Want to reduce bugs in your JavaScript code?
Use jshint to automatically check your JavaScript code.
- To make your code consistently awesome.
- Ensure that everyone on your team writes similar (maintainable) code
- See immediately if code (quality) gets worse (and remedy it!)
If you have writen JavaScript code professionally you will know about The Good Parts by Douglas Crockford.
To encourage people to only use the predictable & well behaved ("good")
parts of JS
Crockford developed the
JSLint code quality tool.
However ... many developers find Crockford's JSLint to be too restrictive and "opinionated"
Read the discussion on StackOverflow:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/6803305/should-i-use-jslint-or-jshint-javascript-validation
And so JSHint was Born! A fork from JSLint, JShint allows developers to be more pragmatic about which rules they follow by allowing us to define our own set of rules (see below)
For a more detailed introduction to JSHint: http://jshint.com/about
You can simply paste your code into the input area on http://jshint.com/ But that gets tedious after a few goes. You need a more robust (and automatic) way of checking your code e.g. every time you save.
Docs: http://www.jshint.com/docs/
Install the jshint node.js module:
npm intstall jshint -g
Run the command:
jshint(this runs the jshint command over all the files in the current working directory)
Want to use a specific configuration file and exlude everything in your .gitignore file?
jshint -c .jshintrc --exclude-path .gitignore .
Pre-commit Hooks prevent people from commiting un-linted code! So sloppy code never leaves the lazy developer's machine and your Git repo is always clean & tidy!
This deserved its own tutorial: https://github.com/nelsonic/learn-pre-commit
Atom Editor Linter Plugin
Once you have made the switch to Atom Editor you can
install the Linter Plugin by opening your
preferences
(Click: Atom > Preferences or ⌘ + ,)
Once the plugin has installed click on settings
In addition to the linter you need to select the language you want
Atom to lint.
In our case its JavaScript so in the packages interface search for:
linter-jshint
Now when ever your code has issues you will see a "dot" on the line. Simply correct it and continue coding! :-)
Brackets Editor
If you use the open source Adobe Brackets text editor, you can install JSHint
by going into Extensions Manager
on the top right hand side, and search for JSHint
This will show you hints at the bottom of the editor but you can go one step further!
You can install another pluging called Interactive Linter
This will show lightbulbs next to any errors you make!
If you are still using SublimeText there is a good JSHint package you can use.
Install Package Control (if you don't already have it)
https://sublime.wbond.net/installation#st2
[ follow their installation instructions ]
Next install SublimeLinter https://github.com/SublimeLinter/SublimeLinter
Inside SublimeText click: Tools > Command Palette
Type (or paste): Package Control: Install Package
into the Command Palette and wait for SublimeText
to update the list of packages.
Now you can paste: SublimeLinter into the Command Palette to install the Linter.
See: http://github.eclipsesource.com/jshint-eclipse/install.html and https://github.com/angelozerr/tern.java/wiki/Tern-Linter
See: http://blog.jetbrains.com/idea/2012/05/lint-your-javascript-with-jslintjshint-in-real-time/
Next create a file called .jshintrc in your project directory and paste this sample configuration.
{
"curly": true,
"eqeqeq": true
}
- curly enforces that all code blocks should always be surrounded with curly braces.
- eqeqeq prohibits the use of == and !=, instead developers should use === and !==
For the full list of JSHint options see: http://www.jshint.com/docs/options/
If you are using Jasmine or Mocha testing framework you may see this warnings:
test/foo.test.js: line 10, col 1, 'describe' is not defined.
test/foo.test.js: line 12, col 5, 'before' is not defined.
test/foo.test.js: line 25, col 5, 'it' is not defined.
test/foo.test.js: line 43, col 5, 'beforeEach' is not defined.
test/foo.test.js: line 54, col 5, 'after' is not defined.
test/foo.test.js: line 83, col 5, 'afterEach' is not defined.
This means you need to let JSHint know about your testing enviorment. In order to do so add to your .jshintrc file:
{
"mocha": true,
"jasmine": true
}
now create your JS file example.js and paste in some un-linted code:
var test = true;
if(test == true){
console.log("JSHint Should Flag this double equals...")
}
if(test === false)
console.log('and it should spot the lack of curly braces here...')You should expect to see something like this:
Notice how lines 2, 3 and 7 have a red circle with an exclamation mark in them? These are JSHint warnings because the code does not conform to the definitions we set in our .jshintrc file above. Namely there is a == on line 2 and the second conditional (if) statmente is not wrapped in curly braces.
Additionally line 3 is flagged because it does not end with a semicolon.
We can easily fix the code:
var test = true;
if(test === true) {
console.log("JSHint Should Flag this double equals...");
}
if(test === false) {
console.log('and it should spot the lack of curly braces here...');
}Now SublimeLinter will no longer display any errors:
Now you know how to use jshint. Go forth and make your JavaScript Awesome! :-)
- Full List of JSHint Options: http://www.jshint.com/docs/options/
- JSHint Strict Edition: https://gist.github.com/haschek/2595796
- How to use jslint in node.js projects: https://coderwall.com/p/-h1h1w
- http://blog.teamtreehouse.com/improving-code-quality-jshint
To confirm that your code quality is consistent, and track quality over time, add CodeClimate to your project: https://codeclimate.com/tour/trends free for Open Source GitHub projects
