Package com.puppycrawl.tools.checkstyle.checks.javadoc

Class JavadocStyleCheck

  • All Implemented Interfaces:
    Configurable, Contextualizable
    public class JavadocStyleCheck
extends AbstractCheck

    Validates Javadoc comments to help ensure they are well formed.

    The following checks are performed:

    • Ensures the first sentence ends with proper punctuation (That is a period, question mark, or exclamation mark, by default). Javadoc automatically places the first sentence in the method summary table and index. Without proper punctuation the Javadoc may be malformed. All items eligible for the {@inheritDoc} tag are exempt from this requirement.
    • Check text for Javadoc statements that do not have any description. This includes both completely empty Javadoc, and Javadoc with only tags such as @param and @return.
    • Check text for incomplete HTML tags. Verifies that HTML tags have corresponding end tags and issues an "Unclosed HTML tag found:" error if not. An "Extra HTML tag found:" error is issued if an end tag is found without a previous open tag.
    • Check that a package Javadoc comment is well-formed (as described above) and NOT missing from any package-info.java files.
    • Check for allowed HTML tags. The list of allowed HTML tags is "a", "abbr", "acronym", "address", "area", "b", "bdo", "big", "blockquote", "br", "caption", "cite", "code", "colgroup", "dd", "del", "dfn", "div", "dl", "dt", "em", "fieldset", "font", "h1", "h2", "h3", "h4", "h5", "h6", "hr", "i", "img", "ins", "kbd", "li", "ol", "p", "pre", "q", "samp", "small", "span", "strong", "sub", "sup", "table", "tbody", "td", "tfoot", "th", "thead", "tr", "tt", "u", "ul", "var".

    These checks were patterned after the checks made by the DocCheck doclet available from Sun. Note: Original Sun's DocCheck tool does not exist anymore.

    • Property scope - Specify the visibility scope where Javadoc comments are checked. Type is com.puppycrawl.tools.checkstyle.api.Scope. Default value is private.
    • Property excludeScope - Specify the visibility scope where Javadoc comments are not checked. Type is com.puppycrawl.tools.checkstyle.api.Scope. Default value is null.
    • Property checkFirstSentence - Control whether to check the first sentence for proper end of sentence. Type is boolean. Default value is true.
    • Property endOfSentenceFormat - Specify the format for matching the end of a sentence. Type is java.util.regex.Pattern. Default value is "([.?!][ \t\n\r\f<])|([.?!]$)".
    • Property checkEmptyJavadoc - Control whether to check if the Javadoc is missing a describing text. Type is boolean. Default value is false.
    • Property checkHtml - Control whether to check for incomplete HTML tags. Type is boolean. Default value is true.
    • Property tokens - tokens to check Type is java.lang.String[]. Validation type is tokenSet. Default value is: ANNOTATION_DEF, ANNOTATION_FIELD_DEF, CLASS_DEF, CTOR_DEF, ENUM_CONSTANT_DEF, ENUM_DEF, INTERFACE_DEF, METHOD_DEF, PACKAGE_DEF, VARIABLE_DEF, RECORD_DEF, COMPACT_CTOR_DEF.

    To configure the default check: 

     <module name="JavadocStyle"/>

    Example:

     public class Test {
     /**
      * Some description here. // OK
      */
     private void methodWithValidCommentStyle() {}

     /**
      * Some description here // violation, the sentence must end with a proper punctuation
      */
     private void methodWithInvalidCommentStyle() {}
 }

    To configure the check for public scope: 

     <module name="JavadocStyle">
   <property name="scope" value="public"/>
 </module>

    Example:

     public class Test {
     /**
      * Some description here // violation, the sentence must end with a proper punctuation
      */
     public void test1() {}

     /**
      * Some description here // OK
      */
     private void test2() {}
 }

    To configure the check for javadoc which is in private, but not in package scope: 

     <module name="JavadocStyle">
   <property name="scope" value="private"/>
   <property name="excludeScope" value="package"/>
 </module>

    Example:

     public class Test {
     /**
      * Some description here // violation, the sentence must end with a proper punctuation
      */
     private void test1() {}

     /**
      * Some description here // OK
      */
     void test2() {}
 }

    To configure the check to turn off first sentence checking: 

     <module name="JavadocStyle">
   <property name="checkFirstSentence" value="false"/>
 </module>

    Example:

     public class Test {
     /**
      * Some description here // OK
      * Second line of description // violation, the sentence must end with a proper punctuation
      */
     private void test1() {}
 }

