java.checkstyle.configuration with url pointing to google checks does not work

[manastalukdar]

CheckStyle: 1.0.3

VSCode and Platform:

Version: 1.37.0-insider (user setup)
Commit: 6d82826e990407364d5c829b73602a19ecdf7d00
Date: 2019-07-26T05:37:26.606Z
Electron: 4.2.7
Chrome: 69.0.3497.128
Node.js: 10.11.0
V8: 6.9.427.31-electron.0
OS: Windows_NT x64 10.0.18362

As per the documentation java.checkstyle.configuration supports URLs.

Setting:

"java.checkstyle.configuration": "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/checkstyle/checkstyle/master/src/main/resources/google_checks.xml"

This results in the following CheckStyle error (formatted for readability):

{"message":"cannot initialize module TreeWalker - cannot initialize module InvalidJavadocPosition - Unable to instantiate 'InvalidJavadocPosition' class, it is also not possible to instantiate it as .InvalidJavadocPosition, InvalidJavadocPositionCheck, .InvalidJavadocPositionCheck.
Please recheck that class name is specified as canonical name or read how to configure short name usage https://checkstyle.org/config.html#Packages. Please also recheck that provided ClassLoader to Checker is configured correctly."}

[jdneo]

Seems that the embedded checkstyle version needs to be upgraded.

[jdneo]

Hi @manastalukdar,

The root cause is that CheckStyle has some breaking changes from 8.18 to 8.23.

The workaround is to change the URL to: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/checkstyle/checkstyle/checkstyle-8.18/src/main/resources/google_checks.xml

[manastalukdar]

@jdneo Thanks. Is this extension going to support CheckStyle v8.23 at some point?

[jdneo]

@manastalukdar I'm still considering the best way to solve this problem. Since using 8.23 will break some previous rules as well.

A better solution might be allowing users to config the version by himself, just as this issue says: #172

[jdneo]

@manastalukdar we have added the support to dynamically select Checkstyle version. Please wait for the next release, which will be shipped recently.