Strangecode coding standards
29 Aug 2005 20:12:49


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Preable
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We're following the PEAR coding standards, with minor modifications.

This is essential reading:
http://pear.php.net/manual/en/standards.php


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File naming conventions
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script.php              Public accessible scripts.

Auth_SQL.inc.php        One PHP Class to be included. The filename is the
                        type of class, underscore, name. Or if in subdirs,
                        this could be /Auth/SQL.inc.php while the class name
                        remains "Auth_SQL"

some_file.ihtml         HTML file, which may or may not have some PHP,
                        but will be included by some other PHP file. Never
                        includes sensitive code as these files may be accessed
                        directly in the web root.

script.cli.php          A command-line executable script, possibly executed
                        with CRON, usually outputs TEXT, not HTML.

dbname.mysql            Database schema file that goes with the application.

main.screen.css         CSS file with media: screen/print/all
main.print.css


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Indenting and wrap
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Use an indent of 4 spaces, with no tabs. Code and especially comments should
be wrapped <= 80 characters. Exceptions are made in the case where code
readability is significantly improved with longer lines.


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Control Structures
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These include if, for, while, switch, etc. Here is an example if statement,
since it is the most complicated of them:

    if ((condition1) || (condition2)) {
        action1;
    } else if ((condition3) && (condition4)) {
        action2;
    } else {
        defaultaction;
    }

Control statements should have one space between the control keyword
and opening parenthesis, to distinguish them from function calls.

Even in the case of an if with no else clauses, and only a 1 line action,
the curly braces should still be used:

    if (condition) {
        action;
    }

This improves readability and allows easy extension of the clause.

For switch statements:

    switch (condition) {
    case 1:
        action1;
        break;

    case 2:
        action2;
        break;

    default:
        defaultaction;
        break;

    }


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Function Calls
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Functions should be called with no spaces between the function name,
the opening parenthesis, and the first parameter; spaces between commas
and each parameter, and no space between the last parameter, the
closing parenthesis, and the semicolon. Here's an example:

    $var = foo($bar, $baz, $quux);

As displayed above, there should be one space on either side of an
equals sign used to assign the return value of a function to a
variable. In the case of a block of related assignments, more space
may be inserted to promote readability:

    $short         = foo($bar);
    $long_variable = foo($baz);


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Function Definitions
======================================================================

Function declaractions follow the "one true brace" convention:

    function fooFunction($arg1, $arg2 = '')
    {
        if (condition) {
            statement;
        }
        return $val;
    }

Arguments with default values go at the end of the argument list. Always
attempt to return a meaningful value from a function if one is appropriate.

Recommend using studlyCaps for function names, to distinguish from php
internal functions which standard on under_score_space() style names.


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Return values
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When functions return boolean values, use 'return false;' or 'return true;'
as opposed to 'return 0;' or 'return 1;' or 'return(-1);'.


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String concatination
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Always include a space before and after the concatonation operator '.' which
improves readability and improves search-and-replace of adjacent elements.

    $something = $blah . funky() . ".\".=" . $blab;

is better than:

    $something = $blah.funky().".\".=".$blab;


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Quote marks
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Use the single quote marks ' to enclose simple strings whenever possible.
Double quote marks " require extra parsing and thus slow things down, but
are necessary if entities there must be swapped-out such as variables or
control characters.

        $var['singlequote'] = 'singlequote';
        $var["doublequote-$i"] = "$vars and \n funny \t %s things need doublequotes";
        $var['doublequote-' . $i] = $var . 'you can do this' . "\t %s" . $var2 .
        'but it isn\'t any better';


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Printing html
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For large or complex blocks of HTML, using the following method is much faster
and safer than echo because the php processesor is bypassed and content goes
directly to output:

    <?php
    if (something) {
        // Here comes the HTML...
        ?>
        <div align="right" class="tiny">
        [&nbsp;<a href="<?php echo App::oHREF('contact.php') ?>">Contact us</a>&nbsp;]
        </div>
        <?php
    } else if (somethingelse) {
        ?><h1>Just a little html</h1><?php
    }
    ?>


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Comments
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Function comments should follow the Javadoc standard, with detailed
function comments and one-line pointers along the way:
http://java.sun.com/products/jdk/javadoc/writingdoccomments/index.html

