PHP - How To Define A Way-of-organizing-your-code Strategy For Creating A More Maintanable Codebase When It Comes To Sql Refactoring

Hi all,
 
I was reading a bit in the manual about the defined function. Since i have seen it being used quite a lot to disallow direct access. But one of the comments made me think if there are any alternatives to get the same.
it's this comment: http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.defined.php#89886

If i read it correct it tells that defined() seems to be pretty slow. I was thinking, if that is the case what are the alternatives...

Does anyone know how to interpret this comment and if there are alternatives? I am not yet a guru tofully understand the results.

cheers!

In many cases, variable have to be explicitly defined for whatever reason.

However, often it is not required for a simple web page script.

Yet, even in those cases, if a variable is NOT explicitly defined, the web server error log (example: my_domain.com-error_log) will rack up a lot of entries such as this: Quote

[Fri Dec 31 01:31:43 2010] [error] [client 123.123.123.123] PHP Notice:  Undefined variable: some_variable_name in /home/my_domain/public_html/some_page.php on line 6


A busy site could result in large error logs...

What is considered "best practice"? Should all variables always be explicitly defined with the var key word?

I have a class that adds a special PDF page to an existing PDF.  The page refers to a specific product and there are products A, B, C, D.  Products B, C, D are similar and with a bit of if/then/else magic I can basically reuse the same function for all 3, but product A is different enough to have its own function.   My class looks like this:

class AddPdfPage
{
    function addA(&$pdf, $vars) {}
    function addB(&$pdf, $vars) {}
    function addC(&$pdf, $vars) {}
    function addD(&$pdf, $vars) {}
}

//The way I call it from within the code right now is like this:
AddPdfPage::addC($pdf, $vars);
AddPdfPage::addB($pdf, $vars);


//the variable below contains the product line -- A, B, C, or D
//that's the one I said I could use to merge functions B/C/D into one if I wanted to
//I could even include product A if I wanted to even though the code there is different.
$vars['productLine']; 

//The code inside addX() functions is something like:
function addX($pdf, $vars)
{
    $pdf->addPage($vars);
    $pdf->addDescription(".."); //that is different based on each specific product line
}

Assuming I want to add a page to PDF for a paricular product X, how do I write or structure my code?  I am not exactly sure.   Do I set it up somehow to use polymorphism?  Do I do something else?   I assume I don't really want to merge products B/C/D into the same function, even if I could, since they physically represent different product lines, so I might as well keep them as such -- separate.  But I may want to use some features of the language to clean up and better up my code.  The "how", and what techniques do I use, and what my final code may look like is what my post is about.   I am thinking of doing something like:

class AddPdfPage()
{
    private $pdf;
    private $vars;
    private $productLine;

    function __construct($pdf, $vars)
    {
        $this->pdf = $pdf;
        $this->vars = $vars;
        $this->productLine = $vars['productLine'];
    }

    public function addPage()
    {
        switch($this->productLine)
        {
             case 'A': ...break;
             case 'B': ...break;
             case 'C': ...break;
             case 'D': ...break;
        }
    }
}

Use that as a jump start and I guess I could use polymorphism by creating separate classes for each product line and extending some base class, if switch statement is not good.. (http://c2.com/cgi/wi...StatementsSmell) but I feel like I will be polluting my file system with too many classes and not sure if that's exactly a benefit.  So just thinking about how to do this.
Edited by dennis-fedco, 15 October 2014 - 10:56 AM.

This will be somewhat of a brain dump with somewhat vague questions.  To summarize it right now, something about "refactoring software" has been bugging me.  The length of the process, the work it takes, and the time, and the "no immediately visible results" that it produces.   There have been numerous questions on "do I refactor or rewrite".  Depending on circumstances, one choice may work better than another, although historically for working projects (projects people are using continuously), refactoring seemed to do better, since it does not break things as much as rewriting does.  And when things break all at once, such as when introducing a rewrite (which most likely has different behavior, UI, feel, workflow, etc. etc.), people tend to get upset.

