How can i install findbugs in netbeans 11.3

Question

-I can not find findbugs in availiable plugins to install

if i try source-->inspect and choose to install findbugs from there netbeans says that findbugs can not be downloaded

is there a way to activate it?

Answer 1

A few basic points first:

• The FindsBugs plugin was included in NetBeans 11.2, but it's not in 11.3, and I get the same result as you ("...module has not been downloaded") when trying to install it on NetBeans 11.3. See this comment from a member of the NetBeans team: "The find bugs module hasn't been donated yet it's due in a later donation".
• I raised NetBeans Report Bug Report 576 a couple of years ago on FindBugs that has not been addressed: The FindBugs plugin works with JDK8 but not with JDK10. So even if you could install it, I think it would be useless with code using any version of Java more recent than JDK 8. Even the FindBugs web site only claims to "analyze programs compiled for any version of Java, from 1.0 to 1.8".
• Regardless of all that, FindsBugs is no longer alive. From 11/2/16: "I'm really sorry to say, but FindBugs project in its current form is dead". So don't use FindBugs any more. It's not maintained or supported.
• Instead, use SpotBugs, which is "the spiritual successor of FindBugs".

Having said that, as far as I know there is no NetBeans plugin for SpotBugs either, although one brave developer documented how to do it yourself if you feel so inclined.

However, you can use SpotBugs if you have a Maven or Gradle project:

• The Maven plugin is constrained to use JDK 8 to run this plugin. This is a requirement imposed by Spotbugs. I haven't tried that.
• You can get Gradle plugins for SpotBugs from here. I haven't tried any of those either.