Sonar 3.0 Delivers Recent Code Quality Detection and New Supported Editions Available

SonarSource has today announced a major new version of its platform for continuous inspection of code quality. Sonar 3.0 is the most stable and complete release to date, focused on taking ongoing code-quality management to the enterprise. Extended functionality includes real-time detection of quality issues introduced with new code and a related review process as well as personalized dashboards configurable through widgets. SonarSource now offers supported commercial editions with added functionality and a new plugin which allows identification of each developer's contribution.

SonarSource, the creator of Sonar, the open source platform for continuous inspection of code quality, has announced the immediate availability of Sonar 3.0, supported editions and the Developer Cockpit plugin, at Devoxx France, a conference for Java developers currently taking place in Paris.

Sonar 3.0: Mature Platform for Continuous Code Quality Management

Version 3.0 of the Sonar platform includes 40 improvements and just as many bug fixes while maintaining compatibility with over 50 plugins. All these plugins will benefit from the following enhancements to the base functionality:

• Recent quality violations: This extended feature enables software development teams to identify quality issues introduced with recent code commits. Thus, it minimizes time spent on code quality management especially for teams following an agile development approach, who can now easily spot the difference in quality between existing and new code in real-time, for example during Sprints.
  
• Test coverage of new code: In Sonar 3.0, developers can also measure Unit Test coverage of recent changes to the code, by analyzing how well new lines of code are being tested on top of the overall tests. This feature is helpful when enforcing Unit Test practices on legacy projects.
  
• Integrated review process: An effective code review workflow now exists in Sonar 3.0 to take control of newly introduced quality issues. It allows users to combine manual code reviews, action plans, analysis of quality violations plus email notifications. This workflow is also available in the latest version of the Sonar plugin for the Eclipse IDE.
  
• Dashboard widgets: Each user of Sonar can now create a personalized Web dashboard across all components, which provides them with a unified individual view of the health and status of managed software projects. The new widgets allow development teams to work more efficiently with Sonar.
  
• Cross-project copy&paste detection: Sonar already allowed developers to detect duplicate code within single projects. With Sonar 3.0 this can also be done in all covered programming languages and for each language across multiple projects, thus simplifying maintenance of code by avoiding doing the same fixes twice and reducing the overall amount of code to be maintained.
  
• LDAP-based authorization: A new security feature allows LDAP to be used with Sonar for authorization and authentication, which is especially useful for large development teams and saves administration cost.

“We started 9 months ago with a series of releases that lead us to the very mature version of Sonar released today.”, says Freddy Mallet, Product Director and Co-founder, SonarSource. “I am really delighted that we have taken this last iteration to provide a stable and feature-complete platform for organizations to fully adopt code quality management as a best practice.”

Editions: Vendor-Supported Products with Added Functionality

With Sonar 3.0, SonarSource has also introduced Professional and Enterprise Editions. These new products include the Sonar platform plus vendor support, maintenance guarantees and all the plugins needed by enterprises to get started immediately. SonarSource is also providing consulting services to optimally tie Sonar’s functionality with the IT department’s business processes.

“The SonarSource Editions cater to two market trends. First, code quality management is becoming a standard procedure in IT. Second, we see tremendous adoption of Sonar by enterprises with a large number of developers.”, says Olivier Gaudin, CEO and Co-founder, SonarSource, “Along with a highly mature product, corporations request support from us and additional functionality to increase efficiency during implementation and maximize the return on investment. The two SonarSource Editions are a direct result of our customers’ feedback, providing long-term support, simplifying maintenance with less upgrades, and providing all the functionality they need at a very competitive price.”

Developer Cockpit: Providing a View on Each Developer’s Contribution

The new commercial Developer Cockpit plugin released alongside Sonar 3.0 takes the platform’s unique continuous inspection approach one step further. Previous versions of Sonar have enabled software architects and managers to assess code quality per software project to gain a high- and low-level overview. In addition to that, the new version fully engages each developer by allowing them to identify their individual contribution.

By adding a bottom-up approach towards continuous inspection, the new Developer Cockpit plugin empowers developers to monitor how they help to resolve code quality issues. Thus, it raises adoption of Sonar among development teams and fosters best practices in code quality self-management.

Price and Availability

Version 3.0 of the open-source Sonar platform is available for download immediately. Pricing for the editions starts at € 12,500 for the Professional Edition and € 50,000 for the Enterprise Edition. Both editions include additional features as well as service and support from the vendor.

Find more information about Sonar 3.0, the editions or the Developer Cockpit plugin at www.sonarsource.com/3-0.