Add Missing Strings Validation for Moodle Plugin CI

[volodymyrdovhan]

Summary

• Add a comprehensive language string validation tool for Moodle plugins
• Validates required strings, detects missing/unused strings from PHP, JavaScript, templates, and database files
• Includes automatic subplugin discovery and validation

What It Checks

Code Usage

• get_string() and new lang_string() calls in PHP
• JavaScript string methods (str.get_string(), str.get_strings(), getString(), getStrings(), Prefetch methods)
• Mustache template strings ({{#str}}, {{#cleanstr}})
• Help button strings (->addHelpButton())
• Dynamic strings automatically filtered (variables like $row->state are ignored)

Plugin Requirements

• All plugins: pluginname
• Activity modules: modulename, modulenameplural
• Database files: capabilities, caches, messages, tags, mobile addons, subplugins
• Class implementations: Privacy providers, search areas, grade items, exceptions

Subplugin Support

• Automatic discovery: Reads db/subplugins.json and db/subplugins.php
• Recursive validation: Validates main plugin + all discovered subplugins

Usage

# Basic validation
moodle-plugin-ci missingstrings /path/to/plugin

[codecov]

Codecov Report

❌ Patch coverage is 82.78175% with 385 lines in your changes missing coverage. Please review.
✅ Project coverage is 85.55%. Comparing base (d5e4885) to head (4bc19fd).
⚠️ Report is 13 commits behind head on main.

Files with missing lines	Patch %	Lines
src/MissingStrings/Checker/CheckerUtils.php	65.11%	60 Missing ⚠️
src/MissingStrings/FileDiscovery/FileDiscovery.php	50.00%	54 Missing ⚠️
...ssingStrings/Extractor/MustacheStringExtractor.php	51.81%	53 Missing ⚠️
...hecker/ClassMethodChecker/AbstractClassChecker.php	74.04%	34 Missing ⚠️
src/MissingStrings/ValidationResult.php	70.00%	27 Missing ⚠️
...rc/MissingStrings/Discovery/SubpluginDiscovery.php	78.76%	24 Missing ⚠️
...er/DatabaseFileChecker/AbstractDatabaseChecker.php	56.52%	20 Missing ⚠️
...cker/ClassMethodChecker/PrivacyProviderChecker.php	82.29%	17 Missing ⚠️
src/MissingStrings/StringValidator.php	91.79%	16 Missing ⚠️
...gs/Checker/ClassMethodChecker/GradeItemChecker.php	87.95%	10 Missing ⚠️
... and 13 more

Additional details and impacted files

@@             Coverage Diff              @@
##               main     #356      +/-   ##
============================================
- Coverage     88.31%   85.55%   -2.76%     
- Complexity      761     1639     +878     
============================================
  Files            77      114      +37     
  Lines          2344     4563    +2219     
============================================
+ Hits           2070     3904    +1834     
- Misses          274      659     +385     

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[kabalin]

Wow, that is the biggest PR to this project I have ever seen! 🥇Well done @volodymyrdovhan, missing strings check definitely would be useful to have.

Do you have some performance info, it is fast on projects with numerous strings?

[volodymyrdovhan]

Hi @kabalin,
I added some validation stats to display with the --debug option.

Here are some stats for some Moodle core plugins.

mod/assign:

• Total processing time: 1.829 seconds
• Plugins processed: 8
  • Main: 1, Subplugins: 7
• Files processed: 842
• String processing metrics:
  • Defined strings: 842
  • Required strings: 10
  • Strings extracted: 1025
  • String usages found: 1268

mod/quiz

• Total processing time: 1.664 seconds
• Plugins processed: 15
  • Main: 1, Subplugins: 14
• Files processed: 887
• String processing metrics:
  • Defined strings: 1545
  • Required strings: 17
  • Strings extracted: 1109
  • String usages found: 1230

mod/lesson

• Total processing time: 0.995 seconds
• Plugins processed: 1
• Files processed: 160
• String processing metrics:
  • Defined strings: 571
  • Required strings: 3
  • Strings extracted: 605
  • String usages found: 736

mod/bigbluebuttonbn/

• Total processing time: 1.180 seconds
• Plugins processed: 1
• Files processed: 328
• String processing metrics:
  • Defined strings: 561
  • Required strings: 3
  • Strings extracted: 522
  • String usages found: 538

[kabalin]

Cross referencing https://moodle.atlassian.net/browse/MDL-85666, there is some overlapping with this patch I think. I might worth reviewing what will be tested already, so this feature will be smaller and easier to maintain.