# Testing Highlighting Testing highlighting the code highlighted with various APIs. When writing plugin tests, a common task is testing various kinds of highlighting (inspections, annotators, parser error highlighting, etc.). The IntelliJ Platform provides a dedicated utility and markup format for this task. To test the highlighting for the file currently loaded into the in-memory editor, invoke [`CodeInsightTestFixture.checkHighlighting()`](%gh-ic%/platform/testFramework/src/com/intellij/testFramework/fixtures/CodeInsightTestFixture.java). The parameters to the method specify which severities should be taken into account when comparing the results with the expected results: errors are always taken into account, whereas warnings, weak warnings, and infos are optional. To ignore verifying additional highlighting, set parameter `ignoreExtraHighlighting` to `true`. Alternatively, you can use `CodeInsightTestFixture.testHighlighting()`, which loads a [testdata file](test_project_and_testdata_directories.md) into the in-memory editor and highlights it as a single operation. **Example**: [Custom Language Support Tutorial: Testing Annotator](annotator_test.md) ### Inspections If you need to test inspections, they must be enabled explicitly. This is done by calling `CodeInsightTestFixture.enableInspections()` in the setup method of your test or directly in a test method, before the call to `CodeInsightTestFixture.checkHighlighting()`. ### Syntax Highlighting To test syntax highlighting provided by [Lexer](implementing_lexer.md), use [`EditorTestUtil.testFileSyntaxHighlighting()`](%gh-ic%/platform/testFramework/src/com/intellij/testFramework/EditorTestUtil.java). ## Expected Highlighting Results The expected results of the highlighting are specified directly in the source file. The platform supports an extensive XML-like markup language for this. In its simplest form, the markup looks like this: ```xml code to be highlighted ``` A more realistic example, embedded in Java test data to be highlighted: ```xml public int compareTo(Simple other) { return 0; } ``` ### Severities The tag name specifies the severity of the expected highlighting. The following severities are supported: * `` * `` * `` * `` * `` for an [injected fragment](language_injection.md) * `` for a marker that highlights an identifier according to its type * any custom severity can be referenced by its name ### Optional Attributes The tag can also have the following optional attributes. **Message** * `descr` expected (hardcoded) message associated with the highlighter (if not specified, any text will match). If the message contains a quotation mark, it can be escaped by putting two backslash characters before it. * `bundleMsg` expected message from a message bundle in format `[bundleName#] bundleKey [|argument]...` * `tooltip` expected tooltip message **Visual** * `textAttributesKey` expected [`TextAttributesKey`](%gh-ic%/platform/core-api/src/com/intellij/openapi/editor/colors/TextAttributesKey.java) referenced by its `externalName` * `foregroundColor`, `backgroundColor`, `effectColor` expected colors for the highlighting * `effectType` expected effect type for the highlighting (see [`EffectType`](%gh-ic%/platform/core-api/src/com/intellij/openapi/editor/markup/EffectType.java)) * `fontType` expected font style for the highlighting (`0` - normal, `1` - bold, `2` - italic, `3` - bold italic) ### Special Cases *Nested* tags are supported: ```xml warning_highlightwarning_and_info_highlightwarning_highlight ``` *Overlapping* tags (annotations) are currently **not supported** in the test framework (but displayed correctly in the editor, albeit this is not an officially supported scenario): ```xml warning_highlightwarning-and_info_highlightinfo_highlight ```