Easily comply with Symfony2 coding style using CodeSniffer and PhpStorm Code Inspection

The goal of this article is to implement Symfony2 coding style in your PhpStorm editor. This will take you 5 minutes to configure your workspace.

Symfony2 CodeSniffer installation

You can follow this steps to install the Symfony2 standard CodeSniffer using Composer.

1. Install phpcs:

   composer global require "squizlabs/php_codesniffer=1.*"
   

   You can follow the PHP_CodeSniffer documentation to include it in your project dependencies.

2. Simply add the composer bin directory to your PATH in your ~/.bash_profile (or ~/.bashrc) by adding this line at the end of the file:

   PATH=$PATH:$HOME/.composer/vendor/bin

3. Before use phpcs command, you must open a new shell or execute this command :

   source ~/.bash_profile
   
   

4. UPDATE (27 Sept 2014): The OpenSky Standards I have used seems to be no longer available. I use this repo instead:

   git@github.com:escapestudios/Symfony2-coding-standard.git
   

5. Copy, symlink or check out the repo to a folder called Symfony2 inside the phpcs Standards directory:

   cd ~/.composer/vendor/squizlabs/php_codesniffer/CodeSniffer/Standards
   git clone git@github.com:escapestudios/Symfony2-coding-standard.git Symfony2
   
   

6. Now, your list of installed coding standard should look like this:

   phpcs -i
   The installed coding standards are PSR1, PSR2, PHPCS, Zend, MySource, Squiz, Symfony2 and PEAR
   
   

PhpStorm configuration

1. Configure PhpStorm to use phpcs

   Go to Project Settings (PHP > Code Sniffer). Use this command to find phpcs path: which phpcs and put the result on the PHP Code Sniffer path field. You can test your configuration by clicking on the validate button. Then don’t forget to click on the Apply button.

   

2. Configure PhpStorm inspection to use Symfony2 coding style

   Go to Project Settings (Inspection). Select PHP > PHP Code Sniffer validation inspection. In the right panel, you can choose your Coding standard. If Symfony2 does not appear in the drop-down list, click on the refresh button.

   

3. Optional: Change the appearance of the inspection alerts

   Return in the PHP Code Sniffer inspection menu. Click on the button with three dots to Edit severities. In the new window, click on the + button to add a new one. Choose a name, PHPCS for example. And apply just a black background. You can do the same for warning validation.

4. Enjoy!!

A Pull Request return for Coding style error? Never!

I usually use the opensky Symfony2 coding style but what is yours?