PHP - Refactoring This Code...

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!

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.

Hi, I have some code which displays my blog post in a foreach loop, and I want to add some social sharing code(FB like button, share on Twitter etc.), but the problem is the way I have my code now, creates 3 instances of the sharing buttons, but if you like one post, all three are liked and any thing you do affects all of the blog post. How can I fix this?


<?php
include ("includes/includes.php");

$blogPosts = GetBlogPosts();

foreach ($blogPosts as $post)
{
echo "<div class='post'>";
echo "<h2>" . $post->title . "</h2>";
echo "<p class='postnote'>" . $post->post . "</p";
echo "<span class='footer'>Posted By: " . $post->author . "</span>";
echo "<span class='footer'>Posted On: " . $post->datePosted . "</span>";
echo "<span class='footer'>Tags: " . $post->tags . "</span>";
echo '
<div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style ">
<a class="addthis_button_facebook_like" fb:like:layout="button_count"></a>
<a class="addthis_button_tweet"></a>
<a class="addthis_counter addthis_pill_style"></a>
</div>
<script type="text/javascript">var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true};</script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=webguync"></script>';

echo "</div>";
}


?>

I have the following code in html:

<html>
<head>
<script type="text/javascript">
<!--
function delayer(){
    window.location = "http://VARIABLEVALUE.mysite.com"
}
//-->
</script>
<title>Redirecting ...</title>
</head>
<body onLoad="setTimeout('delayer()', 1000)">



<script type="text/javascript">
var sc_project=71304545;
var sc_invisible=1;
var sc_security="9c433fretre";
</script>

<script type="text/javascript"
src="http://www.statcounter.com/counter/counter.js"></script><noscript>
<div
class="statcounter"><a title="vBulletin statistics"
href="http://statcounter.com/vbulletin/"
target="_blank"><img class="statcounter"
src="http://c.statcounter.com/71304545/0/9c433fretre/1/"
alt="vBulletin statistics" ></a></div></noscript>


</body>
</html>

Is a basic html webpage with a timer redirect script and a stascounter code.

I know a bit about html and javascript, but almost nothing about php.

My question is:

How a can convert this html code into a php file, in order to send a variable value using GET Method and display this variable value inside the javascript code where says VARIABLEVALUE.

Thanks in adavance for your help.

Advance thank you.

Can you help please.

The error.....

Warning: mysql_fetch_assoc() expects parameter 1 to be resource, string given in C:\wamp\www\test_dabase.php on line 24

code.
Code: [Select]
<?php

//database connection.
$DB = mysql_connect("localhost","root") or die(mysql_error());

if($DB){

//database name.
$DB_NAME="mysql";

//select database and name.
$CON=mysql_select_db($DB_NAME,$DB)or die(mysql_error()."\nPlease change database name");


// if connection.
}if($CON){
    
    //show tables.
  $mysql_show="SHOW TABLES";
    
    //select show and show.
      $mysql_select2="mysql_query(".$mysql_show.") or die(mysql_error())";
    
    }
    
    //if allowed to show.
    if($mysql_select2){
        
        //while it and
    while($data=mysql_fetch_assoc($mysql_select2)){
        
        //show it.
        echo $data;
        
        }
    }    
    ?>

hey gurus, i am a newbie php coder.. i am learning by example.

what i am trying to do is write a piece of code which will alter 3 tables (user, bonus_credit, bonus_credit_usage)

----------------------------------------------------------------
the table structure that will be used is as follows:

user.bonus_credit
user.ID

bonus_credit.bonusCode
bonus_credit.qty
bonus_credit.value

bonus_credit_usage.bonusCode
bonus_credit_usage.usedBy

----------------------------------------------------------------
so lets say, in bonus_credit i have the following
bonusCode = 'facebook' (this is the code they have to type to redeem the bonus
qty = '10' ( number of times the bonusCode can be redeemed, but same person can't redeem it more than once)
value = '5' (this is the  amount of bonus_credit for each qty)

Now, I need to write a code that check to see if the code has been redeemed in the bonus_credit_usage table and if the user.ID exists in this table as bonus_code_usage.usedBy, then give an error that its already been used and if it hasn't been used, then subtract 1 from qty, add ID to usedBy and then add the value to the bonus_credit

