/code-guidelines

Table of contents

Development

Coding

  • Use tabs for indentation (different projects have different conventions but we use tabs)
  • Trim trailing white space
  • Add new line at end of files
  • Split long lines
  • Split large files (more files are better for collaboration and version control)
  • Use descriptive names for variables and functions
  • Avoid global variables
  • Use Sublime Text with these settings
{
	"detect_indentation": false,
	"ensure_newline_at_eof_on_save": true,
	"font_size": 14.0,
	"ignored_packages":
	[
		"Vintage"
	],
	"open_files_in_new_window": false,
	"scroll_past_end": true,
	"shift_tab_unindent": true,
	"tab_size": 4,
	"translate_tabs_to_spaces": false,
	"trim_trailing_white_space_on_save": true,
	"word_wrap": false
}

PHP

  • One class per file
  • Always use namespaces
  • Class filenames should be same as class name (case-sensitive) and should be loaded using autoloading functions
  • Other filenames should be in lowercase
  • In a file either declare symbols (classes, functions, constants, etc.) or cause side-effects (e.g. generate output, change .ini settings, etc.) but do NOT do both
  • Do NOT put closing PHP tag ?> at the end of file
  • Turn on all errors and notices during development
  • Avoid static methods
  • Follow functional programming whenever possible
  • See PSR-1 and PSR-2 standards
<?php
namespace Vendor\Package;

use FooInterface;
use BarClass as Bar;
use OtherVendor\OtherPackage\BazClass;

class Foo extends Bar implements FooInterface
{
	public function sampleFunction($a, $b = null)
	{
		if ($a === $b) {
			bar();
		} elseif ($a > $b) {
			$foo->bar($arg1);
		} else {
			BazClass::bar($arg2, $arg3);
		}
	}

	final public static function bar()
	{
		// method body
	}
}

MySQL

  • Use PDO
  • Add primary key to all tables
  • Use LIMIT in all statements whenever possible
  • Use descriptive names for tables and columns
  • Prefix table names with app name whenever possible
  • Avoid database names in statements to make it more portable
  • Cache results in memory (Redis) as DB operations are slow
  • Put database schema under version control
SELECT id FROM users WHERE email = ? LIMIT 1
UPDATE users SET status = :status WHERE id = :id LIMIT 1

HTML

  • Place all styles at top in head and scripts at the end of body
  • Do NOT use inline styles or scripts
  • Avoid generating HTML in JS
  • Avoid IDs and use only classes for styling
  • Combine, minify and optimize assets
  • See http://codeguide.co/#html
<!doctype html>
<html>
	<head>
		<meta charset="utf-8">
		<meta http-equiv="x-ua-compatible" content="ie=edge">
		<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
		<title></title>
		<link rel="stylesheet" href="css/app.min.css">
	</head>
	<body>

		<!-- content -->

		<script src="js/app.min.js"></script>
	</body>
</html>

CSS

  • Do NOT use @import
  • Reduce specificity
  • Avoid using ID or tag selectors
  • Classes should be lowercase
  • Use hyphens and do NOT use underscores or camelCases in class names
  • Bootstrap like naming convention
  • Use Bootstrap whenever possible
  • See http://codeguide.co/#css
.table {
	margin-bottom: 15px;
}

.card {
	padding: 20px;
}

.card-title {
	font-size: 18px;
}

.card-primary {
	background-color: #abcdef;
}

JS

!function(global) {
	'use strict';

	var previousFancyInput = global.FancyInput;

	function FancyInput(options) {
		this.options = options || {};
	}

	FancyInput.noConflict = function noConflict() {
		global.FancyInput = previousFancyInput;
		return FancyInput;
	};

	global.FancyInput = FancyInput;
}(this);

Icons