Family Connections Documentation: PHP Code Tags

Docs -> Coding Style Guide

Please follow the following guidelines when contributing code to FCMS. Some of the current code for FCMS was written prior to these guidelines. We are working to fix existing code to meet these guidelines.

PHP Code Tags

You should always use the full php open tag, never use short open tags.

<?php
?>

Code Indenting

Please use tabs instead of spaces when indenting your code. If you are using a text editor please set your tabs to equal 4 spaces.

Naming Variables, Classes and Functions

Variables, Classes and Functions can only contain alphanumeric characters, no underscores or spaces, and must alwasy start with a lowercase letter. Please use "Camel Case∞" (start each word with a Capital letter, except the first one).

Right
$myVariable = 5;
getLatestPhotos()

Wrong
$myvariable = 5;
get_latest_photos()

Comments

For one or two line comments please use // instead of /* */

Right
// this is comment line one
// this is comment line two

Wrong
/* this is comment line one */
/* this is comment line two */

At the beginning of each function please use the following block style comments

/**
* Function Name
*
* Description of what the
* function does, including any
* variables
*/

Parentheses

Opening parentheses for conditional statements, functions and clases should start on the same line. Do not put opening parentheses on their own line.

Right
if ($house > $car) {
echo "All is right with the world";
} else {
echo "Something's wrong here";
}

Wrong
if ($house > $car)
{
echo "All is right with the world";
}
else
{
echo "Something's wrong here";
}

Strings

For Strings without variables (literal Strings), apostrophes or single quotes, always use single quotes. For all other Strings, use double quotes.

Right
$literalString = 'This is a string';
$containsSingle = "I can't read";
$myString = "You have $money dollars.";

Wrong
$literalString = "This is a string";
$containsSingle = 'I can\'t read';
$myString = 'You have ' . $money . 'dollars.';

When concatenating Strings using the "." operator, always use a space between String segments.

$anAwesomeString = "This is a part of" . " " . "a String";

When concatenating Strings on multiple lines, always line things up.

$sql = "SELECT `id`, `first_name`, `last_name`
FROM `employee`
WHERE `id` = 5";

Functions

When calling a function, do not use a space before lising the function arguments. You should also put a space after the comma seperating the arguments.

resizePhoto($photo, $width, $height)
getLatestPhotos()

When defining a function, always use a space before listing the function arguments.

function resizePhoto ($photo, $width, $height) {
... some code
}

SQL

Always use all caps for SQL keywords, and use apostrophes for table names and fields.

Right
SELECT `id`, `name` FROM `employee` WHERE `name` LIKE 'a%' ORDER BY `id`

Wrong
select id, name from employee where name like 'a%' order by id

Database

When creating a new table or field, always use all lowercase alphanumeric text, and seperate each word with an underscore. Table names should also start with the fcms_ prefix. In most cases, all tables need to have a primary key named `id`. All tables need to use the utf8 charset.