-----------------------
i have started the steps just to create a simple textbox and entering a numeric value to bonus_credit, and that works.. but now i have to use JOIN and IF and ELSE.. which is a little too advanced for me.. so i'd appreciate a guide as i write the code.

if(isset($_REQUEST['btnBonus']))

{

$bonus_credit = addslashes($_REQUEST['bonusCode']);

$query = "update user set bonus_credit=bonus_credit+'".$bonus_credit."' where id='".$_SESSION['SESS_USERID']."'";

echo "<script>window.location='myreferrals.php?msgs=2';</script>";

mysql_query($query) or die(mysql_error());

}

Hi, I need to insert some code into my current form code which will check to see if a username exist and if so will display an echo message. If it does not exist will post the form (assuming everything else is filled in correctly). I have tried some code in a few places but it doesn't work correctly as I get the username message exist no matter what. I think I am inserting the code into the wrong area, so need assistance as to how to incorporate the username check code.

$sql="select * from Profile where username = '$username';
$result = mysql_query( $sql, $conn )
      or die( "ERR: SQL 1" );
if(mysql_num_rows($result)!=0)
{
process form
}
else
{
echo "That username already exist!";
}


the current code of the form


<?PHP
//session_start();
require_once "formvalidator.php";
$show_form=true;

if (!isset($_POST['Submit'])) {



$human_number1 = rand(1, 12);



$human_number2 = rand(1, 38);



$human_answer = $human_number1 + $human_number2;



$_SESSION['check_answer'] = $human_answer;
}

if(isset($_POST['Submit']))
{





if (!isset($_SESSION['check_answer'])) {
echo "<p>Error: Answer session not set</p>";
}


if($_POST['math'] != $_SESSION['check_answer']) {
echo "<p>You did not pass the human check.</p>";
exit();
}


   $validator = new FormValidator();
    $validator->addValidation("FirstName","req","Please fill in FirstName");







$validator->addValidation("LastName","req","Please fill in LastName");
$validator->addValidation("UserName","req","Please fill in UserName");
$validator->addValidation("Password","req","Please fill in a Password");
$validator->addValidation("Password2","req","Please re-enter your password");
$validator->addValidation("Password2","eqelmnt=Password","Your passwords do not match!");
$validator->addValidation("email","email","The input for Email should be a valid email value");
$validator->addValidation("email","req","Please fill in Email");
$validator->addValidation("Zip","req","Please fill in your Zip Code");
$validator->addValidation("Security","req","Please fill in your Security Question");
$validator->addValidation("Security2","req","Please fill in your Security Answer");
    if($validator->ValidateForm())
    {
        $con = mysql_connect("localhost","uname","pw") or die('Could not connect: ' . mysql_error());
        mysql_select_db("beatthis_beatthis") or die(mysql_error());
$FirstName=mysql_real_escape_string($_POST['FirstName']); //This value has to be the same as in the HTML form file
$LastName=mysql_real_escape_string($_POST['LastName']); //This value has to be the same as in the HTML form file
$UserName=mysql_real_escape_string($_POST['UserName']); //This value has to be the same as in the HTML form file
$Password= md5($_POST['Password']); //This value has to be the same as in the HTML form file
$Password2= md5($_POST['Password2']); //This value has to be the same as in the HTML form file
$email=mysql_real_escape_string($_POST['email']); //This value has to be the same as in the HTML form file
$Zip=mysql_real_escape_string($_POST['Zip']); //This value has to be the same as in the HTML form file
$Birthday=mysql_real_escape_string($_POST['Birthday']); //This value has to be the same as in the HTML form file
$Security=mysql_real_escape_string($_POST['Security']); //This value has to be the same as in the HTML form file
$Security2=mysql_real_escape_string($_POST['Security2']); //This value has to be the same as in the HTML form file



$sql="INSERT INTO Profile (`FirstName`,`LastName`,`Username`,`Password`,`Password2`,`email`,`Zip`,`Birthday`,`Security`,`Security2`) VALUES ('$FirstName','$LastName','$UserName','$Password','$Password2','$email','$Zip','$Birthday','$Security','$Security2')"; 
//echo $sql;
if (!mysql_query($sql,$con)) {

 die('Error: ' . mysql_error());

