Glossary
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
A
- Activated
- A state applied to rule sets and quality rules to make them usable.
- Rule sets must be activated to be used in code reviews or in the ARCAD CodeChecker plug-in for RDi.
- Quality rules must be activated to be executed and measure code quality, and to be added to rule sets.
- Activation
- A user role that enables users to activate or deactivate rule sets and to activate quality rules.
- Analysis report
- A report available in the ARCAD CodeChecker plug-in for Jenkins.
- When a build that was launched using Jenkins is finished, ARCAD CodeChecker generates an analysis report that displays the results of the code review process.
- Applicable languages
- The languages that can be analyzed by ARCAD CodeChecker. The languages recognized by ARCAD CodeChecker are:
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- CL
- COBOL
- RPG (RPG III)
- RPGLE (RPG IV)
- The applicable languages are selected at the metric level and define the languages that can be analyzed using the metric. If a certain language is not selected for a metric, the quality rules using this metric cannot be executed on applications written in that language.
- Application
- A term that refers to the source code analyzed during a code review process.
- ARCAD CodeChecker
- A licensed software application that automates the tasks of analyzing code quality, detecting complexity hotspots in your code, and ensuring a consistent level of quality throughout your application.
- ARCAD CodeChecker plug-in for Jenkins
- A plug-in designed for Jenkins, an open-source tool for continuous integration.
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The ARCAD CodeChecker for Jenkins plug-in is intended for development team managers, or any person in charge of the evolution of an application's source code. It enables you to test the quality of a build and generate an analysis report for the build. With this report, you can quickly identify the files that do not comply with the quality rules executed during the code review process. The plug-in also enables you to stop the build process if a FATAL quality rule is failing.
- ARCAD CodeChecker plug-in for RDi
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The ARCAD CodeChecker plug-in for RDi is designed for the RDi integrated development environment (IDE).
The plug-in is designed for developers working in the RDi IDE. It enables developers to test the quality of the source code they are working on by executing active rule sets or specific quality rules, and know instantly if the source code does not comply with the standards set for the development team. With the plug-in, developers can easily know which quality rules are failing and identify which part of their source code is causing the failure. The portions of code causing the failures are clearly identified, making it easy for developers to modify their source code to comply with the quality standards.
- ARCAD CodeChecker plug-in for SonarQube
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The ARCAD CodeChecker solution for SonarQube integrates the results of code quality campaign in SonarQube, the open-source platform for continuous inspection of code quality. You can review issues raised in a campaign with the functionalities offered by the Sonar interface (code review, statistics, etc.). Like in the CodeChecker Studio, rule documentation is available for each issue in Sonar.
The solution is composed of:
- The ARCAD CodeChecker plug-in for SonarQube, to be installed on the SonarQube server. The plug-in is a SonarQube add-on that allows you to manage your source code quality with SonarQube.
- The Sonar Scanner, supplied by Sonar and fully managed on the CodeChecker Server side. The scanner is a Sonar component that ensures the communication of the CodeChecker Server with SonarQube.
- ARCAD CodeChecker navigator
- The primary view of the CodeChecker Studio, which gives access to all the elements required to set up and carry out the code review process.
B
C
- Campaign
- The execution of a code review on a target. Campaigns can be scheduled or manually created and launched.
- Campaigns are created by associating a code review with a target and are used to keep a record of the executions over time. When a campaign is launched, the rule sets defined in the selected code review are executed on the associated target. When a campaign is completed, the campaign status indicates if the campaign succeeded or failed.
- Campaign results
- The results available when a campaign is completed, to get information about the code review process and know which quality rules are failing and, if so, which source members are causing the failure.
- Campaign status
- The status of a completed campaign that indicates if the campaign succeeded or failed.
- After the code review process is finished, the campaign status is either changed to OK or to one of the failure levels: NOTICE, WARNING, or FATAL.
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- If the campaign status is OK, it means that none of the quality rules executed failed during the code review process.