    To configure the check to turn off validation of incomplete html tags: 

     <module name="JavadocStyle">
 <property name="checkHtml" value="false"/>
 </module>

    Example:

     public class Test {
     /**
      * Some description here // violation, the sentence must end with a proper punctuation
      * <p // OK
      */
     private void test1() {}
 }

    To configure the check for only class definitions: 

     <module name="JavadocStyle">
 <property name="tokens" value="CLASS_DEF"/>
 </module>

    Example:

     /**
  * Some description here // violation, the sentence must end with a proper punctuation
  */
 public class Test {
     /**
      * Some description here // OK
      */
     private void test1() {}
 }

    Parent is com.puppycrawl.tools.checkstyle.TreeWalker

    Violation Message Keys:

    • javadoc.empty
    • javadoc.extraHtml
    • javadoc.incompleteTag
    • javadoc.missing
    • javadoc.noPeriod
    • javadoc.unclosedHtml
    Since:
    3.2

    • Field Detail

      • MSG_JAVADOC_MISSING

        public static final java.lang.String MSG_JAVADOC_MISSING
        Message property key for the Missing Javadoc message.
        See Also:
        Constant Field Values

      • MSG_EMPTY

        public static final java.lang.String MSG_EMPTY
        Message property key for the Empty Javadoc message.
        See Also:
        Constant Field Values

      • MSG_NO_PERIOD

        public static final java.lang.String MSG_NO_PERIOD
        Message property key for the No Javadoc end of Sentence Period message.
        See Also:
        Constant Field Values

      • MSG_INCOMPLETE_TAG

        public static final java.lang.String MSG_INCOMPLETE_TAG
        Message property key for the Incomplete Tag message.
        See Also:
        Constant Field Values

      • MSG_UNCLOSED_HTML

        public static final java.lang.String MSG_UNCLOSED_HTML
        Message property key for the Unclosed HTML message.
        See Also:
        Constant Field Values

      • MSG_EXTRA_HTML

        public static final java.lang.String MSG_EXTRA_HTML
        Message property key for the Extra HTML message.
        See Also:
        Constant Field Values

    • Constructor Detail

      • JavadocStyleCheck

        public JavadocStyleCheck()

    • Method Detail

      • getDefaultTokens

        public int[] getDefaultTokens()
        Description copied from class: AbstractCheck
        Returns the default token a check is interested in. Only used if the configuration for a check does not define the tokens.
        Specified by:
        getDefaultTokens in class AbstractCheck
        Returns:
        the default tokens
        See Also:
        TokenTypes

      • getAcceptableTokens

        public int[] getAcceptableTokens()
        Description copied from class: AbstractCheck
        The configurable token set. Used to protect Checks against malicious users who specify an unacceptable token set in the configuration file. The default implementation returns the check's default tokens.
        Specified by:
        getAcceptableTokens in class AbstractCheck
        Returns:
        the token set this check is designed for.
        See Also:
        TokenTypes

      • getRequiredTokens

        public int[] getRequiredTokens()
        Description copied from class: AbstractCheck
        The tokens that this check must be registered for.
        Specified by:
        getRequiredTokens in class AbstractCheck
        Returns:
        the token set this must be registered for.
        See Also:
        TokenTypes

      • setScope

        public void setScope​(Scope scope)
        Setter to specify the visibility scope where Javadoc comments are checked.
        Parameters:
        scope - a scope.

      • setExcludeScope

        public void setExcludeScope​(Scope excludeScope)
        Setter to specify the visibility scope where Javadoc comments are not checked.
        Parameters:
        excludeScope - a scope.

      • setEndOfSentenceFormat

        public void setEndOfSentenceFormat​(java.util.regex.Pattern pattern)
        Setter to specify the format for matching the end of a sentence.
        Parameters:
        pattern - a pattern.

      • setCheckFirstSentence

        public void setCheckFirstSentence​(boolean flag)
        Setter to control whether to check the first sentence for proper end of sentence.
        Parameters:
        flag - true if the first sentence is to be checked

      • setCheckHtml

        public void setCheckHtml​(boolean flag)
        Setter to control whether to check for incomplete HTML tags.
        Parameters:
        flag - true if HTML checking is to be performed.

      • setCheckEmptyJavadoc

        public void setCheckEmptyJavadoc​(boolean flag)
        Setter to control whether to check if the Javadoc is missing a describing text.
        Parameters:
        flag - true if empty Javadoc checking should be done.