Tools that can help with code verification in Android

Question

Are there any good Eclipse tools or plugins that would scan my Android project and identify possible “memory leaks”, susceptible code for “Force closes”, and other general Java and / or Android code standards.

Answer 1

One good tool is the LINT tool, available in the Eclipse + Android-SDK.

http://tools.android.com/tips/lint

Another good find is "FindBugs", which finds Java bugs and offers improvements.

http://findbugs.sourceforge.net/ http://findbugs.cs.umd.edu/eclipse/ 

Is there any other tool you would suggest?

Answer 2

This does not answer the question, but offers an alternative.

In my opinion, Intellij IDEA is better than Eclipse in almost every way. Its "code inspectors" combined with Android Lint and Findbugs are powerful. The way the IDEA locates, reports, and visualizes possible errors, code smells, and refactoring suggestions is excellent. I do not know any development environment that also does the job.

Answer 3

In addition to android-lint , which is already available when installing ADT and detects specific Android problems, I recommend both Findbugs and CodePro Analytix for standard Java code checks.

Answer 4

Force closure is simply any uncaught exception in your code, such as a NullPointerException . You can debug these problems as they arise by reading the output of the stack trace for logcat.

For memory analysis, I suggest you start by viewing “Memory Management for Android Applications” (session from Google I / O 2011) and read satellite blog post Memory Analysis for Android Applications . They provide some useful tips on strategies and tools for debugging memory leaks and other problems.