On the Web Builder Zone (a part of DZone.com) Giorgio Sironi take a high-level look at some of the tools you can use for automated code reviews in your projects without you ever having to lift a finger (well, once it's set up, of course).

I'm exploring an approach to automated code review: it's not as precise as the human-based one, but it scales better. [...] All in all, automated code reviews, performed with tools instead of with human intellect, can be a starting point to search for the problematic zones of a codebase. Then the human may come in, since they also have to clean up the code: their intervention was already scheduled.

The tools he mentions (and, in some cases, shows how to install/use) are:

• PHPUnit
• PHP_Depend
• PHP_CodeSniffer
• PHP Mess Detector (pmd)
• the Jenkins job template

Sebastian Bergmann has a new post today about a different sort of use for the PHPUnit testing software - a "Project Mess Detector".

As of version 3.2, PHPUnit will not only be able to calculate and collect a variety of software metrics. It will also be able to report violations of rules that are based on these metrics in PMD's XML format. This information can then be fed to any tool that integrates with PMD.

The Project Mess Detector (PMD) software scans code and looks for potential problems. Having this integrated with PHPUnit means one less piece of software to run and the potential for even better written code.

Sebastian Bergmann has a new post today about a different sort of use for the PHPUnit testing software - a "Project Mess Detector".

As of version 3.2, PHPUnit will not only be able to calculate and collect a variety of software metrics. It will also be able to report violations of rules that are based on these metrics in PMD's XML format. This information can then be fed to any tool that integrates with PMD.

The Project Mess Detector (PMD) software scans code and looks for potential problems. Having this integrated with PHPUnit means one less piece of software to run and the potential for even better written code.