Introduction

JSLint is a lint-like tool for JavaScript files. It finds problematic constructs and warns you about them.

jslint4java wraps it, so it's callable from Java. In addition, it provides an ant task so that it can be invoked automatically as part of your build procedure. For more detail on precisely what is checked, please see the original documentation.

Presently, jslint4java requires Java 5 and ant 1.6.5.

Parameters

The valid list of options is defined by the Option enum, and comprises of:

• adsafe – If use of some browser features should be restricted
• bitwise – If bitwise operators should not be allowed
• browser – If the standard browser globals should be predefined
• cap – If upper case html should be allowed
• debug – If debugger statements should be allowed
• eqeqeq – If === should be required
• evil – If eval should be allowed
• fragment – If html fragments should be allowed
• laxbreak – If line breaks should not be checked
• nomen – If names should be checked
• onevar — If only one var statement per function should be allowed
• passfail – If the scan should stop on first error
• plusplus – If increment/decrement should not be allowed
• regexp — If the . should not be allowed in regexp literals
• rhino – If the rhino environment globals should be predefined
• safe — If use of some browser features should be restricted
• sidebar — If the system object should be predefined
• strict — Require the \"use strict\"; pragma
• sub — If all forms of subscript notation are tolerated
• undef – If undefined variables are errors
• white – If strict whitespace rules apply
• widget – If the yahoo widgets globals should be predefined

Parameters specified as nested elements

fileset

One or more filesets may be specified in order to identify javascript files to check. This uses the standard ant fileset data type.

formatter

Zero or more formatter elements may be specified in order to control output from jslint. Each formatter element has two attributes.

If no formatter elements are present, then no output will be produced. However, the build will still fail if the validation fails.

Examples

First, you need to define the task in your build file.

  <taskdef name="jslint"
             classname="net.happygiraffe.jslint.ant.JSLintTask"
             classpath="/path/to/jslint4java-1.2+rhino.jar" />

If you already have rhino in your classpath, you may use the jslint4java-1.2.jar instead.

You may also use the antlibs facility to pull in JSLint.

  <project xmlns:jsl="antlib:net.happygiraffe.jslint">
    …
  </project>

Doing so will require you to access the jslint task as jsl:jslint.

To check a directory for all .js files, and emit all errors to the console:

  <jslint>
    <formatter type="plain" />
    <fileset dir="web/js" includes="*.js" />
  </jslint>

To check a directory for all .js files, excluding packed files. Send any problems to a file jslint.out.

  <jslint>
    <formatter type="plain" destfile="${build.dir}/jslint.out" />
    <fileset dir="web/js" includes="**/*.js" excludes="**/*.pack.js" />
  </jslint>

To check a directory of JavaScript files, whilst warning about whitespace issues and undefined variables. Send the errors to the console, and also emit an XML report to the build directory.

  <jslint options="undef,white">
    <formatter type="plain" />
    <formatter type="xml" destfile="${build.dir}/jslint.xml" />
    <fileset dir="web/js" includes="**/*.js" excludes="**/*.pack.js" />
  </jslint>