Do’s and Don’ts of PHP

PHP Web Application

Posted on 17 Apr 2013 3 min read Share On:

PHP is one of the most commonly used programming languages in the web development industry. Their is a huge community of web developers working on PHP throughout the world. Are you a fresher in the PHP web development industry? Here, we are providing a small list of the do’s and don’t of PHP development.

Do’s:

Double check your code

Make it a habit to always double check your code. Even an expert programmer may sometimes make a mistake. This mistake may be minor, like just a small keystroke such as ; or ‘ can waste all your coding. Many developers believe that double checking the code prevents minor mistakes and makes sure that the queries, variables, etc are directed to the right area.

Test again and again

Make sure to test the code. For this, you must have an experienced tester working in your team. Get the code tested again and again, until no errors are found in the program. This will prevent the errors to occur while executing the program.

Keep backups

Whenever you develop a script whether large or small, make sure to note the changes. You can also make a backup of that file, otherwise you may be at the risk of losing a lot of work. Later, you may also not remember where you made the change that were causing an error. Absence of the backup of even the smallest changes, may sometimes lead to big problems.

Don’ts:

Don’t trust online or external sources

An online source or an external hard drive can cause misplacement or loss of data. Servers of online sources can go down and hard drives may crash causing loss of data. External hard drives may sometimes completely delete all data, without any warning. With this happening, you may lose everything unless you have got the backup on a disc.

Don’t post your code anywhere

While posting your code to various places you are on a risk of someone else seeing and stealing it. This person can modify your code and release it as his own. He can also use your code without even changing it. You won’t have any evidence to proof that it was yours. For this, you can make a signature in your code. Through this, you basically hide your signature in wide open space in a way that no one notices it.

Don’t reinvent the Wheel

One of the biggest mistakes any developer can make is reinventing the wheel. ‘Don’t Reinvent The Wheel’ is a popular phrase in software development. Normally it is used in the context where a library exists to do what the user wants, but he writes his own. This may cause errors, later.

So next time whenever you work on a php web development project, make sure that you follow these general guidelines. It will help you complete your project faster and you will also get better results or output at the end.