Video manual

1. Prerequisites

In order to install and use Dexter plugin for Visual Studio, you need following prerequisites:

• Microsoft Visual Studio 2015 or newer
• Dexter CLI 0.9.2 or newer
• Java 7u40 or newer (for running Dexter CLI)

2. Installation & configuration

• Download Dexter Visual Studio plugin installer (.vsix file). Download Link
• Open a file. A  dialog box will appear:
  

• Select a Visual Studio version you want to install plugin to and press "Install" 

  If you don't see your Visual Studio version on the list, it means that it is unsupported by a plugin. The Express Editions do not allow users to use extensions.

  
  

• After successful installation, a following message will appear:

• Run Visual Studio. You should see a new menu group "Dexter" and a new toolbar:
  
  
  
  
• Click "Dexter/Settings..." (alternatively, you can click a green gear icon). A settings window should appear:
  
  
  
  
• In "Dexter home path" field provide a full path to a Dexter home directory (it should be a directory containing "bin" folder).  
  If you provided a proper path, a green mark should appear:
  
  
  
  
• If you want to send analysis result to a Dexter Server, you should also fill up three fields:
  a) "Dexter Server address" - an URL containing host and port number, e.g. "http://127.0.0.2:8081" or "http://mydexter:12099" 
  b) "User name" - your Dexter Server user name 
  c) "User password" - a password associated with user name
• Press "Test connection" button. If your settings are valid, you should see a following message:
  
  
• Alternatively, if you don't want to connect to Dexter Server, you can check "Standalone Analysis" checkbox: 
  
• Click "OK". Now you are ready to use Dexter in Visual Studio!

3. Running analysis

• Open a solution containing your project. 
• Go to "Dexter/Run Static Analysis".

• Now choose 1 of 3 options: 

a) "On Solution" - runs analysis on all projects in current solution

b) "On <your project name>" - runs analysis on active project

c) "On <you file name>" - runs analysis on currently opened file

• An output window should appear, showing current analysis status: 

• After analysis is finished, you should see an "Error List" with list of defects found by Dexter:

• You can navigate to defect occurrences in code, by double-clicking them in Error List:
  
  
• If you want to review your defects in Dexter Server dashboard, click "Dexter/Open Dexter Dashboard"  (alternatively, you can click a blue globe button:

It will open a Dexter Server Dashboard in your default browser:

4. Creating a snapshot

Snapshot is a special type of analysis, which creates data used for the analysis of the defect trends. 

• Open a solution containing your project. 
• Go to "Dexter/Run Static Analysis and Create Snapshot". 

• Now choose 1 of 2 options: 

a) "On Solution" - runs analysis on all projects in current solution

b) "On <your project name>" - runs analysis on active project

• An output window should appear, showing current analysis status: 

• After analysis is finished, you should see an "Error List" with list of defects found by Dexter:

• You can navigate to defect occurrences in code, by double-clicking them in Error List:
  
  
• If you want to review your defects in Dexter Server dashboard, click "Dexter/Open Dexter Dashboard"  (alternatively, you can click a blue globe button:

It will open a Dexter Server Dashboard in your default browser:

• Click "Snapshot List" button. It will show a list of all snapshots for this project. You should see a newly created snapshot here:
  
  

5. Automatic documentation

Dexter plugin have an useful feature that allows you to write Doxygen comments in easy way. Here is how it works:

6. Peer review support

Another feature is support for offline code reviews by creating and automatically detecting review-related comments in code: