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PHP Mess Detector

Last modified: 22 January 2025

In addition to built-in coding assistance, PhpStorm provides checking the source code through integration with the PHP Mess Detector tool, which detects potential problems related to code size, inconsistency, unused code, violation of naming conventions, poor design, and so on.

To use PHP Mess Detector from PhpStorm instead of command line, you need to register it in PhpStorm and configure it as a PhpStorm code inspection. Once installed and enabled in PhpStorm, the tool is available in any opened PHP file, and no additional steps are required to launch it. The on-the-fly code check is activated upon every update in the file thus making it easy to get rid of discovered problems.

Errors and warnings reported by PHP Mess Detector on the fly are highlighted in the editor in the same way as errors and warnings from PhpStorm's internal code inspections. When the tool is run in batch mode, the errors and warnings are displayed in the Problems tool window. Each message has the phpmd prefix to distinguish it from PhpStorm internal inspections.

You can have predefined rules applied or define your own custom set of rules.