Javascript parser for Salesforce Apex Language


Keywords
apex, parser, salesforce
License
BSD-3-Clause
Install
npm install apex-parser@2.17.0

Documentation

apex-parser

Parser for Salesforce Apex (including Triggers & inline SOQL/SOQL). This is based on an ANTLR4 grammar, see antlr/ApexParser.g4.

There are two builds of the parser available, a NPM module for use with Node and a Maven package for use on JVMs.

These builds just contain the Parser & Lexer and provides no further support for analysing the generated parse trees beyond what is provided by ANTLR4.

As Apex & SOQL/SOQL are case-insensitive languages you need to use the provided CaseInsensitiveInputStream for the parser to function correctly. When parsing Apex, inline SOQL/SOSL is automatically parsed, but you can also parse SOQL/SOQL directly. You can find some minimal examples in the test classes.

Example

To parse a class file (NPM version):

let lexer = new ApexLexer(new CaseInsensitiveInputStream("public class Hello {}"))
let tokens  = new CommonTokenStream(lexer);

let parser = new ApexParser(tokens)
let context = parser.compilationUnit()

The 'context' is a CompilationUnitContext object which is the root of the parsed representation of the class. You can access the parse tree via functions on it.

Unicode handling

Prior to 2.12.0 the use of ANTLRInputStream for reading data in CaseInsensitiveStream would result character positions being given for UTF-16. The switch to CharStream input in 2.12.0 for JVM and 2.14.0 for node results in character positions reflecting Unicode code points.

antlr4ts versions

The npm module uses antlr4ts 0.5.0-alpha.4, this was updated from 0.5.0-alpha.3 in the 2.9.1 version. You should make sure that if you are using a matching versions of this dependency if you use it directly. To avoid issues you can import 'CommonTokenStream' & 'ParseTreeWalker' from 'apex-parser' instead of from antlr4ts.

import { CommonTokenStream} from "apex-parser";
import { ParseTreeWalker } from "apex-parser";

SOSL FIND quoting

SOSL FIND uses ' as a quoting character when embedded in Apex, in the API braces are used:

Find {something} RETURNING Account

To parse the API format there is an alternative parser rule, soslLiteralAlt, that you can use instead of soslLiteral. See SOSLParserTest for some examples of how these differ.

Packages

Maven

<dependency>
    <groupId>com.github.nawforce</groupId>
    <artifactId>apex-parser</artifactId>
    <version>2.17.0</version>
</dependency>

NPM

"apex-parser": "^2.17.0"

Building

To build both distributions:

npm ci
npm run build

History

2.17.0 - Adds user/system mode on DML and within SOQL queries, thanks to Aaron Hurst.
2.16.0 - Fixes for empty for & while loops, soql date formulas & distance functions, additional parenthesis on when clauses, SOSL find quoting, modulus support (removed), apexdoc newline handling - thanks to Aaron Hurst for most of these ;-) 
2.15.0 - Revert 2.14.0 changes.
2.14.0 - Change npm api to replace ANTLRInputStream with CharStream, for Unicode char positions  
2.13.0 - Fixes for negative numerics & Currency literals in SOQL 
2.12.0 - Replace deprecated ANTLRInputStream, DateTime & Currency literals fixes (contrib Aaron Hurst) 
2.11.0 - Fix for SOQL UPDATE VIEWSTAT/TRACKING & removal of class type arguments
2.10.0 - Allow type arguments on Classes (non-standard!)
2.9.2 - Generate .d.ts files 
2.9.1 - JVM build and npm dependency updates
2.9.0 - Add SOQL Fields function
2.8.0 - Apex cast priority fix, SOSL & SOQL query format fixes, Added SOQL Date functions 
2.7.1 - Bugfix for 'Network' identifier
2.7.0 - Support inline SOSL queries
2.6.1 - Dependency security fixes
2.6.0 - Add SOQL parsing support
2.5.0 - Allow safe navigation operator ?.
2.4.0 - Enable Listener & Visitor use
2.3.0 - Removed modifers from enhanced for loop
2.2.1 - Dependency security fixes
2.2.0 - Parser performance improvements
2.1.0 - Supports trigger parsing and switch statement parsing syntax was corrected
1.0.0 - Initial version

Source & Licenses

All the source code included uses a 3-clause BSD license. The only third-party component included is the Apex Antlr4 grammar originally from Tooling-force.com, although this version used is now markedly different from the original.