Well, refactoring seems to smooth out the 'upsetness' over a much longer period of time.  People change as software changes, and each change is not as abrupt as with a rewrite.

There are books written about refactoring software.  That process takes time and work, `while not changing the functionality of the software`.  Little improvements can be done here and there, but the main point becomes improving the internals of the software without affecting the outside behavior, the user experience.

From the business end, *there are no changes!*.  We have developers *doing busy work* without showing anything to the business, until perhaps much later.  Is that bad?  Where I work, I have business people scoff at "what have we been doing" quite regularly, and saying things like "add convertion from one unit system to another?  Just put it in!"  Which ends up me staring into vastness of legacy code and taking 2-3 weeks to "put it in", what in someone's mind takes a day at the most.  But that's cuz maybe I'm slow, but I chose to refactor relevant code first, at least moving View items into respective view containers as a first step.

What is the purpose of refactoring software?  What, per se does it make better?  What expectations can be set?  What do I do next time someone says "it is taking too long", other than saying ... cuz I am refactoring!

Hello,   I'm starting using class and have a question for you guys :    Let's consider a class "customer". I want to code a search tool. Where should I put my search function ? Within the customer class ? In another "search" class ? Other solution ?   Thanks for help !

Hi,

I was asked to create an app, wherein, the user may enter the email addresses of people manually, and it auto generates a random key.
now this key will be used access such pages e.g

proposal.test.com/ppc
proposal.test.com/seo
proposal.test.com/design

so using the key for example =>  Sa22asdf 
it should appear like this

proposal.test.com/ppc/Sa22asdf
proposal.test.com/seo/Sa22asdf
proposal.test.com/design/Sa22asdf


without the unique key generated during the input of email address, the URL mentioned shouldn't be accessed by anyone..
now my question is, how to approach this thing in PHP ?

I have done the input for email address and generation of random keys., but i don't know yet what to do or how to do the
securing of pages using those keys  ? 

am currently building the cart system of a product, now there is this part wherein, the non-logged-in OR logged-in user should also be able to see the items that he/she viewed, how to do that?., am not asking for code snippets , just give me some ideas/hints/strategies/tips that may help me get the big picture on how to do this thing and proceed coding.

This topic has been moved to Application Design.

http://www.phpfreaks.com/forums/index.php?topic=350418.0

Hi guys,

What techniques do you use to process, validate, and then show errors on your forms.

Do you set an "action" to the same form and then handle errors somewhere?
Do you use a separate script to process validation?
What standards do you apply for the position of the error messages?
Do you alter the "look" of any fields in errors (make them red for example)?

Do you have a good standard strategy that can be applied for all forms in a re-usable fashion? Perhaps using functions?

I am looking for a robust, user friendly (and coder friendly come to that) solution to this frequently encountered situation.

Many thanks for any help.

S

I am wondering if there is an easier / better way to keep my development and test databases in synch.   When I develop, I may add tables or fields to existing tables. When I upload from the development server to the test server I can check and make sure that I include all of the programs that I have edited by using the filesystems last modified date. However, I keep track of new and changed tables in MYSQL manually. Is there an easy way, that I am just missing, to see last modified dates for tables within a db? Is there some other strategy I should be using. I hate missing a table and having the test server give errors on code I debugged once on the development server.

