Blog by Joel Fjordén a.k.a. Will o Wisp

Code Style Enforcer

General Information

Code Style Enforcer 3.0 and above will only work in Visual Studio 2010, since it is utilizing the new editor extension capabilities introduced in Visual Studio 2010. Code Style Enforcer checks the code against a configurable code standard and best practices. It is developed for C#, but some of the rules will also be applicable VB.NET. The code standard is currently configurable with the following rules:

• Name rules, where it is possible to have different rules for different members, i.e. fields, constants, variables, methods, properties and so on.

• Visibility rules, where you can specify the visibility that is valid for different members. It is also possible to specify that the visibility has to be specified explicitly.

• Implementation rules, where it is possible to specify that interface implementations are to be made explicitly or implicitly.

The default rules are based on the C# Coding Standard from IDesign. It is the most complete code standard available and it is free to download.

Supported Visual Studio Versions

Code Style Enforcer 3.0 and above is a Visual Studio 2010 extension and the previous version 2.0+ is a plug-in for Visual Studio 2005 and Visual Studio 2008. The Express Editions of Visual Studio are not supported because DXCore, which is used for source code parsing, does not support them.

Code Style Enforcer Screenshot

Latest Version

The latest and recommended version is the new 3.0.17 Beta for Visual Studio 2010, which requires DXCore v2010 vol 1.4 (10.1.4) or later.

New Features

• Activation/Deactivation of Code Style Enforcer can now be done for the complete solution and for specific projects. The "Active" command is available from the context menu when right-clicking on the solution node or a project node in the Solution Explorer.

• Generate reports functionality added for generating an XML file containing all rule violations for the complete solution. Different XSL style sheets can then be used for a proper presentation of the data. The "Generate Report..." command is available from the context menu when right-clicking on the solution node in the Solution Explorer.

• New improved activation dialog in WPF.

• Tooltips added with descriptions of the code rule violations (presented when hovering over a violation).

• Smarttags added for correcting name and visibility rule violations (activated by putting the cursor on a violation).

• Support for Visual Studio 2010.

Bug Fixes

• Code Style Enforcer Configurator could crash when trying to save rules to a read-only location.

• The wrong violation description was presented for name rules where no prefix was allowed.

Known Issues (some missing features from the previous releases)

• No user interface for changing the code rules inside Visual Studio, but it can still be done using the Code Style Enforcer Configurator application or manually by editing the XML rule files.

Download Code Style Enforcer

Installation Instructions

1. If running Windows Vista, make sure User Access Control is turned off.
2. Make sure you do not have any instances of Visual Studio running.
3. Uninstall any previous versions of Code Style Enforcer from the Control Panel.
4. Download and install the latest version of DXCore, from Developer Express.
5. Download the latest Code Style Enforcer plug-in. Extract the zip file and execute the Setup.exe and follow the instructions.
6. Start Visual Studio, write some code and you will most probably see some red lines below some of your code statements.

Configuration Instructions

Configuration of the code standard for Code Style Enforcer can be done from the Code Style Enforcer Configurator application found in the start menu. Configuration is also integrated within Visual Studio.

Global Configurator

1. In the start menu, select "Code Style Enforcer" and "Configurator".
2. Select where the global rules are to be located, e.g. a shared folder under source control, since the rules will be linked to a solution from here when selecting "Use Global Rules" in Visual Studio.
3. Configure the global rules that are most common for your solutions.

Option Pages in Visual Studio

1. In the beta version, code rule changes are limited to the Code Style Enforcer Configurator application or through manual editing of the XML rule files.

Version History