A PHP Project Checklist

NOTE: Please Fork this repo if you want to Add/Modify this checklist for project best practices.

• Open Source Specific

  • ReadMe
    • It should contain the "Usage" section
    • It should contain the "Installation" section
    • It should contain the "Requirements" section
    • It should contain the "Contributing" section (via CONTRIBUTING file)
    • It should contain the "Credits" if you prefer
    • It should contain the "License" if you prefer (file "LICENSE" must be present in project root)
      • GPL: If you want any modified versions of your code to be used only in open-source software
      • LGPL: If your code is designed to be a standalone component that may be included in other applications without modification
      • MIT: Allows for use and redistribution of code so long as the license and copyright are included along with it.
  • Semantic Versioning (http://semver.org/)
  • Github page (https://pages.github.com/)
  • A Getting Started Document
  • Continuous Integration (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continuous_integration)
  • Bug Tracking integrated with the source control
  • A style guide to keep the code consistent
  • A forum for the community to get support, share ideas, etc.
  • Should allow installation via composer (https://getcomposer.org/)
  • Auto-Generated Documentation
  • Manual

• Project Specific

  • Project Architecture Planning (decide which framework to use, which design patterns to follow: MVC, HMVC, DDD, etc)
  • Automated unit tests and builds to push update to the website
  • Proper folder structure such as src for source, vendor for dependencies, tests for tests, config, etc
  • Coding Specific (PHP, CSS, Javascript)
    • PSR standards (http://www.php-fig.org/)
    • Write SOLID code (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SOLID_%28object-oriented_design%29)
      • Single Responsibility Principle
      • Open/Closed Principle
      • Liskov Substitution Principle
      • Interface Segregation Principle
      • Dependency Inversion Principle
    • Avoid STUPID code (http://nikic.github.io/2011/12/27/Dont-be-STUPID-GRASP-SOLID.html)
      • Singleton
      • Tight coupling
      • Untestability
      • Premature Optimization
      • Indescriptive Naming
      • Duplication
    • Monolog (psr-compliant logger)
    • Validators: CSSLint, JSHint, PHPCI, etc
    • Use SPL Exceptions (http://php.net/manual/en/spl.exceptions.php)
    • For CSS, use preprocessor like SASS or LESS
    • Tools: Choose from Awesome PHP (https://github.com/ziadoz/awesome-php)