Imagine 6 PHP classes (one each for a product line), that have very similar coding structures, that go like this:

//function that computes stuff inside each of 6 files:
//they vary slightly from file to file but essentially it is this:
function computeFunction
{
    $this->x = new X();

    $this->x->calcD();

    if ($this->x->dOk)
    {
        $this->x->calcE();
        $this->x->calcN();   
    }

    //more complicated logic that is essentially like above

    //and by the way!
    print $this->x->someVarThatIsUsedLater;
}

Then there is a single class like so :

class X
{
    function calcD()
    {
        //compute some condition

        if (<computed condition is met>) $this->dOk = true;
        else $this->dOk = false;

        //and by the way
        $this->someVarThatIsUsedLater = 4;
    }
}

Just to bring your attention to it, none of these functions return any result or value, but they nevertheless operate on variables of key interest via side-effects.  That is, they modify variables that essentially act like globals, and then use those variables later ($this->dOk and $this->someVarThatIsUsedLater are one more prominent examples).   I need to untangle this mess.  And make it clean and clear again, and make sense.  How do I best proceed?   I have been wrestling with some ideas... like $this->dOk, can within reason be turned into a return variable of calcD() function, and then be tested against like if ($this->x->calcD()) and I think it will be reasonable enough.  But then there are other functions that don't return anything and just act on variables via side-effects anyway so $this->dOk is one of the lesser troubles...   Other than that, what I am thinking of doing is getting rid of these mini-functions (calcE(),  calcN(), etc.), removing them as a funciton, and putting their body directly into the code, as a first step to refactor.  Many of the computations done inside are just a few lines of code anyway, and the functions kind of hide a lot of side-effects that happen, instead of actually encapsulating the behavior.  So while it may be counter-intuitive to dismantle the functions that appear to be doing something that normally can be encapsulated (computing key variables E, N, etc), I think dismantling them will actually clean things up as far as collecting all the side-effects inside a single parent function thereby making them more visible.   Caveat:  while doing so I will end up with 6 copies of untangled dismantled functions, because dismantling class X and putting its content into each of the 6 product line classes will have that effect.   But my hope is that from that point I will see more clearly to start identifying places where I can start to truly encapsulating the behavior via various structures, instead of masking it.   Problems / Questions: I would like to but I am not entirely sure that I can skip that step of dismantling functions & the 6x multiplying effect. It's probably the same like skipping steps in solving polynomial equations.  Some can do it and some need to list each step of their work. And I am not entirely sure what structures I can replace it with in the end after I dismantle the functions. It also looks like a lot of work.  Is there a better way? P.S. I already put tests on computeFunction() for each product line so I can be less paranoid about hacking stuff up.
Edited by dennis-fedco, 19 January 2015 - 03:06 PM.

Hello,

I'm working on a very simple strategy based game site (mainly to expand my knowledge).

What I basically want it to do is, you send a solider to an area which takes, say 20 seconds. After 20 seconds, he battles for 30 seconds, and then arrived back home which takes another 20 seconds.

All the user is going to be seeing is a 'status' echo'ed text saying "Arriving in 00:??", "Battle Over in 00:??", and "Home in 00:??".

So its just using a time counter. But what makes it more complicated, is that I want the time progress to be saved (datebase), so say I have to wait 50 seconds, I can sign off, go on another computer, sign in and still see my timer going down according to the time that has just passed.

So, what I've done so far is, have 4 variables:

$realTime - Holds the actual time in seconds.
$waitingTime - Holds how long I need to wait. (this is stored in my DB)
$differenceTime - Difference between real time and my waiting time. (loaded from my DB)
$soliderProgress - Progress of the solider, so: Arriving, Battle ... (stored on DB)


Code: [Select]
$realTime = date("s");

//soliderProgress is 'Starting' by default
if(soliderProgress == "Starting"){
   //solider is moving to area
   $differenceTime = $realTime + $waitingTime;
   $SQL = ("UPDATE users SET differenceTime='$differenceTime' WHERE username='$username'");
   soliderProgress = "Arriving";
   $SQL = ("UPDATE users SET soliderProgress='$soliderProgress' WHERE username='$username'");
}

if(soliderProgress == "Arriving"){
   echo "Arriving to area";
   if($realTime >= $differenceTime){
      //timer is complete
      soliderProgress = "Battle";
      $SQL = ("UPDATE users SET soliderProgress='$soliderProgress' WHERE username='$username'");
   }
}

This kind of works, but sometimes my $differenceTime is higher than 60 which messes it up, and also the timer isn't live ... so I have to keep refreshing the page

So I'm calling in data from a DB where each record is associated with a (column) 'start_time', 'no_shows', 'cancelled', and 'attended' 

I want to go through the results of this SELECT and count the number of no shows, cancellations and attended on a WEEKLY basis (based on the start_time). How can I achieve this? 

