How to Migrate From PHP_CodeSniffer to ECS in 7 Steps

ECS is a PHP CLI tool that combines PHP_CodeSniffer and PHP CS Fixer. It's easy to use from scratch:

composer require symplify/easy-coding-standard --dev

ECS uses simple PHP config format:

// ecs.php
use Symplify\EasyCodingStandard\Config\ECSConfig;

return ECSConfig::configure()
    ->withPaths([__DIR__ . '/src');
    ->withPreparedSets(psr12: true);

And runs as CLI command:

vendor/bin/ecs

Do you already have PHP_CodeSniffer on your project and want to switch? Let's jump right into it:

1. From String Codes to Autocompleted Classes

You probably use string references to sniffs in your *.xml configuration for PHP_CodeSniffer. You need to remember them, copy paste them and copy-paste them right.

<!-- phpcs.xml -->
<rule ref="Generic.Commenting.DocComment"/>

That can actually cause typos like:

-<rule ref="Generic.Commenting.DocComment"/>
+<rule ref="Generic.Commenting.DocComment"/>

How to do that in EasyCodingStandard? Copy paste the last name DocComment and add rule in set() method. Hit CTRL + Space and PHPStorm will autocomplete class for you:

// ecs.php
use Symplify\EasyCodingStandard\Config\ECSConfig;
use PHP_CodeSniffer\Standards\Generic\Sniffs\Commenting\DocCommentSniff::class;

return ECSConfig::configure()
    ->withRules([
        DocCommentSniff::class
    ]);

No more typos with strong over string typing.

2. From @codingStandardsIgnoreStart to withSkip() Method

If you'd like to skip some code from being analyzed, you'd use @codingStandardsIgnoreStart in PHP_CodeSniffer.

#  packages/framework/src/Component/Constraints/EmailValidator.php

private function isEmail($value)
{
    // @codingStandardsIgnoreStart
    $atom = "[-a-z0-9!#$%&'*+/=?^_`{|}~]"; // RFC 5322 unquoted characters in local-part
    // @codingStandardsIgnoreEnd
}

One big cons of this is that all sniffs will skip this code, not just one. So even if here we need to only allow double quotes ", all other checks will miss it.

In ECS put this into withSkip() method:

// ecs.php
use Symplify\EasyCodingStandard\Config\ECSConfig;
use PHP_CodeSniffer\Standards\Squiz\Sniffs\Strings\DoubleQuoteUsageSniff;

return ECSConfig::configure()
    ->withSkip([
        DoubleQuoteUsageSniff::class => [
            __DIR__ . '/src/Component/Constraints/EmailValidator.php',

            // or whole directory
            __DIR__ . '/packages/framework/src/Component',

            // or for mask directory
            __DIR__ . '/packages/*/src/Component',
        ]
    ]);

3. From <severity>0</severity> and <exclude name="..."> to skip Parameter

Do you need to skip only 1 part of the sniff? In PHP_CodeSniffer:

<rule ref="Generic.Commenting.DocComment.ContentAfterOpen">
    <severity>0</severity>
</rule>

or

<rule ref="Generic.Commenting.DocComment">
    <exclude name="Generic.Commenting.DocComment.ContentAfterOpen"/>
</rule>

In ECS, we put that again under skip() parameter in format <Sniff>.<CodeName>:

// ecs.php
use Symplify\EasyCodingStandard\Config\ECSConfig;
use PHP_CodeSniffer\Standards\Generic\Sniffs\Commenting\DocCommentSniff;

return ECSConfig::configure()
    ->withSkip([
        DocCommentSniff::class . '.ContentAfterOpen'
    ]);

Check README for more options to use in skip.

Do you skip the whole sniff?

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<ruleset name="ruleset">
    <rule ref="Generic.Commenting.DocComment">
        <severity>0</severity>
    </rule>

    <!-- or -->

    <rule ref="ruleset.xml">
        <exclude name="Generic.Commenting.DocComment"/>
    </rule>
</ruleset>

Put it under withSkip() method:

// ecs.php
use Symplify\EasyCodingStandard\Config\ECSConfig;
use PHP_CodeSniffer\Standards\Generic\Sniffs\Commenting\DocCommentSniff;

return ECSConfig::configure()
    ->withSkip([
        DocCommentSniff::class,
    ]);

4. From XML to PHP Config Paths

These names are looked for in the root directory by PHP_CodeSniffer:

• .phpcs.xml
• phpcs.xml
• .phpcs.xml.dist
• phpcs.xml.dist

In ECS we use single ecs.php file

What about non-default locations or names?

From:

vendor/bin/phpcs /path/to/project --standard=custom/location.xml

to:

vendor/bin/ecs check /path/to/project --config custom/location.php

5. Configuring Sniff Values

From XML configuration in PHP_CodeSniffer:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<ruleset name="ruleset">
    <rule ref="Generic.Metrics.CyclomaticComplexity">
        <properties>
            <property name="complexity" value="13"/>
        </properties>
    </rule>
</ruleset>

to withConfiguredRule() method in ECS:

// ecs.php
use Symplify\EasyCodingStandard\Config\ECSConfig;
use PHP_CodeSniffer\Standards\Generic\Sniffs\Metrics\CyclomaticComplexitySniff;

return ECSConfig::configure()
    ->withConfiguredRule(CyclomaticComplexitySniff::class, [
        'complexity' => 13,
    ]);

6. From Severity and Warning to Just Errors

There are different levels in PHP_CodeSniffer. You can set severity, make sniff report as warning or as an error.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<ruleset name="ruleset">
    <rule ref="Generic.Commenting.DocComment">
        <severity>5</severity>
    </rule>
</ruleset>

This complex matrix leveling lead to confused questions for many people:

• Is it a warning or is an accepted error?
• What is this warning even active when it doesn't fail CI?
• Why do we have an accepted error - is it like the tests that are allowed to fail?

And so on.

Thus these confusing options are not supported and EasyCodingStandard simplifies that to errors only CI server either passes or not. The rule is required and respected or removed. Simple, clear and without any confusion.

Saying that you don't need to fill values for warning properties.

7. From Beautifier to --fix option

Do you need to fix the code? From 2 commands in PHP_CodeSniffer:

vendor/bin/phpcs /path/to/project
vendor/bin/phpcbf /path/to/project

...to 1 in ECS:

vendor/bin/ecs check /path/to/project
vendor/bin/ecs check /path/to/project --fix

That's it!

Happy coding!