Added

• New WordPress.PHP.TypeCasts sniff to the WordPress-Core ruleset. This new sniff checks that PHP type casts are:
  • lowercase;
  • short form, i.e. (bool) not (boolean);
  • normalized, i.e. (float) not (real). Additionally, the new sniff discourages the use of the (unset) and (binary) type casts.
• New WordPress.Utils.I18nTextDomainFixer sniff which can compehensively replace/add text-domains in a plugin or theme. Important notes:
  • This sniff is disabled by default and intended as a utility tool.
  • The sniff will fix the text domains in all I18n function calls as well as in a plugin/theme Text Domain: header.
  • Passing the following properties will activate the sniff:
    • old_text_domain: an array with one or more (old) text domains which need to be replaced;
    • new_text_domain: the correct (new) text domain as a string.
• The WordPress.NamingConventions.PrefixAllGlobals sniff will now also verify that namespace names use a valid prefix.
  • The sniff allows for underscores and (other) non-word characters in a passed prefix to be converted to namespace separators when used in a namespace name. In other words, if a prefix of my_plugin is passed as a value to the prefixes property, a namespace name of both My\Plugin as well as My_Plugin\\, will be accepted automatically.
  • Passing a prefix property value containing namespace separators will now also be allowed and will no longer trigger a warning.
• WordPress to the prefix blacklist for the WordPress.NamingConventions.PrefixAllGlobals sniff. While the prefix cannot be WordPress, a prefix can still start with or contain WordPress.
• Additional unit tests covering a change in the tokenizer which will be included in the upcoming PHP_CodeSniffer 3.4.0 release.
• A variety of issue templates for use on GitHub.

Changed

• The Sniff::valid_direct_scope() method will now return the $stackPtr to the valid scope if a valid direct scope has been detected. Previously, it would return true.
• Minor hardening and efficiency improvements to the WordPress.NamingConventions.PrefixAllGlobals sniff.
• The inline documentation of the WordPress-Core ruleset has been updated to be in line again with the handbook.
• The inline links to documentation about the VIP requirements have been updated.
• Updated the custom ruleset example to recommend using PHPCompatibilityWP rather than PHPCompatibility.
• All sniffs are now also being tested against PHP 7.3 for consistent sniff results. Note: PHP 7.3 is only supported in combination with PHPCS 3.3.1 or higher as PHP_CodeSniffer itself has an incompatibility in earlier versions.
• Minor grammar fixes in text strings and documentation.
• Minor consistency improvement for the unit test case files.
• Minor tweaks to the composer.json file.
• Updated the PHPCompatibility dev dependency.

Removed

• The WordPress.WhiteSpace.CastStructureSpacing.NoSpaceAfterCloseParenthesis error code as an error for the same issue was already being thrown by an included upstream sniff.

Fixed

• The WordPress.CodeAnalysis.EmptyStatement would throw a false positive for an empty condition in a for() statement.
• The Sniff::is_class_property() method could, in certain circumstances, incorrectly recognize parameters in a method declaration as class properties. It would also, incorrectly, fail to recognize class properties when the object they are declared in, was nested in parentheses. This affected, amongst others, the GlobalVariablesOverride sniff.
• The Sniff::get_declared_namespace_name() method could get confused over whitespace and comments within a namespace name, which could lead to incorrect results (mostly underreporting). This affected, amongst others, the GlobalVariablesOverride sniff. The return value of the method will now no longer contain any whitespace or comments encountered.
• The Sniff::has_whitelist_comment() method would sometimes incorrectly regard // phpcs:set comments as whitelist comments.