How to install Sonar ?

What is Sonar?

Sonar is an Open Source Software Quality platform. It uses various static code analysis tools such as Checkstyle, PMD, FindBugs to extract software metrics, which then can be used to improve software quality.

It covers the 7 axes of code quality:

See List of Static Code Analysis Tools: 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tools_for_static_code_analysis#Java

How to install Sonar?

Step 1 – Install Sonar

Download the latest distribution from http://sonar.codehaus.org/downloads/ and extract the zip file in some folder (say D:\Sonar3).

Step 2 - Configure Database

If you do not use the default embedded Derby database, you need to edit D:\Sonar3\conf\sonar.properties file to configure the database access. Templates are available for every supported database. Just uncomment them and comment the first four lines dedicated to Derby database.

• sonar.jdbc.url : the URL of the database
• sonar.jdbc.driver : the class of the driver
• sonar.jdbc.user : the username (default value is 'sonar')
• sonar.jdbc.password : the password (default value is 'sonar')

Example for MySQL :
#sonar.jdbc.url: jdbc:derby://localhost:1527/sonar;create=true
#sonar.jdbc.driverClassName: org.apache.derby.jdbc.ClientDriver
#sonar.jdbc.defaultTransactionIsolation: 1
#sonar.jdbc.validationQuery: values(1)

 

sonar.jdbc.url:  jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/sonardb?useUnicode=true&characterEncoding=utf8
sonar.jdbc.driverClassName: com.mysql.jdbc.Driver
sonar.jdbc.validationQuery: select 1

sonar.jdbc.user : root

sonar.jdbc.password: root

Step 3 - Create Database

Now, create a database name sonardb, which we had configured in sonar.properties file. And grant all privileges to user (root) created.

Step 4 - Start server

The default listen port is 9000, the default context path is / and Sonar listens by default to all network interfaces: '0.0.0.0'. Once launched, the Sonar web server is available on http://localhost:9000. 

Parameters can be changed into the file conf/sonar.properties. Here is an example to listen to http://localhost:9091/sonar:

Uncomment and edit the below lines as follows:

sonar.web.host : 192.168.181.1

sonar.web.port: 9091

sonar.web.context: /sonar

Now, execute the following script depending on your Operating System (32-bit / 64-bit) to start the server:

D:\Sonar3\bin\windows-x86-32\StartSonar.bat

Wait for some time (30-40 seconds) and check the log in console: 

 

Hit on your browser http://localhost:9000 or http://192.168.181.1:9091/sonar/ (if you have modified the sonar.web.xxxx parameters). You will see the following screen.