Configure Sonar for multi-modules Grails project

For some times I’ve been strugling to configure Sonar to analyze a multi-modules Grails project. The project is composed of a main project which includes many plugins. Each plugin being a Grails plugin by its own with all the Groovy, Java and Web (GSP, js, SASS, …) code.

Configuration

This article describes how to run a Sonar analysis on a multi-languages Grails project (Groovy, Java and JavaScript) composed by many plugins. It requires SonarQube 4.2 as the multi-language analysis has been introduced in this release.

Sonar offers different ways of running an analysis, the only one I used are the standalone Sonar Runner and the Maven plugin. Since the Grails project are not mavenized, I chose to got with the standalone SonarRunner, but I put the Maven configuration for information.

Sonar Runner

Using Sonar Runner you only need to create a sonar-project.properties defining the project and the modules. By not specifying a language, Sonar Runner will verify all possible languages (depending on the plugins installed on your SonarQube server).

Following is the content for a multi-modules / multi-languages Grails project:

sonar.projectKey = fr.mkhelif:Project
sonar.projectName = Project
sonar.projectVersion = 1.0
sonar.modules = application, plugin1, plugin2
sonar.sources = src/groovy, src/java, grails-app, web-app 

application.sonar.projectName = Application
application.sonar.projectBaseDir = application
application.sonar.sources = ${sonar.sources}

plugin1.sonar.projectName = Plugin1
plugin1.sonar.projectBaseDir = plugin1
plugin1.sonar.sources = ${sonar.sources}

plugin2.sonar.projectName = Plugin2
plugin2.sonar.projectBaseDir = plugin2
plugin2.sonar.sources = ${sonar.sources}

Maven

If your Grails project is mavenized, then just add the following configuration (untested) to your parent pom:

<properties>
    <sonar.projectKey>fr.mkhelif:Project</sonar.projectKey>
    <sonar.projectName>Project</sonar.projectName>
    <sonar.projectVersion>${project.version}</sonar.projectVersion>
    <sonar.modules>application, plugin1, plugin2</sonar.modules>
    <sonar.sources>src/groovy, src/java, grails-app, web-app</sonar.sources>

    <application.sonar.projectName>Application</application.sonar.projectName>
    <application.sonar.projectBaseDir>application</application.sonar.projectBaseDir>
    <application.sonar.sources>src/groovy, src/java, grails-app, web-app</application.sonar.sources>

    <plugin1.sonar.projectName>Plugin1</plugin1.sonar.projectName>
    <plugin1.sonar.projectBaseDir>plugin1</plugin1.sonar.projectBaseDir>
    <plugin1.sonar.sources>src/groovy, src/java, grails-app, web-app</plugin1.sonar.sources>

    <plugin2.sonar.projectName>Plugin2</plugin2.sonar.projectName>
    <plugin2.sonar.projectBaseDir>plugin2</plugin2.sonar.projectBaseDir>
    <plugin2.sonar.sources>src/groovy, src/java, grails-app, web-app</plugin2.sonar.sources>
</properties>

And then run the Sonar Maven runner as usual:

mvn clean package
mvn sonar

Results

The results of the analysis can be seen in Sonar in your project with the configured modules. You can access individual modules by going to the Components menu in Sonar application.