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diff --git a/doc/user/project/merge_requests/code_quality.md b/doc/user/project/merge_requests/code_quality.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000000..e6811b5df5e --- /dev/null +++ b/doc/user/project/merge_requests/code_quality.md @@ -0,0 +1,82 @@ +# Code Quality **[STARTER]** + +> [Introduced](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ee/merge_requests/1984) +in [GitLab Starter](https://about.gitlab.com/pricing/) 9.3. + +## Overview + +If you are using [GitLab CI/CD](../../../ci/README.md), you can analyze your +source code quality using GitLab Code Quality. +Code Quality uses [Code Climate Engines](https://codeclimate.com), which are +free and open source. Code Quality doesn’t require a Code Climate subscription. + +Going a step further, GitLab can show the Code Quality report right +in the merge request widget area: + + + +## Use cases + +For instance, consider the following workflow: + +1. Your backend team member starts a new implementation for making certain feature in your app faster +1. With Code Quality reports, they analyze how their implementation is impacting the code quality +1. The metrics show that their code degrade the quality in 10 points +1. You ask a co-worker to help them with this modification +1. They both work on the changes until Code Quality report displays no degradations, only improvements +1. You approve the merge request and authorize its deployment to staging +1. Once verified, their changes are deployed to production + +## How it works + +First of all, you need to define a job in your `.gitlab-ci.yml` file that generates the +[Code Quality report artifact](../../../ci/yaml/README.md#artifactsreportscodequality-starter). + +The Code Quality report artifact is a subset of the +[Code Climate spec](https://github.com/codeclimate/spec/blob/master/SPEC.md#data-types). +It must be a JSON file containing an array of objects with the following properties: + +| Name | Description | +| ---------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | +| `description` | A description of the code quality violation. | +| `fingerprint` | A unique fingerprint to identify the code quality violation. For example, an MD5 hash. | +| `location.path` | The relative path to the file containing the code quality violation. | +| `location.lines.begin` | The line on which the code quality violation occurred. | + +Example: + +```json +[ + { + "description": "'unused' is assigned a value but never used.", + "fingerprint": "7815696ecbf1c96e6894b779456d330e", + "location": { + "path": "lib/index.js", + "lines": { + "begin": 42 + } + } + } +] +``` + +NOTE: **Note:** +Although the Code Climate spec supports more properties, those are ignored by GitLab. + +For more information on how the Code Quality job should look like, check the +example on [analyzing a project's code quality](../../../ci/examples/code_quality.md). + +GitLab then checks this report, compares the metrics between the source and target +branches, and shows the information right on the merge request. + +CAUTION: **Caution:** +If multiple jobs in a pipeline generate a code quality artifact, only the artifact from +the last created job (the job with the largest job ID) is used. To avoid confusion, +configure only one job to generate a code quality artifact. + +NOTE: **Note:** +If the Code Quality report doesn't have anything to compare to, no information +will be displayed in the merge request area. That is the case when you add the +Code Quality job in your `.gitlab-ci.yml` for the very first time. +Consecutive merge requests will have something to compare to and the Code Quality +report will be shown properly. |