Why do we detect smells in our code? Because smells impair maintainability of our codebase and by detecting smells we are identifying issues that contribute to technical debt. After the identification, the next logical step is to plan and to refactor the identified smells. So far, you might be exporting the identified smells and tracking them manually. Or even worst, run the analyzer every time just to know where in the codebase the analyzer is reporting smells that you can probably look into.
With version 2.4.0, we are introducing “Action Hub” in Designite – it is your friend when it comes to track, manage, and plan identified smells in a project. When you analyze a project, Designite keeps the analysis report for later use by Action Hub. You may launch Action Hub within Designite to see all the identified smells. You may also filter the smells based on various factors such as smell types (architecture, design, or implementation), smell status (identified, drop, wrong, or refactor), or belonging to a source code element (such as project or namespace).
You can not only see the filtered smells but also change their status. Designite supports the following smell status:
- Identified: All the newly identified smells are tagged as “Identified”.
- Refactor: If you think, you need to refactor the identified smell, you can change the smell status to “refactor”. It is like creating a task list for yourself (or your team).
- Wrong: If you think that the tool has identified the smell wrongly, then you can assign “wrong” status to the smell.
- Drop: There are cases when you know that the smell exists but you cannot refactor it due to various reasons. In such cases, assign the smell “drop” smell status.
The Designite’s Visual Studio extension now supports smell tagging. It implies that you will see an orange rectangle with a red border near the class declaration if the class has one or more design smells. Similarly, method declarations will show the same rectangle when the method has one or more implementation smells. Smell tagging not only flags the source code elements with smells but also allows you to quickly look at the smell details and more importantly allows you to change their status. You only see smells that are either in “identified” or “refactor” status; therefore, if you assign “drop” or “wrong” to a smell, it will not be shown by the smell tagger within Visual Studio.
Download today Designite’s Visual Studio extension or the desktop application and manage your technical debt like a pro!!