IntelliJ PMDPlugin custom ruleset

Question

I want to use custom rulesets with the PMDPlugin in IntelliJ 2016.1 (on Windows).

The Plugin page tells me

PMD supports custom ruleset file, to configure goto settings -> PMD and add the rule set files that are required.

but i can't find any setting to configure the PMDPlugin (I'm using version 1.7.7). In fact when i'm searching for PMD the only item listed in the search results of the settings menu is the Plugin itself. And under Tools -> Run PMD the Custom Rules are greyed out.

I found on this page a possible solution but it doesn't worked for me. And if it would i would like to change the rulesets for different projects and i don't want to modify the IDEA rules for each.

Also i found a solution to set PMD as an external tool, but i like how other plugins (e.g. Checkstyle-IDEA) integrate into the IDE. I also checked the QA-Plug with the PMD extension but there you can just select the settings and don't specify a custom ruleset.

Answer 1

I think you are looking in the wrong place. Go to File > Settings > Other Settings > PMD and there should be a + sign like below:

From there you can add your own custom rulesets (*.XML files).