Code Analysis: check if a String parameter of a given function is available in a *.properties file

Question

Consider the Java code:

ReadProperty.get("info")

And a my_stettings.properties file:

info=Lorem ipsum
server=computer01

I was wondering if it is possible to use a code analysis tool (Checkstyle, FindBugs, PMD...) to check if the String parameter of my get() method is available in the my_stettings.properties file.

ReadProperty.get("servers") //should produce a warning
ReadProperty.get("server") //is OK

Have you some inputs on how I can achieve this?

Answer 1

I don't know any existing tool for doing this. However there are patterns used on the android platform which could be used for your problem, in this case the R resource class pattern which generates a class from property files. So the file my_stettings.properties:

info=Lorem ipsum
server=computer01

should lead to a class like

public final class R {
    public static final int info=1;
    public static final int server=1;
}

In this case you would use it with

ReadProperty.get(R.info);

which would not compile if the attribute is not available.

• This answer here https://stackoverflow.com/a/3004518/734687 generates an enum which is almost the same.
• This answer here https://stackoverflow.com/a/1578106/734687 uses an interface to access the values.
• This question here Tool for checking Java resource bundles (i18n) asks also for tools and provides a link to http://rscbundlecheck.sourceforge.net/. A German blog entry describes the usage here: http://www.catalysts.cc/wissenswertes/resourcebundle-checking/
• Maven Resource Bundle Check Plugin runs some sanity checks on your resource files, see http://labs.consol.de/projects/maven/maven-rbc-plugin/
• Compiler Assisted Localization provides a compile time check, see http://cal10n.qos.ch/

Answer 2

I don't think that this is possible or would worth it to develop this functionality.

ReadProperty.get() should return with null or throw an exception (an IllegalArgumentException, for example) if the key is not exist in the properties file and unit tests should check that clients of the ReadProperty works well (handles null return values properly, for example).