CodeSonar Plug-in for Visual Studio: Build and Analyze a Project [Windows only]

• Prerequisites
• Setting Up
• Build and Analyze a Project
• Analyze Automatically
• The Project Hub
• Output tab
• Next
• Visual Studio Plug-in Links

Prerequisites

If you have not already installed the CodeSonar plug-in for Visual Studio, install it now.

The CodeSonar build/analysis can only be performed and its results browsed by a user with the following permissions.

• Does the project P already exist on the hub?
  • YES: PROJECT_ADD_CHILD, ANALYSIS_READ, ANALYSIS_WARNING_EXISTS, and ANALYSIS_WARNING_READ for P.
  • NO: PTREE_ADD_CHILD, ANALYSIS_READ, ANALYSIS_WARNING_EXISTS, and ANALYSIS_WARNING_READ for the project tree under which you are creating the project.
  (Futher ANALYSIS_* permissions are required if you wish to annotate warnings or make other changes to the CodeSonar hub database.)
• Global permissions G_LIST_PROPERTIES and G_LIST_USERS.

If special user Anonymous does not have these permissions, you will need to provide credentials for a hub user account that does have them (and also has G_SIGN_IN and either G_SIGN_IN_PASSWORD or G_SIGN_IN_CERTIFICATE).

• If you aren't sure whether or not you have or need a user account, consult the hub Administrator. They may need to create a user account for you, or to provide you with information about an existing account that has been created for you.
• To create a hub user account, follow the instructions in Task: Add a New User Account for Yourself.

Setting Up

Before you can build and analyze a project, you will need to set the project's analysis mode to Hook mode, and specify a CodeSonar hub to manage the analysis results. If this is a C# build project, you will also need to set up a post-build step to trigger the CodeSonar analysis.

You will only need to perform these setup steps once for each project.

1. In the Solution Explorer, right-click on the project you want to analyze.
   A menu will open.
2. Select CodeSonar > Enable > Hook Build from the menu.
   A CodeSonar dialog will notify you that a clean build is recommended.
   • Click Yes to activate CodeSonar and proceed with a clean build.
   • Click No to activate CodeSonar without cleaning.
   • Close the dialog box without clicking either button if you do not wish to activate CodeSonar.
3. Right-click on the project again, and select CodeSonar > Properties from the menu.
   Visual Studio will display the CodeSonar Project Properties dialog for the project.
4. Enter your hub location in the Hub address field.
5. Work through the following steps to establish your hub authentication settings for the project.
   1. Select a hub authentication mode: Anonymous only, Password, or Certificate.
   2. Enter any additional information required for the hub authentication method you selected.

      Anonymous only	no further information required.
      Password	select/deselect Try Anonymous First according to your preference, then enter the Username and Password for a hub user account on the hub specified in the Hub address field.
      Certificate	enter the Certificate location for the user certificate you will use for hub authentication, and the Private key location for the private key corresponding to that certificate.

6. Specify choices in the Build/Analyze section of the CodeSonar Project Properties dialog, if required. These options include: project file, project, presets, and configuration file.
7. Click Apply.
8. Click OK.
9. Is this a C# project?
   NO: go on to the next step.
   YES: work through the following steps to set up a post-build step that runs the CodeSonar C# analysis (this is not required for C and C++ projects).
   1. Right-click on the project and select Properties from the menu.
      The Project Properties dialog for the project will open.
   2. Select Build > Events > Post-Build Event in the left hand panel of the dialog.
   3. Enter a suitable cs-dotnet-scan command in the Command Line field.

      if exist "%CodeSonarDotNetScan%" "%CodeSonarDotNetScan%" -msbuild-location "$(MSBuildToolsPath32)"  -msbuild-solution "$(SolutionPath)" -msbuild-project "$(ProjectPath)"
      

      where:

      %CodeSonarDotNetScan%	will expand to the full path to cs-dotnet-scan if you have hooked the build as described on this page, and to the empty string otherwise.
      $(MSBuildToolsPath32)	is available in both Visual Studio and MSBuild projects. Always specify the "32" form of this build macro, even if you are using 64-bit MSBuild.
      $(SolutionPath)	is typically available in .NET projects created in Visual Studio. Some MSBuild projects may not support this build macro, in which case you will need to adjust the -ms-build-solution argument to specify the path to your solution (.sln) file.
      $(ProjectPath)	is typically available in .NET projects created in Visual Studio. Some MSBuild projects may not support this build macro, in which case you will need to adjust the -msbuild-project argument to specify the path to your project file.

      Note: More complicated projects may require additional cs-dotnet-scan options.
   4. Make sure Use in Build is set to Yes.
   5. Click Apply.
   6. Click OK.
10. Go on to Build and Analyze a Project.

Build and Analyze a Project

When the plug-in is enabled in Hook mode, it will automatically observe all Visual Studio builds of the project and accumulate CodeSonar project components based on those builds. Users can then invoke the CodeSonar analysis on the project as needed.

The relevant commands are available from the CodeSonar menu.

Analyze Automatically

Selecting CodeSonar > Analyze Automatically enables CodeSonar to always run an analysis when the project is built.

The Project Hub

The CodeSonar analysis requires a hub for managing analysis results, so the plug-in stores a hub address as part of the project properties.

• The Setting Up instructions above include specifying a hub for the project's analysis results.
• You can change the project hub using the Properties dialog.
• If you invoke CodeSonar > Analyze Project or CodeSonar > Build/Analyze Project on a project that has no project hub specified, you will be prompted to specify one.

Output Tab

The Output tab displays build and analysis output (CodeSonar > Analyze Project, and the analysis component of CodeSonar > Build/Analyze Project) from project <Project Name>.

Next

Go on to Viewing Analysis Results.

Visual Studio Plug-in Links

The following sections provide detailed information about installing and using the CodeSonar plug-in for Visual Studio.