PHP_CodeSniffer naming conventions?

[donatj]

I'm updating PHP_CodeSniffer this morning and an greated by a wall of

DEPRECATED: The sniff ClassConstantVisibilitySniff does not comply with the PHP_CodeSniffer naming conventions. This will no longer be supported in PHPCS 4.0.
Contact the sniff author to fix the sniff.
DEPRECATED: The sniff IndentedXDocSqlStringSniff does not comply with the PHP_CodeSniffer naming conventions. This will no longer be supported in PHPCS 4.0.
Contact the sniff author to fix the sniff.
DEPRECATED: The sniff MethodAnnotationDocumentationSniff does not comply with the PHP_CodeSniffer naming conventions. This will no longer be supported in PHPCS 4.0.
Contact the sniff author to fix the sniff.
DEPRECATED: The sniff ClosureAnnotationSniff does not comply with the PHP_CodeSniffer naming conventions. This will no longer be supported in PHPCS 4.0.
Contact the sniff author to fix the sniff.

Contact the sniff author to fix the sniff

I am the author. I can't find what these "conventions" are. Are they documented somewhere?

[jrfnl]

@donatj Yes: https://github.com/PHPCSStandards/PHP_CodeSniffer/wiki/About-Standards-for-PHP_CodeSniffer#naming-conventions

[jrfnl]

Just checking @donatj - did the documentation help ? Did you manage to get your standard fixed ?

[donatj]

Out of curiosity, is there a functional benefit that triggered this change?

[jrfnl]

Absolutely. Basically, PHPCS can only do the translation between sniff classes/files and the sniff codes used in rulesets correctly when sniffs comply with the naming conventions. This translation is done in the autoloader.

This also means that setting properties on sniffs which don't comply with the naming conventions, or excluding an error code, may or may not work, which leads to a bad experience for unsuspecting end-users and unnecessary support requests.

The fact that it "sort of worked most of the time" was never by design, but more by accident.

Also see the three issues in which the changes to more strictly enforce the naming conventions were proposed/announced ahead of time:

• 4.0 | Formally stop support for sniffs not complying with the PHPCS naming conventions #689
• 4.0 | Deprecate and remove support for Sniffs not implementing the PHPCS Sniff interface #694
• 4.0 | Deprecate and remove support for Standards called "Internal" #799