Getting started: Coding standards

• PHP tags
• Files
• Namespaces
• Classes
• Methods
• Variables
• Constants
• Braces
• Indentation
• Comments

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The following coding standards have been used when developing Mako. We suggest you follow the same standards when developing applications using Mako.

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PHP tags

Always use long open tags. Never use short tags or ASP style tags. Class files should never include a closing tag.

// Correct

<?php

// Incorrect

<?

// Incorect

<%

---

Files

Files should always have the same name as the class they contain. A file should never contain more than one class. The file encoding should always be UTF-8.

File names must match the case of the class. The only exception being controllers and tasks, which should always have lower case file names.

// File: libraries/mako/DateTime.php

<?php

namespace mako
{
	class DateTime
	{
		
	}
}

// File: app/controllers/index.php

<?php

namespace app\lib
{
	class Index
	{
		
	}
}

---

Namespaces

Namespaces should be written in lower case:

// Correct

namespace foo\bar;

// Incorrect

namespace Foo\Bar;

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Classes

Class names should be written in upper CamelCase:

// Correct

class Image

// Correct

class MyImage

// Incorrect

class image

// Incorrect

class my_image

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Methods

Method names should be written in lower camelCase (does not apply to controller and task methods):

// Correct

public function fooBar()

// Incorrect

public function FooBar()

// Incorrect

public function foo_bar()

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Variables

Variable names should be written in lower camelCase:

// Correct

$fooBar = null;

// Incorrect

$foobar = null;

// Incorrect

$foo_bar = null;

---

Constants

Constant names should be written in upper case and multiple words should be separated with a underscore:

// Correct

const FOO_BAR = 123;

// Correct

define('FOO_BAR', 123);

// Incorrect

const foobar = 123;

// Incorrect

define('foobar', 123);

---

Braces

Braces associated with a control statement should always be on the next line, indented to the same level as the control statement:

// Correct

public function foo()
{
	
}

// Incorrect

public function foo() {

}

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Indentation

Tabs should be used for indentation while spaces should be used to align code:

<?php

namespace foo;

class Bar
{
	public function hello()
	{
		$string  = 'Hello ';
		$string .= 'World!';

		echo $string;
	}
}

---

Comments

All classes, methods and functions are commented using the PHPDoc standard.

This makes it easy to understand what the code does and it also enables IDEs to provide improved code completion, type hinting and debugging.

/**
 * Returns a greeting.
 * 
 * @access  public
 * @param   string  $name  Name of the person you want to greet
 * @return  string
 */

public function greeting($name)
{
	return 'Hello, ' . $name . '!';
}