    <?php
    /**
     * Description of function.
     *
     * @access  public
     * @param   string  $db_table   Database table.
     * @param   string  $db_column  Database column containing set or enum datatype.
     * @return  array               The set/enum values or false on failure.
     * @author  Quinn Comendant <quinn@strangecode.com>
     * @version 1.0
     * @since   24 Feb 2004 19:34:04
     */
    function getSetEnumFieldValues()
    {
        $qid = DB::query("SHOW COLUMNS FROM $db_table LIKE '$db_col'",false);

        $row = mysql_fetch_row($qid);
        if (preg_match('/^enum|^set/i', $row[1]) && preg_match_all("/'([^']*)'/", $row[1], $match)) {
            return $match[1];
        } else {
            return false;
        }
    }
    ?>

Single line comments should be of the double-slash variety, and be on the line above the
code being commented upon:

    <?php
    // If the last word in $var is peanuts, set $need_peanuts to TRUE.
    $need_peanuts = preg_match('/peanuts$/i', $var);
    ?>


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Including Code
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If you are including a class, function library, or anything else which would
cause a parse error if included twice, always use include_once. This will
ensure that no matter how many factory methods we use or how much dynamic
inclusion we do, the library will only be included once.

If you are including a static filename, such as a conf file or a template
that is _always_ used, use require.

If you are dynamically including a filename, or want the code to only be
used conditionally (an optional template), use include.


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PHP Code Tags
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ALWAYS use <?php ?> to delimit PHP code, not the <?php ?> shorthand. Even
use <?php echo $name ?> instead of <?php echo $name; ?>.


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php.ini settings
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All code should work with register_globals = Off. This means using
$_GET, $_POST, $_COOKIE, $_SESSION,
$_SERVER, and $_ENV to access all get, post, cookie,
session, server, and environment data, respectively.

All code should work with error_reporting = E_ALL. Failure to do so would
result in ugly output, error logs getting filled with lots of warning messages,
or even downright broken scripts.

All code should work regardless of the setting of magic_quotes_gpc.
Form data should be passed through stripslashes if necessary.

No code should assume that '.' is in the include path. Always
specify './' in front of a filename when you are including a file in
the same directory.


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XHTML 1.0 Compliance
======================================================================

All HTML should be valid XHTML 1.0 verfied with the
W3C Markup Validation Service: http://validator.w3.org/

All tag names and parameters must be lower case including javascript
event handlers:

    <div class="mofogo">...</div>
    <a href="http://www.example.com/" onmouseover="status=''" onmouseout="status=''">...</a>

All tag parameters must be of a valid parameter="value" form (numeric
values must also be surrounded by quotes).  For parameters that had no
value in HTML, the parameter name is the value.  For example:

    <input type="checkbox" checked="checked" />
    <select name="example">
        <option selected="selected" value="1">Example</option>
    </select>
    <td nowrap="nowrap">Example</td>

All tags must be properly closed. Tags without a closing part must follow the
XHTML convention and end with a space and a slash:

    <br />
    <hr />
    <img src="example.gif" alt="Example" />
    <input type="submit" value="Example" />

All form definitions must be on their own line and either fully defined within
a <td></td> pair or be outside table tags. Forms must also aways have an action
parameter:

    <form method="post" action="http://example.com/example.cgi">
    <table>
        <tr><td>example</td></tr>
    </table>
    </from>

    <table>
        <tr><td>
            <form action="javascript:void(0)" onsubmit="return false;">
            </form>
        </td></tr>
    </table>

All JavaScript tags must have a valid language and type parameters:

    <script language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript">
    <!--
    ...
    // -->
    </script>

Nothing may appear after </html>, therefore include any common footers after
all other output.

All images must have an alt parameter:

    <img src="example.gif" alt="<?php echo _("Example"); ?>" />

Input field of type "image" does not allow the border parameter, and may render
with a border on some browsers.  Use the following instead:

   <a href="" onclick="document.formname.submit(); return false;"><img src="example.gif" alt="<?php echo _("Example"); ?>" /></a>


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Database Naming Conventions
======================================================================

All database tables need to make sure that their table and field names work in all
databases. Many databases reserve words like 'uid', 'user', etc. for
internal use, and forbid words that are SQL keywords (select, where,
etc.). Adding '_tbl' to the end of the table name is a good idea for this reason
and also improves searching for the table names in the code.

A good way to do this for field names is to make the field name
table_name_field_name.

When building queries referencing two-or-more tables always preface columns
with the table containing the column (admin_tbl.username, location_tbl.location_address).
This method is much prefered over using aliases of table names (a.username, l.location_address).

Table names should be singular (user_tbl instead of users_tbl).