Setup PHP CodeSniffer along with WordPress Coding Standards [ Windows, XAMPP ]

The other day, I had some problem setting up latest WordPress coding standard for PHP CodeSniffer on a Windows machine. It was throwing some errors/warnings like the below. There were some others, but eventually we had fixed some of those. However the WP coding standards were not getting listed in phpcs. 🙁

Warning: file_put_contents(C:\php\pear\data/PHP_CodeSniffer/CodeSniffer.conf): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in C:\xampp\php\pear\PHP\CodeSniffer.php on line 2166

Here are the steps to fix the problems and setup PHP CodeSniffer along with WordPress Coding Standards namely WordPress, WordPress-Core, WordPress-Extra and WordPress-VIP. FYI, I am on a Windows 7 box with XAMPP setup for Apache, MySql & PHP.

Install PHP CodeSniffer on Windows through PEAR installer:
Uninstall the old CodeSniffer(if any):

C:\xampp\php>pear uninstall PHP_CodeSniffer
uninstall ok: channel://pear.php.net/PHP_CodeSniffer-1.5.5

Install the latest CodeSniffer using PEAR:

C:\xampp\php>pear install --alldeps PHP_CodeSniffer
No releases available for package "pear.php.net/PHP_CodeSniffer"
install failed

It failed, that means we need to clear the cache:

C:\xampp\php>pear clear-cache
reading directory C:\Users\user\AppData\Local\Temp\pear\cache
10 cache entries cleared

Again, try installing the latest version of the PHP_CodeSniffer package:

C:\xampp\php>pear install --alldeps PHP_CodeSniffer

WARNING: channel "pear.php.net" has updated its protocols, use "pear channel-update pear.php.net" to update
Package "pear.php.net/PHP_CodeSniffer" dependency "pear.phpunit.de/PHP_Timer" has no releases
downloading PHP_CodeSniffer-1.5.5.tgz ...
Starting to download PHP_CodeSniffer-1.5.5.tgz (412,025 bytes)
................................................................done: 412,025 bytes
install ok: channel://pear.php.net/PHP_CodeSniffer-1.5.5

Update the channel as asked above:

C:\xampp\php>pear channel-update pear.php.net
Updating channel "pear.php.net"
Update of Channel "pear.php.net" succeeded

Upgrade pear too. Incase if any things are old.

C:\xampp\php>pear upgrade-all

Do a cache clear again:

C:\xampp\php>pear clear-cache
reading directory C:\Users\user\AppData\Local\Temp\pear\cache
382 cache entries cleared

See the list of default coding standards in PHP CodeSniffer:

C:\xampp\php>phpcs -i
The installed coding standards are MySource, PEAR, PHPCS, PSR1, PSR2, Squiz and Zend

Install WordPress coding standard definitions for the CodeSniffer:
Navigate to the coding standards directory:

C:\xampp\php>cd pear\PHP\CodeSniffer\Standards

Fetch the WordPress coding standards into CodeSniffer’s standards directory. (if git command not working on your command prompt, you may use any gui for git clone)

C:\xampp\php\pear\PHP\CodeSniffer\Standards>git clone https://github.com/WordPress-Coding-Standards/WordPress-Coding-Standards.git

As, all of the individual standards of WordPress namely WordPress, WordPress-Core, WordPress-Extra and WordPress-VIP are in one directory, for phpcs to be able to detect the standards we need to add the path to phpcs’s installed_paths.

C:\xampp\php>phpcs --config-set installed_paths c:\xampp\php\pear\PHP\CodeSniffer\Standards\WordPress-Coding-Standards

Check if all the installed standards are listed now:

C:\xampp\php>phpcs -i
The installed coding standards are MySource, PEAR, PHPCS, PSR1, PSR2, Squiz, Zend, WordPress, WordPress-Core, WordPress-Extra and WordPress-VIP

How to use PHP_CodeSniffer:
You can use command prompt to check your code, or you can also configure the same with different IDEs like NetBeans, PHPStrom etc.

C:\xampp\php>phpcs --standard=WordPress D:\project\wptest\wp-content\plugins\gallerytest\controllers\media\galleryview.php 

You can write the output of code sniffer to a file:

C:\xampp\php>phpcs --standard=WordPress D:\project\wptest\wp-content\plugins\gallerytest\controllers\media\galleryview.php > D:\project\wptest\wp-content\plugins\gallerytest\controllers\media\galleryview.txt