Coding standards

• File types & encoding
• PHP tags
• Indentation
• Spacing
• Whitespace
• New lines
• File naming
• Class & method naming
• Helper naming
• PHP variable naming
• User defined constants
• PHP constants

### File types & encoding All PHP files with the exception of view/template files have the extension .php

All view/template files have the extension .tpl

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### PHP Tags Short PHP opening tags and ASP tags are not supported. The characters should be lowercase. ``` All PHP files must include a closing tag for versions before 2.0. PHP files in and after 2.0 will no longer have a closing tag.

?>

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### Indentation PHP files must be indented using the TAB character. 4 space tabs are not supported.

HTML in template files (.tpl) must be indented using 2 spaces, not 4 spaces or TABS. JavaScript must be indented using the TAB character.

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### Spacing IF, WHILE, FOR etc should have a space before and after the brackets.

Correct:

if () {

Incorrect:

if(){

ELSE etc should have a space after and before the curly braces

Correct:

} else {

Incorrect:

}else{

Type casting does NOT have a space before the variable

Correct:

(int)$var

Incorrect:

(int) $var

Setting a variable should always have a space before and after the equals sign

Correct:

$var = 1;

Incorrect:

$var=1;

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### Whitespace After any code, but before a new line - there should be no white space. The same is true for an empty line.

After the closing PHP tag it is extremely important to remove any white space.

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### New Lines

Opening curly braces do not go onto a new line, they will always have a space before and be on the same line.

1 True Brace Style (1TBS) (WIKI)

Correct:

if ($my_example == 1) {

class ModelExampleExample extends Model {

public function addExample() {

} else {

Incorrect:

if ($my_example == 1)
{

class ModelExampleExample extends Model
{

public function addExample()
{

}
else
{

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### File naming All files should be in lower case and words separated by an underscore.

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### Class & method naming Class names and method names should be camel case.

Correct:

class ModelExampleExample extends Model

public function addExample()

Incorrect:

class model_exampleexample extends Model

public function add_example()

A method scope should always be cast.

Correct:

public function addExample()

Incorrect:

function addExample()

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### PHP Function (helpers) naming Helper function names should be lower case and an underscore used to separate words.

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### PHP variable naming PHP variables should be lower case and an underscore used to separate words.

Correct:

$var = 123;
$new_var = 12345;

Incorrect:

$Var = 123;
$newVar = 12345;

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### User defined constants User defined constants are set as upper case.

Correct:

define('MY_VAR', 'My constant string value');

Incorrect:

define('my_var', 'My constant string value');

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### PHP constants These types of constant (true,false,null) are set as lower case

Correct:

$my_var = true;

Incorrect:

$my_var = TRUE;