} else{



mail('email@gmail.com','A profile has been submitted!',$FirstName.' has submitted their profile',$body);

echo "<h3>Your profile information has been submitted successfully.</h3>";
}

mysql_close($con);
        $show_form=false;
    }
    else
    {
        echo "<h3 class='ErrorTitle'>Validation Errors:</h3>";

        $error_hash = $validator->GetErrors();
        foreach($error_hash as $inpname => $inp_err)
        {
            echo "<p class='errors'>$inpname : $inp_err</p>\n";
        }        
    }
}

if(true == $show_form)
{
?>

Can you help me integrate this code :

<form method="post" action="submit.php">
<input type="checkbox" class="required" /> Click to check
<br />
<input disabled="disabled" type='submit' id="submitBtn" value="Submit">
</form>

In to this Contact Form code, please?

<form action="../page.php?page=1" method="post" name="contact_us" onSubmit="return capCheck(this);">
<table cellpadding="5" width="100%">
<tr>
<td width="10" class="required_field">*</td>
<td width="80">Your Name</td>
<td><input type="text" name="name" maxlength="40" style="width:400px;/></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="required_field">*</td>
<td>Email Address</td>
<td><input type="text" name="email" maxlength="40" style="width:400px;/></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td></td>
<td>Comments:</td>
<td><textarea name="comments" style="width: 400px; height: 250px;"></textarea></td>
</tr>
</table>
</form

Can I combine also HTML code in PHP function?
For example, can a PHP function include HTML form and the PHP code to handle this form?

If yes, this will make my main code much more smaller and readable.

If not, is there a way to define an "external macro" like, which allow me to replace pre-defined lines of code with short alias?


 

Hi,

Look at this code below:

Code: [Select]
<?php function outputModule($moduleID, $moduleName, $sessionData) 
{ 

    if(!count($sessionData)) 
    { 
        return false; 
    } 

    $markTotal = 0; 
    $markGrade = 0; 
    $weightSession = 0; 
    $grade = ""; 
    $sessionsHTML = ""; 

    foreach($sessionData as $session) 
    { 

        $sessionsHTML .= "<p><strong>Session:</strong> {$session['SessionId']} <strong>Session Mark:</strong> {$session['Mark']}</strong> <strong>Session Weight Contribution</strong> {$session['SessionWeight']}%</p>\n"; 
        $markTotal += round($session['Mark'] / 100 * $session['SessionWeight']); 
        $weightSession  += ($session['SessionWeight']); 
        $markGrade = round($markTotal /  $weightSession * 100); 
             
        if ($markGrade >= 70) 
        { 
            $grade = "A"; 
        } 

        else if ($markGrade >= 60 && $markGrade <= 69) 
        { 
            $grade = "B"; 
        } 

        else if ($markGrade >= 50 && $markGrade <= 59) 
        { 
            $grade = "C"; 
        } 

        else if ($markGrade >= 40 && $markGrade <= 49) 
        { 
            $grade = "D"; 
        } 

        else if ($markGrade >= 30 && $markGrade <= 39) 
        { 
            $grade = "E"; 
        } 

        else if ($markGrade >= 0 && $markGrade <= 29) 
        { 
            $grade = "F"; 
        } 
              

    $moduleHTML = "<p><br><strong>Module:</strong> {$moduleID} - {$moduleName} <strong>Module Mark:</strong> {$markTotal} <strong>Mark Percentage:</strong> {$markGrade} <strong>Grade:</strong> {$grade} </p>\n"; 

    return $moduleHTML . $sessionsHTML; 
} 

$output = ""; 

$studentId = false; 
$courseId  = false; 
$moduleId  = false; 

while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($result)) 
{ 

    if($studentId != $row['StudentUsername']) 
    { 

        //Student has changed 
        $studentId = $row['StudentUsername']; 

        $output .= "<p><strong>Student:</strong> {$row['StudentForename']} {$row['StudentSurname']} ({$row['StudentUsername']})\n"; 

    } 
         
    if($courseId != $row['CourseId']) 
    { 

        //Course has changed 
        $courseId = $row['CourseId']; 

