Running JSLint through JSLint4Java

Note: this post assumes you already have a version of Java installed on your OS. If not, refer to this post for how to get it.

JSLint4Java is a Jar that allows us to run JSLint & output the results.

Installation

Get the latest JSLint4Java. Make sure you download a file that ends .dist.zip as those ending in .src.zip are the source files for development, not end users.

Unzip the downloaded file and store the resulting folder in a sensible location (like C:\Program Files\Java if Windows, or /usr/local/bin if Mac). It doesn't matter where it goes, just that you know the path to that location as you'll need it later on.

Inside the folder you'll find a jar file that's pretty clearly named, for example jslint4java-2.0.0.jar. This is the JSLint4Java jar file you'll be using.

Get the latest version of JSLint. (Usually saved as jslint.js.) If you have a version you are required to use, you can substitute it for jslint.js.

Running JSLint4Java

This is fairly simple but, in my opinion, made difficult by not being documented very well on JSLint4Java's Google code page. If you're like me and want to run it from the command line before you go plugging it into any CI, doing this is not well explained.

To use it in this way you will always be running it like this:

java -jar [path to jslint4java jar file] [options] [file to validate]

So the only bits of this that vary are the options and the file to validate. To see which options are available, run one of these 2 commands:

Windows

java -jar jslint4java-2.0.0.jar --help

Mac

man jslint4java-2.0.0.jar

Core options

Most of the options are duplicates of the JSLint ones with a few important exceptions.

Setting jslint version

The --jslint option allows you to specify the jslint.js file to use:

java -jar jslint4java-2.0.0.jar --jslint jslint.js

Controlling output

The --report option allows you to specify the format the results are in. The options are:

• plain (plain text output)
• xml
• junit (in junit xml)
• checkstyle (in checkstyle xml)
• report (in HTML)

Basic usage is typically like this:

java -jar jslint4java-2.0.0.jar --report xml

This is usually only useful if you can send the output to a file. This is done like so (assuming the output file is in the same folder as jslint4java-2.0.0.jar):

Windows

java -jar jslint4java-2.0.0.jar --report xml > results.xml

Mac

java -jar jslint4java-2.0.0.jar --report xml | results.xml