Useful Tips And Practices For Php Developers

By Author: Jonathan Paul
Total Articles: 66
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PHP framework, being one of the most commonly used and popular web development languages, has now become the first and the most favoured choice of the developers and business owners across the globe. There are almost 20 million domains, which use this language and is even being used by reputed names like Wikipedia and Facebook. With this, most of the businesses of different verticals prefer to look for and hire PHP developers for their web development projects. This has made it necessary to note down and practice a few useful tips and tricks for developing successful PHP projects. 
 
Keeping this mind, a few tips have been listed out here for the developers. 
 
Practicing OOP is mandatory:
To sustain in the PHP development field, it is highly essential to practice OOP and use it properly in your codes. OOP or Object Oriented Programming facilitates the re-use of the existing codes whenever and wherever required. With OOP, ...
... you won’t have to even copy the codes every single time you need to use them. You can re-use the codes by just using or declaring the class that has the methods and variables toed together. This will not only reduce the time of coding but will also help you to develop without putting much effort when writing the codes. 
 
Repeating the codes increases the chances of making errors. In procedural coding, a routine is maintained and followed from the top to the bottom of every page as each file is read by the server. This makes it easy to identify the errors and fix them. Overall, OOP is simpler and faster while writing codes and while debugging. 
 
Never use anything that ends with ‘_once’: 
The ‘_once’ command is quite heavy on the server and using this is found to kill the server resources, mostly on the huge frameworks. Try to avoid using this command by properly doing your coding. 
 
Use in-built PHP functions while coding:
If you are trying to count how many keys are there in an array, you can easily use the count() function of PHP. PHP comes with a flock of in-built functions that makes coding much easier. It is always suggested to use these in-built functions in the best ways for easy and quick web development, following the guidelines. 
 
Develop with your Error Reporting On:
When you start coding for a PHP project, the first thing you must do every time is turn on the error reporting and set it to E_ALL. Also, you must ensure to turn it off 10 seconds before switching to the production mode. With the error reporting on, developers can easily pick up all the minor errors and resolve them at the right time, which can otherwise tend to eventually turn into major problems as you continue developing the project. 
 
Avoid using GET and try to use POST:
On, now this may not be always possible but when it is really not mandatory, do not use GET and use POST instead. The reason is just that GET is easy to emulate. One can just add something to the address bar and hack the project. It is obviously true that GET is a simpler way for adding permalinks and doing pagination, but still, it is better to use POST especially in terms of security and when you are working on form submission. 
 
Protect your database:
You must use mysql_real_escape_string() command for all your databases to ensure security. This function or command keeps all the strings safe and secure from other functions or codes that can hamper the safety of the database. This command also protects from malicious codes in your programming. So, always use it against data protection. Validating all GET and POST strings in your coding is also important. You must also never use $_REQUEST and ensure all the data submitted in the form are of the right types and have the right values, before adding them to the database queries. 
 
With these key tips, you can improve your coding style and can ensure expert PHP development solutions to different types of web projects. 
 
Jonathan Paul is an expert PHP developer of a leading company in Australia, PHPProgrammers. The author has written these PHP development tips to make professionals get aware of these as businesses always look for and hire PHP developers who have sound knowledge in PHP and know the right tips and strategies for successful development no matter what type of project he or she is handling. 

Jonathan Paul is a techie, knowledgeable and highly skilled Magento Developer of Australia working with PHPProgrammers who like to share his industrial knowledge and insights with the readers.