APIDiff

A tool to identify API breaking and non-breaking changes between two versions of a Java library. APIDiff analyses libraries hosted on the distributed version control system git.

Catalog

Breaking Changes are modifications performed in API elements such as types, methods, and fields that may break client applications:

Element	Breaking Changes (BC)
Type	rename, move, move and rename, remove, lost visibility, add final modifier, remove static modifier, change in supertype, remove supertype
Method	move, rename, remove, push down, inline, change in parameter list, change in exception list, change in return type, lost visibility, add final modifier, remove static modifier
Field	remove, move, push down field, change in default value, change in type field, lost visibility, add final modifier

Non-breaking Changes are modifications that do not break clients:

Element	Non-breaking Changes (NBC)
Type	add, extract supertype, gain visibility, remove final modifier, add static modifier, add supertype, deprecated type
Method	pull up, gain visibility, remove final modifier, add static modifier, deprecated method, add, extract
Field	pull up, add, deprecated field, gain visibility, remove final modifier

The refactorings catalog is reused from RefDiff.

Examples

• Detecting changes in version histories:

APIDiff diff = new APIDiff("bumptech/glide", "https://github.com/bumptech/glide.git");
diff.setPath("/home/projects/github");

Result result = diff.detectChangeAllHistory("master", Classifier.API);
for(Change changeMethod : result.getChangeMethod()){
    System.out.println("\n" + changeMethod.getCategory().getDisplayName() + " - " + changeMethod.getDescription());
}

• Detecting changes in specific commit:

APIDiff diff = new APIDiff("mockito/mockito", "https://github.com/mockito/mockito.git");
diff.setPath("/home/projects/github");

Result result = diff.detectChangeAtCommit("4ad5fdc14ca4b979155d10dcea0182c82380aefa", Classifier.API);
for(Change changeMethod : result.getChangeMethod()){
    System.out.println("\n" + changeMethod.getCategory().getDisplayName() + " - " + changeMethod.getDescription());
}

• Fetching new commits:

APIDiff diff = new APIDiff("bumptech/glide", "https://github.com/bumptech/glide.git");
diff.setPath("/home/projects/github");
    
Result result = diff.fetchAndDetectChange(Classifier.API);
for(Change changeMethod : result.getChangeMethod()){
    System.out.println("\n" + changeMethod.getCategory().getDisplayName() + " - " + changeMethod.getDescription());
}

• Writing a CSV file:

APIDiff diff = new APIDiff("mockito/mockito", "https://github.com/mockito/mockito.git");
diff.setPath("/home/projects/github");
Result result = diff.detectChangeAtCommit("4ad5fdc14ca4b979155d10dcea0182c82380aefa", Classifier.API);
		
List<String> listChanges = new ArrayList<String>();
listChanges.add("Category;isDeprecated;containsJavadoc");
for(Change changeMethod : result.getChangeMethod()){
    String change = changeMethod.getCategory().getDisplayName() + ";" + changeMethod.isDeprecated()  + ";" + changeMethod.containsJavadoc() ;
    listChanges.add(change);
}
UtilFile.writeFile("output.csv", listChanges);

• Filtering Packages according to their names:

Classifier.INTERNAL: Elements that are in packages with the term "internal".

Classifier.TEST: Elements that are in packages with the terms "test"|"tests", or is in source file "src/test", or ends with "test.java"|"tests.java".

Classifier.EXAMPLE: Elements that are in packages with the terms "example"|"examples"|"sample"|"samples"|"demo"|"demos"

Classifier.EXPERIMENTAL: Elements that are in packages with the term "experimental".

Classifier.NON_API: Internal, test, example or experimental elements.

Classifier.API: Elements that are not non-APIs.

Usage

APIDiff is available in the Maven Central Repository:

<dependency>
    <groupId>com.github.aserg-ufmg</groupId>
    <artifactId>apidiff</artifactId>
    <version>2.0.0</version>
</dependency>

Publications

Aline Brito, Laerte Xavier, Andre Hora, Marco Tulio Valente. APIDiff: Detecting API Breaking Changes. In 25th International Conference on Software Analysis, Evolution and Reengineering (SANER), Tool Track, pages 1-5, 2018.

Learn more about our research group at http://aserg.labsoft.dcc.ufmg.br/