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I'm trying to migrate our custom FxCop (= Code Analysis) rules from Visual Studio 2010 to Visual Studio 2012.

So far, they work fine except for one thing: their name is blank in the results window (View -> Other windows -> Code Analysis), only the CheckId and the Resolution show up, while the name is shown for Microsoft's rules:

The name isn't visible on the right of the CheckId on the custom rule, but is visible on the Microsoft rule.

What is strange, is that the name is visible in the ruleset editor:

The name is visible on both rules in the ruleset editor

What is wrong with my rules?

Details

Here is how both rules show up in MSBuild's output (there's something fishy there, but I don't understand why I have a different message):

6>c:\Users\Me\MySolution\MyProject\Program.cs(15): warning : CA1804 : Microsoft.Performance : 'Foo<T>.SomeMethod()' declares a variable, 'z', of type 'int', which is never used or is only assigned to. Use this variable or remove it.
6>MSBUILD : warning : CF1001 : CustomRules.ThreadSafety : The public Public Field "Tests.Program.Foo" must be preceded of readonly

Here is the rule declaration in the XML file for my rule:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<Rules FriendlyName="CustomRules">
  <Rule TypeName="PublicFieldsMustBeReadonly" Category="CustomRules.ThreadSafety" CheckId="CF1001">
    <Name>Public Fields must be readonly or must be replaced with a Getter/Setter Method.</Name>
    <Description>Public Fields must be readonly or must be replaced with a Getter/Setter Method.</Description>
    <GroupOwner>MyCompany</GroupOwner>
    <DevOwner>Me</DevOwner>
    <Owner>Me</Owner>
    <Url>http://example.com</Url>
    <Resolution>The public Public Field "{0}" must be preceded of readonly</Resolution>
    <Email>my@email.com</Email>
    <MessageLevel Certainty="100">Warning</MessageLevel>
    <FixCategories>Breaking</FixCategories>
  </Rule>
</Rules>

And here is the rule declaration in the XML for Microsoft's rule.

<Rules FriendlyName="Performance Rules">
  <Rule TypeName="RemoveUnusedLocals" Category="Microsoft.Performance" CheckId="CA1804">
    <Name>
      Remove unused locals
    </Name>
    <Description>
      Remove locals that are not used or are only assigned to in method implementations.
    </Description>
    <Url>
      @ms182278(VS.100).aspx
    </Url>
    <Resolution>
      {0} declares a variable, {1}, of type {2}, which is never used or is only assigned to. Use this variable or remove it.
    </Resolution>
    <Email />
    <MessageLevel Certainty="95">
      Warning
    </MessageLevel>
    <FixCategories>
      NonBreaking
    </FixCategories>
    <Owner />
  </Rule>
</Rules>
Kara
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Suzanne Soy
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1 Answers1

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This happens because the rule name (as opposed to its class type name) is not contained in the violation message in the FxCop report generated by the Code Analysis run. In theory, Visual Studio could (and probably should) look for the rule name under the <Rules> node in the report before it starts looking elsewhere. However, it doesn't in VS 2012. Instead, it only gets the rule names from rule information acquired from loaded rule assemblies.

The tricky thing here is that, for UI display purposes, Visual Studio is doing a completely separate search and load of rule assemblies than is done in the Code Analysis runs. The latter is performed by running fxcopcmd.exe with a command line generated off MSBuild properties. The former uses completely separate logic embedded in the Visual Studio plugins for Code Analysis, and it doesn't take the project-level rule locations or ruleset files into account. (It seems to be done via the Microsoft.VisualStudio.CodeAnalysis.ManagedRuleProvider class in the CodeAnalysis.dll assembly, if you're curious about the gory details.)

So... You basically have two choices if you want to see the rule names:

  1. Put your rule assembly in the <VS install directory>\Team Tools\Static Analysis Tools\FxCop\Rules folder so that it gets picked up by Visual Studio.

  2. Add an HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\11.0\Code Analysis\FxCopRulePath registry node (create a new key named Code Analysis, with a space, instead of using the existing CodeAnalysis) with a value like the following to allow both your rules and the built-in rules to have their names displayed: %FxCopDir%\Rules;C:\Foo\Bar\YourRulesFolder

Suzanne Soy
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Nicole Calinoiu
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  • In my case, I used the `.ruleset` file's `RuleHintPaths` tag to give the path to my DLL, but as you say VS's plugin seems to ignore it. Thanks for the answer, even if it's not the one I'd like to see :) . – Suzanne Soy Aug 02 '13 at 13:05
  • Copying the files to `\Team Tools\Static Analysis Tools\FxCop\Rules` but it's suboptimal since we often add or tweak rules. The registry key was absent on my system, so I tried creating it, but it doesn't seem to work. I have a Windows 7 64-bit system, could the key be located somewhere else ? Thanks! – Suzanne Soy Aug 02 '13 at 13:35
  • Did you restart Visual Studio after adding the registry key? Also, did you try to add the FxCopRulePath value under the pre-existing `HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\11.0\CodeAnalysis` key, or did you create a new `Code Analysis` key with a space between the words? (The latter is necessary.) – Nicole Calinoiu Aug 02 '13 at 16:08
  • I hadn't noticed the space in the key's name. Now I use `HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\11.0\Code Analysis\FxCopRulePath`, with a space in `Code Analysis`, and it works. I'm editing your post to tell people to mind the space, it's so easy to miss it when there's already a key named `CodeAnalysis`. Thanks a lot! – Suzanne Soy Aug 13 '13 at 12:44