software system in a really compact manner. Therefor it collects a set of metrics from the categories Inheritance, Coupling and Size & Complexity, and puts them into relation. The following figure shows the base structure of the Overview Pyramid[ML06].

Base structure of the Overview Pyramid.

Metrics used by the Overview Pyramid

The following three lists contain all the metrics, which the Overview Pyramid uses.

Size and Complexity

The category Size & Complexity contributes the greatest and mostly used set of software metrics.

NOP

The Number Of Packages metric counts the packages within the analyzed software system.

NOC

The Number Of Classes metric counts the declared classes within the analyzed software system.

NOM

The Number Of Methods metric counts all declared methods, which in this context means class methods and simple functions.

LOC

The Lines Of Code metric shows the number of executable source lines within the analyzed software system. To calculate this value PHP_Depend counts all non whitespace lines and all non comment lines.

CYCLO

Cyclomatic complexity is a software metric (measurement). It was developed by Thomas McCabe and is used to measure the complexity of a program. It directly measures the number of linearly independent paths through a program's source code.

Source: Wikipedia

Coupling

This group of metrics informs about the coupling between different program parts in the analyzed application.

CALLS

This metric count the number of distinct function- and method-calls. Distinct means that one and the same method-call within a function- or method-body is only counted once.

FANOUT

The FANOUT provides information on types referenced by classes and interfaces. It only counts those types that are not part of the same Inheritance branch.

Inheritance

Both metrics in this group deal with the use of Inheritance and give a general overview of the use of Inheritance within the analyzed system.

ANDC

The Average Number of Derived Classes metric describes the average of derived classes. In a system of ten classes an ANDC-value of 0.5 means, that every second class is derived from another class.

AHH

The Average Hierarchy Height metric is a average depth of the inheritance hierarchy. In a system of ten classes, a AHH-value of 1 can be interpreted in different ways, for example: Five classes inherit from five other classes within the analyzed application or five classes inherit from a single root class.

Structure of the Overview Pyramid

Now that we know all metrics used for the Overview Pyramid, it is time to replace the placeholders with the measured informations. The figure below shows the filled Overview Pyramid.

The filled Overview Pyramid

In a second step, the previously independent metrics are set into relation. Therefor we calculate the average values of individual value pairs, these computed values provide us with new informations about the distributions within the application.

The following example figure of the Overview Pyramid contains a computed value for the measured LOC and NOM metric which shows us, that in the average each operation has 25 lines of code. This value can be described as very high, especially when you consider that most systems contain a variety of simple operation, like Getter and Setter, in addition to the main application logic.

Computed average values in the Overview Pyramid

To take reasonable conclusions from the computed values one important part is still missing, an adequate set of reference values. Without reference values, that say what values are low, average or high, it is not possible to classify these results. The current version of PHP_Depend supports a single set of reference values, this set was taken from [ML96].

Reference values

With these reference values PHP_Depend can classify the computed results. PHP_Depend uses this information for the generation of colored backgrounds, so that the color already supports the categorization.

The complete Overview Pyramid

The benefit of the Overview Pyramid

Of course, the final question is, which advantages offers the Overview Pyramid?

The Overview Pyramid provides a simple and size indipendent way to get a first impression of a software system, and this without an expensive source code analysis. Thus the Overview Pyramid is an effective tool for a first cost estimate for an unknown system. With the help of this tool and know-how, an experienced developer will quickly get a first impression and will know what can be expected from the analyzed application. And this knowledge could be a good help during the planning phase of a new project.

Bibliography

• Object-Oriented Metrics in Practice
  Using Software Metrics to Characterize, Evaluate, and Improve the Design of Object-Oriented Systems
  Michele Lanza, Radu Marinescu, 2006 © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg, ISBN 978-3-540-24429-5

If you like commit mails as I do, you can subscribe to the commit mailing list. Simply send an email to commits-join@pdepend.org or register thru the online interface.

If you have any PHP_Depend related questions, tips or suggestions, subscribe to the PHP_Depend user mailing list by mail users-join@pdepend.org or use the online interface.

Enjoy PHP_Depend!

  Manuel

Here a short follow up for the PHP_Depend release announcement, with hints on using PHP_Depend.

First I must explain that PHP_Depend is working package oriented. This means it heavily relies on @package and @subpackage annotations within the comment blocks. For these annotations PHP_Depend applies the following rules, these rules are borrowed from PEAR. Or was it PHPDocumentor?

1. function: The @package/@subpackage annotation in the file level comment is used for all functions declared within this file.
2. class/interface: The @package/@subpackage annotation within the class or interface comment is used for that type.
3. everything else: Everything that doesn't match on one of the previous rules is part of the +global Package.

With default settings PHP_Depend suppresses the +global Package, because it expects that this package contains classes from external libraries, like Zend Framework or eZComponents. If you use PHP_Depend for a project with less or no @package/@subpackage annotation, you should use the cli option --bad-documentation, which forces PHP_Depend to keep all classes, interfaces and functions within the +global package. This option was introduced with PHP_Depend - 0.8.0beta3.

