ANSI colors in JSON report

[rarila]

If I’m right, ANSI color codes get removed here, if you e.g. supply the switch --no-colors:

PHP_CodeSniffer/src/Reporter.php

Line 239 in aebd84b

$generatedReport = Common::stripColors($generatedReport);

The problem:

When you run with --report=json --no-colors the message is first JSON encoded

PHP_CodeSniffer/src/Reports/Json.php

Line 60 in aebd84b

$messages .= json_encode($messagesObject).",";

so, that afterwards the color code removal fails, as the initial message is now encoded.

For example:

Before:   ... "\033[30;1m·\033[0m" ...
After:    ... "\u001b[30;1m\u00b7\u001b[0m\u001b[30;1m\u00b7\u001b[0m" ...

To reproduce:

It happens for example with LanguageConstructSpacingSniff (add multiple spaces somewhere) that calls

PHP_CodeSniffer/src/Util/Common.php

Line 279 in aebd84b

public static function prepareForOutput($content, $exclude=[])

and adds colors.

Possible solutions:

Some ideas, but I'm sure someone can come up with a better one…

• Probably easiest: Colors could be removed before JSON encoding independant of the color setting.
  Is there any need for colors in a JSON report?!
• Don’t even add colors in the first place when no colors are demanded
• Remove encoded colors in JSON report (probably the worst solution)