- If the campaign status is one of the failure levels, it means that at least one of the quality rules executed failed during the code review process. The failure level given to the quality rule determines the campaign status. If multiple quality rules with multiple failure levels failed during the code review process, the most critical failure level is used to determine the campaign status.
- CCSID
- Coded Character Set Identifier. Specific to IBM i. A 16-bit number that includes a specific set of encoding scheme identifiers, character set identifiers, code page identifiers, and other information that uniquely identifies the coded graphic-character representation.
- Check
- An execution of a quality rule on one source member during a code review process.
- CodeChecker Server
- The CodeChecker Server stores all the elements required to set up and carry out a code review process, and gives access to the predefined metric models and other entities that are delivered with ARCAD CodeChecker. The server is also in charge of carrying out the code review process.
- CodeChecker Studio
- The CodeChecker Studio is an Eclipse-based application that connects to the CodeChecker Server. It enables you to create and manage all the entities required to set up and carry out the code review process. The CodeChecker Studio is available as a stand-alone Rich Client Platform (RCP) and as an RDi perspective.
- Code review
- The context of a code quality analysis, which defines the rule sets that must be used during the code review process.
- Code reviews enable users to specify an ensemble of coherent quality rules that need to be executed on a defined target application to check the code quality. Code reviews are associated with targets to create campaigns. When a campaign is launched, the rule sets defined in the code review are executed on the associated target.
- Code Review Management
- A user role that enables users to access, create and manage all the entities required to carry out the code review process: code reviews, targets, campaigns and schedules.
- Code review process
- A term that refers to the act of analyzing the code quality of an application. The code review process is carried out when a campaign is launched.
- Campaigns are created using code reviews and targets to define the context of the code analysis. When a campaign is launched, the rule sets defined in the code review are executed on the associated target. Each of the quality rules contained in the rule sets are executed on each of the source members specified in the target. If a source member complies with the logical condition defined in a quality rule, then the rule succeeds. If the source member does not comply, then the rule fails.
- Configuration Management
- A user role that enables users to access, create and manage all the entities required to set up the code review process: rule sets, quality rules, metrics, metric models and validation expressions.
D
E
- Error list
- A list available in the ARCAD CodeChecker plug-in for RDi.
- When quality rules are executed on source code in RDi, it opens a new view containing the list of all the failures detected during the analysis.
F
- Failure level
- The level given to a quality rule to indicate whether it is critical or not for the rule to succeed.
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There are three hierarchical levels of failure in ARCAD CodeChecker:
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FATAL, the most critical, -
WARNING, and -
NOTICE, the least critical.
The failure level given to a quality rule depends on the code quality that needs to be achieved.
Users with the Rule Management role in the CodeChecker Studio determine the failure level to give to each quality rule, and give the appropriate meaning to each failure level.
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- FATAL
- One of the three failure levels given to quality rules. The FATAL failure level is the most critical one.
G
- Groovy
- A scripting language used in ARCAD CodeChecker to create customized metric models and validation expressions.
H
I
- IBM i
- IBM i is an operating system that runs on IBM Power Systems and on IBM PureSystems. This integrated operating environment brings together robust architecture, high security and business resilience.
- IFS
- Integrated File System. The file system of the IBM i.
- Issues
- Issue are the individual results of the quality evaluation of the source code. They are created when a campaign is launched and are then stored on the server independently from the campaign that uncovered them. The issues' delta is calculated when the campaign is re-executed.
J
- Jenkins
- An open-source tool that allows for continuous integration. Jenkins is installed on a server and enables developers to reliably build, test and deploy their applications.
K
L
- Languages
- See Applicable languages.
M
- Metric
- A numeric value deduced from the analysis of an application's source code.
- Metrics are based on metric models. A metric model is a script that defines the actions to carry out and their required properties. The metric created from a metric model must be instantiated to be used in a quality rule: this means values for each of the properties are defined to conform to the specific quality rule’s context.
- Metric model
- A set of instructions used to create metrics and analyze an application's source code.
- Metric models define the actions to carry out to retrieve a value during the code analysis. Metric models use properties. When the metric using a metric model is instantiated for a quality rule, values for each of the properties are defined to conform to the specific rule’s context.
N
- NOTICE
- One of the three failure levels given to quality rules. The NOTICE failure level is the least critical one.
O
P
- Parameter
- A type of variable used in validation expressions.
- The formula defined in a validation expression can use parameters, which are elements that can be replaced by any value. Values for each of the parameters are defined in the context of a quality rule.
- Plug-in
- An add-on for a program that adds functionality to it.
- ARCAD CodeChecker is available as a plug-in for integrated modules: RDi
- Property
- A type of variable used in metric models.
- The instructions defined in a metric model can use properties, which are elements that can be replaced by any value. Values for each of the properties are defined when a metric is instantiated in the context of a quality rule.
Q
- Quality rule
- A conditional expression used to determine an application's code quality.
- Quality rules must be activated to be executed and to measure code quality. A simple quality rule is built around a metric and a validation expression. During a code review process, the metric is compared with the logical condition checked by the validation expression:
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- If the metric complies with the condition of the validation expression, the quality rule succeeds.
- If the metric does not comply with the condition, the quality rule fails.
R
- RDi
- An integrated development environment (IDE) built on the Eclipse platform and owned by IBM. RDi is designed for creating and maintaining applications on IBM i systems.
- Role
- An access right assigned to a user profile to allow or deny access to specific features of the CodeChecker Studio.
- There are 5 user roles available in ARCAD CodeChecker:
- Rule set
- An entity used to organize quality rules in a logical way: by language, by theme, and so on. Users decide how to manage rule sets and categorize quality rules.
S
- Schedule
- An entity used to automatically create and launch campaigns at a specified date and time or at a specified interval of time. Schedules can be defined to create one campaign at a later date, or to create multiple campaigns over time, following a recurring schedule.
- Scheduled campaign
- A campaign that was created by a schedule. Scheduled campaigns are not created manually, but are automatically created and launched by ARCAD CodeChecker following a defined schedule, whether recurring or not.
- Script
- A script is the content of a metric model. It defines how the metric computes its value from the source and properties.
- See Metric model
- Server
- See CodeChecker Server.
- Server Administration
- A user role that enables users to configure the CodeChecker Server.
- SonarQube
- An open-source platform that allows for automatic reviews with static analysis of code to detect bugs, code smells and security vulnerabilities.
- Source member
- A set of statements written in a computer language and used to build IBM i programs and ARCAD applications. Source members contain the source code to be submitted for a compilation process.
- Studio
- See CodeChecker Studio.
T
- Target
- An entity that enables users to identify the application and the specific source members to analyze during a code review process.
- Targets are associated with code reviews to create campaigns. When a campaign is launched, the rule sets defined in the code review are executed on the associated target.
- There are three types of targets:
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- IBM i targets, which enable users to connect to IBM i and to specify the libraries, objects and members to include in the code review process.
- ARCAD targets, which enable users to connect to an ARCAD server and to specify the application, environment and version to include in the code review process.
- Git targets, which enable users to clone a Git repository and include its content to the code review process.
U
- User
- Password protected accounts that define the access rights for the different members of your team that use ARCAD CodeChecker. Each user account has a unique login.
- User Management
- A user role that enables users to access, create and manage user profiles.
V
- Validation expression
- A logical condition used in the context of a quality rule.
- During the code review process, the validation expression is compared with the metric also defined in the quality rule to return a boolean value (true or false). The result of this comparison determines if the quality rule succeeds or fails.
- ARCAD CodeChecker comes with a set of standard validation expressions that are designed to cover most needs. It is also possible to create specific validation expressions if needed.
W
- WARNING
- One of the three failure levels given to quality rules.