The second important hint is related to exported charts and images. If your operation system, image viewer or browser supports SVG, you should use this format. The reason for this decision is really simple, SVG provides tooltips and so you get most informations from the generated graphics.

For the Overview-Pyramid this means, that you get a tooltip for the used acronyms.

PHP_Depend Overview-Pyramid with acronym tooltip

And within the JDepend-chart you get the package name as tooltip.

PHP_Depend JDepend-Chart with package tooltip

I hope this short introduction helps you while you are trying out PHP_Depend. If you are already using the metrics feature of PHPUnit, you should try out the new --phpunit-xml log option in the latest SVN-Revision.

This new release of PHP_Depend took some time to be finished. This is because the initial idea of a simple adaption of JDepend evolved (supported thru this blog-post by Sebastian), and so PHP_Depend has become a complete software metric application. Many new features and enhancements have found their way into this version. One of the key features is the pluggable architecture for custom Loggers and Metric-Analyzers. This opens the possibility to hook own Logger- and Analyzer-implementations into the execution chain of PHP_Depend. Beside these architectural changes this PHP_Depend version is shipped with a large set of implemented software metrics.

ClassLevel (Class)

• dit: Depth of Inheritance Tree
• impl: Number of implemented interfaces
• cis: Class Interface Size
• csz: Class SiZe
• vars: Number of defined class properties
• varsi: Number of own and inherited class properties
• varsnp: Number of public class properties
• wmc: Weighted Method per Class(Sum of method Cyclomatic Complexity)
• wmci: Weighted Method per Class + inherited WMC
• wmcnp: Weighted Method per Class for all public class methods

CodeRank (Class, Package)

An adaption of google's PageRank algorithm for classes and packages.

• cr: Forward CodeRank (based on incoming edges)
• rcr: Reverse CodeRank (based on outgoing edges)

Coupling (Project)

• calls: Number of called methods and functions
• fanout: Number of referenced types

Cyclomatic Complexity (Project, Method, Function)

• ccn: Cyclomatic Complexity
• ccn2: Extended Cyclomatic Complexity

Dependency (Package)

For details see the following entry.

• ca: Afferent coupling
• ce: Efferent coupling
• a: Abstraction
• i: Instability
• d: Distance

Hierarchy (Project)

• clsa: Number of abstract classes.
• clsc: Number of concrete classes.
• roots: Number of root classes within the analyzed system.
• leafs: Number of leaf classes.
• maxDIT: Max Depth of Inheritance Tree value

Inheritance (Project)

• andc: Average Number of Derived Classes.
• ahh: Average Hierarchy Height

NodeCount (Project, Package, Class, Interface)

• nop: Number Of Packages
• noc: Number Of Classes
• noi: Number Of Interfaces
• nom: Number Of Methods
• nof: Number Of Functions

NodeLOC (Project, Package, Class, Interface, Method, Function)

• loc: Lines Of Code
• cloc: Comment Lines Of Code
• ncloc: Non Comment Lines Of Code

Due to the fact that PHP is a loosely typed programming language, PHP_Depend can only approximate some values. But the measured results can be improved with a good and complete source code documentation, because PHP_Depend takes advantage of different doc comment annotations (@throws, @var, @return). So I suggest the use of a tool like PHP_CodeSniffer, to achieve better results.

Beside all these metrics, PHP_Depend also provides a new chart type, the "Overview Pyramid". The Overview Pyramid can be a handy tool to analyze legacy code. If you have read the book Object-Oriented Metrics in Practice you should know howto interpret the Overview Pyramid, all others have to wait for a detailed description.

PHP_Depend Overview Pyramid for PHP_Depend

This new version can be installed with the PEAR-Installer. Just discover the pear.xplib.de channel and install the latest PHP_Depend release. After PHP_Depend has been installed successfully, the new command line tool pdepend should exist.

 mapi@arwen ~ $ pear channel-discover pear.xplib.de
 mapi@arwen ~ $ pear install xplib/PHP_Depend-beta
 mapi@arwen ~ $ pdepend --help
 PHP_Depend 0.8.0beta1 by Manuel Pichler

 Usage: pdepend [options] [logger] <dir[,dir[,...]]>

   --jdepend-chart=<file>    Generates a diagram of the analyzed packages.
   --jdepend-xml=<file>      Generates the package dependency log.

   --overview-pyramid=<file> Generates a chart with an Overview Pyramid for the
                             analyzed project.

   --summary-xml=<file>      Generates a xml log with all metrics.

   --coderank-mode=<*[,...]> Used CodeRank strategies. Comma separated list of
                             'inheritance'(default), 'property' and 'method'.

   --suffix=<ext[,...]>      List of valid PHP file extensions.
   --ignore=<dir[,...]>      List of exclude directories.
   --exclude=<pkg[,...]>     List of exclude packages.

   --without-annotations     Do not parse doc comment annotations.

   --help                    Print this help text.
   --version                 Print the current PHP_Depend version.

There is also a Subversion repository at http://svn.pdepend.org/, where the latest development version can be found.

Please test this beta release and file bug-reports and feature-requests in the PHP_Depend bug tracker.