The user will provide a date range and the DB will select the records based on that date range. Now this date range will then have to be split by weeks and then get the count. I'm totally stuck on the counting by weeks part. This is what I have so far: 

All it does is just organize the data into separate arrays without any counting. Attached is a preview of the output. 

// Multidimensional Array with [boolean][week #]
  $no_shows_weekly = [
    'no_show' => [],
    'week' => []
  ];
  $cancelled_weekly = [
    'cancelled' => [],
    'week' => []
  ];
  $attended_weekly = [
    'attended' => [],
    'week' => []
  ];

  foreach($result as $r) {
    $start_time = new DateTime($r['start_time']);
    if($r['is_no_show'] == 0 && $r['is_cancelled'] == 0) {
        array_push($attended_weekly['attended'], 1);
        array_push($attended_weekly['week'], date_format($start_time, "W"));
    }
    else {
      array_push($attended_weekly['attended'], 0);
      array_push($attended_weekly['week'], date_format($start_time, "W"));
    }
    array_push($no_shows_weekly['no_show'], $r['is_no_show']);
    array_push($no_shows_weekly['week'], date_format($start_time, "W"));
    array_push($cancelled_weekly['cancelled'], $r['is_cancelled']);
    array_push($cancelled_weekly['week'], date_format($start_time, "W"));
  }
  echo json_encode(array(
       'success'=> 1,
       'msg'=>
         array(
           'No Shows' => $no_shows_weekly,
           'Cancellations' => $cancelled_weekly,
           'Attendend' => $attended_weekly
         )
    ));

Any suggestions or help is greatly appreciated! 

Hi Everyone,   Someone is asking me a bit of help on a website, I know a bit php and HTML5, I would like to know what would be the best of doing this please:     1)I need to create 2 big buttons, according to the choice of the buttons a different dropbox menu with towns will showup.   2)When the user chooses one of the town, in any drop down, I would like to show a different DIV with content in it.     Here is a practical example:      BUTTON A              BUTTON B   if Button A is pressed, show dropdown menu A if BUTTON B is pressed, show dropdown menu B   If town 1 from dropdown menu A is chosen show DIV 1 If town 2 from dropdown menu A is chosen show DIV 1 If town 3 from dropdown menu A is chosen show DIV 2 If town 4 from dropdown menu A is chosen show DIV 3 If town 5 from dropdown menu A is chosen show DIV 1     If town 1 from dropdown menu B is chosen show DIV 6 If town 2 from dropdown menu B is chosen show DIV 5 If town 3 from dropdown menu B is chosen show DIV 5 If town 4 from dropdown menu B is chosen show DIV 6 If town 5 from dropdown menu B is chosen show DIV 4         How to do this without reloading the page please?       Thank you,   Bambinou

I have two related websites which utilize the same database:

Main website for public use. Admin website for administration purposes.

Currently, I have both located in /var/www/combined-app which is a single git repository and contains the following:

/var/www/combined-app/
    public/
    public-admin/
    src/
        main/
        admin/
    vendor/
    composer.json
    bootstrap.php

Alternatively, I could have done the following:

/var/www/combined-app/
    main/
        public/
        src/
        vendor/
        composer.json
        bootstrap.php
    admin/
        public/
        src/
        vendor/
        composer.json
        bootstrap.php

Or maybe something else all together?

Is one approach typically better than the other?   If so, please provide reasons why.  If my second example, would you recommend separate git repositories for main and admin?

Thanks