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PHP Best Practices

Test your code instead of debugging it Discover issues before you deploy your code. Use a coding standard as a requirement for hiring or outsourcing. Use an established standard, and stick to it.

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monpetitjules
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© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
64 views

PHP Best Practices

Test your code instead of debugging it Discover issues before you deploy your code. Use a coding standard as a requirement for hiring or outsourcing. Use an established standard, and stick to it.

Uploaded by

monpetitjules
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Everyday Best Practices for PHP Development

Matthew Weier O'Phinney Software Architect, Zend Technologies


What you can do to make your life and your team's lives easier.

Copyright 2008, Zend Technologies Inc.

What will I gain?


Test your code instead of debug it Discover issues before you deploy your
code Documentation of your code Documentation for your users Better communication with your team and, bottom line, maintainability.

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The single best practice...

TEST!

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Test?
Unit test everything you can Learn how to do functional and integration testing Don't put it off

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Benefits of testing
More testing == Less debugging Revise and exercise your object APIs before
writing code Instant feedback when changes are made Repeatable Stabilize functionality Gain confidence in your application quality ...

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Benefits of testing
Do you really need more reasons?

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Test behaviors in your models


Example:

I should be able to fetch a user by email

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Extend testing to your applications


Given a request to /foo/bar, I should have at least
2 items matching the CSS selector div#foo legend.bar:

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Get to know PHPUnit


http://phpunit.de/

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And another gem:

Use a Coding Standard


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Why use coding standards?


Focus on code, not formatting Consistency Readability Collaboration

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Okay, I'll create one...

STOP!

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Learn from others


The issues have already been debated to death. Use an established standard, and stick to it.
Minimizes politics when choosing Choose a standard compatible with the libraries or
frameworks you use Use the standard as a requirement for hiring or outsourcing.

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What does a standard provide?


File, class, and variable naming conventions Code formatting conventions

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Some Zend Framework standards


Derived from PEAR standards (which were in turn
derived from Horde standards)

One class, one file Underscores in class names map to directory


separators: Zend_Controller_Action: Zend/Controller/Action.php

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Some Zend Framework standards


Naming conventions: Class names are MixedCase Method names are camelCase Constants are ALL_CAPS Properties and variables are camelCase Private and protected members are
_underscorePrefixed

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Some Zend Framework standards


Layout Conventions: No closing ?> tag for files containing only code Indentation: spaces only, no tabs; 4 spaces per

level of indentation One True Brace:

Classes and methods place opening brace on following


line at same indentation. Logical structures place opening brace on same line. All control structures use braces, period.

No shell style comments (#) Keep lines no more than 75-85 characters long
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Example

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What else should you know?

Design Patterns

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What are those?


Reusable ideas, not code Proven solutions to common design problems Better communication through shared vocabulary

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Some examples, please?


I need to be able to notify other objects when I

execute a particular event: Observer I need to be able to mutate the backend object to which I delegate: Adapter I need to modify the output of an object: Decorator I need to decorate my application output with general site content: Two Step View

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Who uses design patterns?


Frameworks; Zend Framework is riddled with them You do, by using frameworks. :-)

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What next?

Documentation

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But I don't have time!


You don't have time to code?

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API documentation is easy


Simply prepend PHP docblocks to your methods
and classes; your IDE will often do it for you:

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What can I document this way?


Classes, methods, class properties... Use annotation tags in source comments to
provide context: @param, @return, @throws, @see, @todo

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Docblocks can organize code


Utilize @category, @package, @subpackage;

phpDoc uses these to organize documentation. Prefix your classes; easier to browse, and easier to mix with other libraries.

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Generate pretty API docs


phpDocumentor:

http://phpdoc.org/

Doxygen: http://www.stack.nl/~dimitri/doxygen/

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See?

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Be careful what you say...


Docblocks can go out of date. Be general, except
when it comes to the parameters and return values. When in doubt, unit tests don't lie.

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IDEs like documentation, too


IDE's introspect DocBlocks to provide typehinting,
return values, and method descriptions.

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So does Zend Framework!


Various Server classes utilize DocBlocks to provide
hinting for parameter and return value types, as well as method descriptions
Zend_XmlRpc_Server Zend_Rest_Server Zend_Json_Server (coming soon!) Zend_Soap_Wsdl (coming soon!) Zend_Tool (coming soon!)

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Don't forget your users!


End users like to know how to use your code and
applications Give them a manual!

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XML is not a four-letter word


DocBook is the most common format for open

source documentation DocBook can be compiled to a variety of formats: HTML, Windows Help files (CHM), PDF, and more. Often used by book publishers (O'Reilly) It powers the PHP.net manual It powers Zend Framework's manual

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DocBook is easy

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One possible rendition:

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Don't forget to backup...

Source Control

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Why do I need it?


How do I know if somebody did something? How do others know I did something? How do I get my updates from others? How do I push my updates out to others? Do we have the old version? What changed?

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What are my options?


Distributed Source Control:
Git Darcs Arch

Developers work on their own repositories and share changesets

Non-Distributed Source Control


Subversion

Developers work on local checkouts, and check in to a central repository

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How do I use source control?


Perform local checkout Write code Record changes Check changes in to repository Check for repository updates Lather, rinse, repeat

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What do you use?


Subversion Extensible and supported by excellent tools
Write scripts to perform actions before and after
checkins

Popular with many open source projects;

integrate with them using svn:externals Easily move files between directories while preserving histories Simplified process of tagging and branching Transactions for when things go wrong

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Review

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How do I make my life easier?


TEST!

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How do I make my life easier?


TEST! Use a coding standard

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How do I make my life easier?


TEST! Use a coding standard Learn and utilize design patterns

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How do I make my life easier?


TEST! Use a coding standard Learn and utilize design patterns Document my code

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How do I make my life easier?


TEST! Use a coding standard Learn and utilize design patterns Document my code Document my application

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How do I make my life easier?


TEST! Use a coding standard Learn and utilize design patterns Document my code Document my application Use source control

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So what are you waiting for?

Thanks for listening!

Copyright 2008, Zend Technologies Inc.

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