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LibComp: An IntelliJ IDE Plugin for Java Library Metric Comparison

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Xiaole Zeng (Charlotte) edited this page Apr 30, 2021 · 3 revisions

Installing LibComp:

  1. Download the file Library_Comparison-1.0.10.zip, copy the path to the location where you saved this file onto your clipboard

  2. Open your IntelliJ IDE and click File > settings (make sure your IDE version is updated to 2020)

  3. A popup should appear, click on plugins at the left, then on the gear icon at the top, then on install plugin from disk

  4. Another popup should appear, paste the path to the .zip file from your clipboard and click ok

  5. Restart the IntelliJ IDE, the plugin should now be installed!

How to Use LibComp:

  • Right-click on the java file you want our plugin to analyze (or on your build.gradle file), all the libraries we have information on will be highlighted in pink

  • If you want to compare a specific library package (only valid for the ones highlighted in pink), right click on the import statement and click Library Comparison

  • A dialogue will now pop up with all alternative libraries. We provide the ability to sort by any chosen metric (in ascending or descending order) and there are trends shown in graphs.

  • To replace a library package, select the relevant column and click replace. Otherwise, click cancel. Note that you cannot replace a library with itself.

Sending Us Feedback:

To help us understand the types of users and projects LibComp is most relevant to, we have set up a feedback collection system. To be a part of this, follow these steps:

  1. Navigate to Tools > LibComp > User Profile.

  2. Fill in the form and click the update button. Congratulations, you have just created a user profile! (You are free to update your profile at any point).

  3. Navigate to Tools > LibComp > Send Us Your Feedback.

  4. Here is where you can check the relevant boxes to confirm that you are giving consent for your tracked plugin usage to be sent to our central database on the SMR server. You also have the option to send a feedback comment and/or rate the plugin from 1 (worst) to 5 (best) and send this to our database. Whenever you wish to send your information, click Update library interaction data.

  5. We will not be saving any feedback data to our central database unless you explicitly allow it.

Running LibComp Locally:

  1. Clone the repository

  2. Open the project PluginCode in your IntelliJ IDE

  3. Compile and run the plugin (you will have the option to select a project to open on a new IDE instance where the plugin will be running)

Publishing a New Version of LibComp:

To publish a new version of LibComp, follow these steps

  1. Ensure the plugin runs with no errors before attempting to publish, also ensure that the IntelliJ version number is correct in the build.gradle file

  2. Increment the version number of the plugin in the build.gradle and plugin.xml files (For example, version 1.07 becomes 1.08)

  3. Click Run then publishPlugin

  4. A new version of the plugin will be generated as a .zip file. This .zip file will be located in LibCompPlugin\PluginCode\build\distributions relative to the root of this repository.

Contributors

  • Rehab El-hajj (relhajj at ualberta dot ca)
  • Sarah Nadi (nadi at ualberta dot ca)
  • Xiaole Zeng (xiaole2 at ualberta dot ca)
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