PDE/API Tools/Migration IDE Integration

Integration of Use and Migration Scans {bug|310547}

The 3.6 API tools have support for usage scanning - allowing adopters to provide scans back to you on what API and internal code they're using. As far as I can tell, these tools are currently command-line and there is no support for using the reports within the IDE.

I'm opening this enhancement to request IDE support - being able to point to a number of scans, have it show you which classes and methods are being used, and the ability to flag errors when usage is broken (i.e. when you don't want to break adopters within a service release, no matter how much internal code they used).

Main Components

UI for managing scans

- Preference page

Backend for managing scans

- Store in metadata? - Needs to be more efficient than separate xml files

Incremental Builder

- Add to the existing API Tooling incremental builder - Compare current type against use scan and return breakage

Marker Management

- Create markers for usage breaking changes - Clean stale markers when content or use scans change - Needs new error level settings

Performance

- Must have no impact when off (check error level settings at start) - Use LRU caches as scan cannot be loaded into memory - Full builds must be possible

Tests

- Complete test suite for incremental builder - Enhance the performance tests

Additional Enhancements

Annotate method/type usage in editors

- When editor is open, methods/types being used are annotated

Support multiple scans

- Compare against all of them

Use Scan Updating

- Support for recognizing when a newer use scan is available