Sorrel: an IDE Plugin for Managing Licenses and Detecting License Incompatibilities
This tool addresses license management issues for software developers, but it is incremental as it builds on existing IDE functionality without introducing new algorithmic breakthroughs.
The authors tackled the problem of managing software licenses and detecting incompatibilities by developing Sorrel, an IntelliJ IDEA plugin that scans projects for license information, provides recommendations for open licenses, and alerts about potential violations, making it easier for developers to avoid licensing errors within their IDE.
Software development is a complex process that includes many different tasks besides just writing code. One of the aspects of software engineering is selecting and managing licenses for the given project. In this paper, we present Sorrel - a plugin for managing licenses and detecting potential incompatibilities for IntelliJ IDEA, a popular Java IDE. The plugin scans the project in search of information about the project license and the licenses of its libraries. If the project does not yet have a license, the plugin provides the developer with recommendations for choosing the most suitable open license, and if there is a license, it informs the programmer about potential licensing violations. The tool makes it easier for developers to choose a proper license for a project and avoid most of the licensing errors - all inside the familiar IDE editor. The plugin and its source code are available online on GitHub: https://github.com/JetBrains-Research/sorrel. A demonstration video can be found at https://youtu.be/doUeAwPjcPE.