Best Practices For Modern PhP Development
PHP is a server-side scripting language designed primarily for web development but also used as a general-purpose programming language. Originally created by Rasmus Lerdorf in 1994. PHP is preferred when it comes to the language of choice for web development with almost 80% of all the existing websites running on PHP code. PHP/FI could help to build simple, dynamic web applications. To accelerate bug reporting and to develop the code. Since PHP is a scripting language, one must follow some rules while developing.
Use the DRY Approach
DRY stands for Do not Repeat Yourself’. This concept’s very useful in programming and should be used in any programming language. By using this method we make sure that there is no redundant code. A piece of code that violates DRY is referred to as WET solution, which stands for write everything twice or we enjoy typing.
Use Frameworks
Frameworks are established after a great deal of research and hence they prove to be less problematic. They make our lives easier as they provide verified solutions. In PHP there are lots of frameworks. During the development, you should use these. One of these frameworks that are widely used is Model View Controller.
Indentation and Use of Whitespace
While writing a code, you must make sure that the code is correctly indented and sufficient white space is provided wherever necessary. This escalates the readability of the code and aids us to maintain the code in a more efficient manner.
Error Reporting should be Turned on
This is a very useful function in PHP and should be enabled while in the development phase. This aids us to identify the glitches in our code. The most commonly used feature is ‘E_ALL’, which assists us to spot all the warnings and critical errors. However, before we put our code into production, we should turn off this feature as this would expose all the potential errors on the browser.
Meaningful and Consistent Naming Standards
PHP experts advise following meaningful naming standards. We have 2 major approaches while we ensure to implement this:
- Using underscores between two words– In this approach, we put an underscore character (‘_’) between every two words.
- Using CamelCase– In this approach, the first letter is in lower case and first letter of every word thereafter is in upper case.
Do not Put phpInfo() Function in Web Root
phpInfo() is a very vital function and should be used with extreme care. Using this function, anyone can get the details of the server environment. It’s always wise to keep the file containing phpInfo()function in a fortified location. Once the development is complete, it should be taken out of the code immediately.
Never Trust the User
If your application includes any user input, write your code in such a way that it can handle all sorts of potential inputs. A good approach to guard your application against hackers is to always initialize your variables with some initial value that may not be relevant to the existing business flow.
