How to Export SonarQube Reports to PDF (Step-by-Step Guide)
SonarQube helps development teams monitor code quality and security by identifying bugs, vulnerabilities, code smells, and other issues. But what happens when you need to share those results with someone who doesn't have access to SonarQube?
Whether you're preparing for an audit, reviewing code quality with your team, or presenting project results to management, having a downloadable report can make the process much easier.
In this guide, we'll explore how to generate PDF reports from SonarQube, what information you can include, and how to automate reporting using a plugin.
Why generate reports from SonarQube?
SonarQube provides dashboards with information about your project's code quality and security. However, there are situations where accessing the dashboard isn't the most convenient option.
For example:
- Code quality reviews: Share project metrics with development teams during regular reviews.
- Security audits: Provide documentation of detected vulnerabilities and security issues.
- Management reporting: Present code quality indicators to stakeholders who don't use SonarQube.
- Project monitoring: Keep records of code quality results over time.
- External communication: Share relevant analysis results with clients or other teams.
Instead of manually collecting metrics and creating documents, generating reports can simplify these tasks.
Can you export SonarQube results to PDF?
SonarQube provides dashboards and APIs for accessing analysis results. However, the reporting and export capabilities available depend on your SonarQube edition and configuration.
If you need downloadable reports with specific metrics, layouts, or file formats, you can use a reporting plugin.
One option is Report Plugin for SonarQube, developed by bitegarden. It allows teams to generate reports in PDF, Excel, and ODT formats using data from their SonarQube projects.
Report Plugin for SonarQube provides downloadable code quality reports in different formats.
How to generate a PDF report in SonarQube
Let's look at how to create a downloadable report using Report Plugin for SonarQube.
Step 1: Install Report Plugin for SonarQube
First, you need to install the reporting plugin in your compatible SonarQube Server instance.
You can find the plugin and its product information in the bitegarden marketplace.
Before installing, check that the plugin version is compatible with your SonarQube environment and follow the installation instructions.
Step 2: Open your SonarQube project
Once the plugin is installed and configured, open SonarQube and navigate to the project for which you want to generate a report.
Make sure the project has already been analyzed so that SonarQube has the necessary quality and security metrics.
Step 3: Access the reporting functionality
Navigate to the reporting functionality provided by the plugin.
From there, you can select the available report options according to your reporting needs.
Depending on the report type and configuration, you can generate different views of your project's analysis results.
Step 4: Generate and download the report
Select the appropriate report and output format, then generate the document using the plugin's reporting functionality.
For a PDF report, the result is a downloadable document that can be shared with team members, project managers, or other stakeholders.
This eliminates the need to manually copy metrics from multiple SonarQube screens into a separate document.
Pie de imagen: Example of a PDF code quality report generated from SonarQube analysis results.
What information can a SonarQube report include?
The information available depends on the selected report type and configuration.
Typical reporting requirements include:
- Code quality metrics: Indicators that help teams understand the current quality of their codebase.
- Bugs and vulnerabilities: Issues identified during SonarQube analysis.
- Code smells: Maintainability issues that may require attention.
- Technical debt: Information useful for planning code improvements.
- Quality Gate status: Whether the project meets the configured quality requirements.
- Project overview: A summary of the project's analysis results.
These metrics can help teams communicate the results of code analysis without requiring every stakeholder to navigate the SonarQube interface.
PDF, Excel, or ODT: which format should you use?
Different reporting formats are useful for different situations.
| Format | Recommended use |
|---|---|
| Sharing reports with management, clients, or auditors | |
| Excel | Working with exported data and performing additional analysis |
| ODT | Preparing editable documents and customized reporting materials |
With Report Plugin for SonarQube, teams can choose from these formats depending on their reporting requirements.
When should you generate SonarQube reports?
Reports can be particularly useful at specific points in the development lifecycle.
Before a release: Generate a report to document the code quality status of the project.
During a security review: Share the relevant security findings with the teams responsible for addressing them.
For periodic quality reviews: Provide a consistent way to communicate project metrics and identify areas that require attention.
When reporting to stakeholders: Make technical analysis results easier to distribute and review.
Reports complement the SonarQube dashboard rather than replacing it. Developers can continue investigating issues directly in SonarQube while sharing downloadable documents with other stakeholders.
Generate SonarQube reports with bitegarden
If your team needs to export SonarQube analysis results into shareable documents, Report Plugin for SonarQube provides reporting capabilities in PDF, Excel, and ODT formats.
You can explore the plugin and other tools for improving SonarQube workflows in the bitegarden marketplace.
Final thoughts
SonarQube provides valuable insights into code quality and security, but those insights are most useful when they can be shared with the people who need them.
Generating reports helps teams communicate analysis results, support quality reviews, and document project status without manually rebuilding information from SonarQube dashboards.
How does your team share SonarQube analysis results? Do you use dashboards, APIs, or downloadable reports?
Share your experience in the comments!
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