PHP and MySQL Web Development 4th Ed-tqw-_darksiderg

538 Chapter 25 Using PHP and MySQL for Large Projects
If you find that the functionality you require is not in the main PHP library, you have
two choices. If you need something relatively simple, you can choose to write your own
function or object. However, if you’re looking at building a fairly complex piece of functionality—such
as a shopping cart, web email system, or web forums—you should not be
surprised to find that somebody else has probably already built it. One of the strengths of
working in the open source community is that code for application components such as
these is often freely available. If you find a component similar to the one you want to
build, even if it isn’t exactly right, you can look at the source code as a starting point for
modification or for building your own.
If you end up developing your own functions or components, you should seriously
consider making them available to the PHP community after you have finished.This
principle keeps the PHP developer community such a helpful, active, and knowledgeable
group.
Writing Maintainable Code
The issue of maintainability is often overlooked in web applications, particularly because
programmers often write them in a hurry. Getting started on the code and getting it finished
quickly sometimes seem more important than planning it first. However, a little
time invested up front can save you a lot of time further down the road when you’re
ready to build the next iteration of an application.
Coding Standards
Most large IT organizations have coding standards—guidelines to the house style for
choosing file and variable names, guidelines for commenting code, guidelines for indenting
code, and so on.
Because of the document paradigm often previously applied to web development,
coding standards have sometimes been overlooked in this area. If you are coding on your
own or in a small team, you can easily underestimate the importance of coding standards.
Don’t overlook such standards because your team and project might grow.Then
you will end up not only with a mess on your hands, but also a bunch of programmers
who can’t make heads or tails of any of the existing code.
Defining Naming Conventions
The goals of defining a naming convention are
n To make the code easy to read. If you define variables and function names sensibly,
you should be able to virtually read code as you would an English sentence, or at
least pseudocode.
n To make identifier names easy to remember. If your identifiers are consistently
formatted, remembering what you called a particular variable or function will be
easier.