        $output .= "<br><strong>Course:</strong> {$row['CourseId']} - {$row['CourseName']} <strong>Course Mark</strong> <strong>Grade</strong>  <br><strong>Year:</strong> {$row['Year']} </p>\n"; 

    } 

    if($moduleId != $row['ModuleId']) 
    { 

        //Module has changed 
        if(isset($sessionsAry)) //Don't run function for first record 
        { 

            //Get output for last module and sessions 
            $output .= outputModule($moduleId, $moduleName, $sessionsAry); 
        } 

        //Reset sessions data array and Set values for new module 

        $sessionsAry = array(); 
        $moduleId    = $row['ModuleId']; 
        $moduleName  = $row['ModuleName']; 
    } 
         
    //Add session data to array for current module 
         
    $sessionsAry[] = array('SessionId'=>$row['SessionId'], 'Mark'=>$row['Mark'], 'SessionWeight'=>$row['SessionWeight']); 
         
}    //Get output for last module 

$output .= outputModule($moduleId, $moduleName, $sessionsAry); 

//Display the output 
echo $output; 

}
      }
  }
    ?>
This code allallows me to make calculations and display a student's course and linked with it the course the modules in the course and linked with modules are all the sessions. It is able to display what marks each student have got for each module and session.

Now look at code below, it is able to display modules and in those modules the sessions that link to those modules:

  Code: [Select]
<?php if($moduleId != $row['ModuleId']) 
    { 

        //Module has changed 
        if(isset($sessionsAry)) //Don't run function for first record 
        { 

            //Get output for last module and sessions 
            $output .= outputModule($moduleId, $moduleName, $sessionsAry); 
        } 

        //Reset sessions data array and Set values for new module 

        $sessionsAry = array(); 
        $moduleId    = $row['ModuleId']; 
        $moduleName  = $row['ModuleName']; 
    } 
         
    //Add session data to array for current module 
         
    $sessionsAry[] = array('SessionId'=>$row['SessionId'], 'Mark'=>$row['Mark'], 'SessionWeight'=>$row['SessionWeight']); 
         
}
What I want to know is how can I do something similar for course so that it picks out the right modules depending on the course it displays. There maybe some code that needs to be added in the function.

I use this type of a code to send automatic emails from my website:

Code: [Select]
$headers = ;
$headers .= ;
$to = ;

Click here to go to Google.

", $headers);

I am having hard time figuring out how to do hyperlink on words (like here). If I do something like this:

Code: [Select]
<a href='http://www.google.com'>here</a>
it spits out that exact thing out.

Thanks you for your input

Michael Feathers coined the term Legacy Code as being code without automated tests.   Still however Legacy Code evokes a vision in me that it is code that is ugly, old, runs on mainframes, and is probably 3000 lines long, uses globals and questionable code practices.   But say we take this ugly nasty code, and put it very nicely under test, but without doing any refactoring, other than that necessary to be able to put it under test in the first place. Now that code is under test.  But it it still ugly.  How would you call ugly code under test?   Would you make a differentiation between old & ugly and modern & pretty code if both are under test?

Alright so I'm attempting to save config data via php. Bellow is the code I currently have, however I'm afraid that when I "flip the switch" and use it that it will error out because of the <?php and ?> tags inside of it... Ideas, suggestions?


$config = '../includes/config.php';
$fh = fopen($config, 'w');
$data = '
<?php

$dbhost = "'.$database_host.'";
$dbuser = "'.$database_username.'";
$dbpass = "'.$database_password.'";
$dbname = "'.$database_name.'";

$key = "'.$site_key.'";
$cron_key = "'.$database_cron_key.'";
?>
';
fwrite($fh, $data);
fclose($fh);

How can I make sure that when I submit an new form and new ID (record) is created it is always 4-Digits. record 14 = 0014, record 225 = 0225.
Thanks

Hi, this is my first time posting here.
 
I am just delving into PHP and I am learning about foreach loops.
 
I have written code in Notepad++ EXACTLY the way I saw it in a tutorial video I watched (I wish I could show the tutorial video to you, but it is on Lynda.com and you have to pay to watch)   I attached the file with my code.   The example 1 code works just fine.   The example 2 code is the one that is not working for some reason. However, it worked for the guy that wrote it in the video, so I am not sure where I am going wrong?   *The comments in green are mainly for myself, I explain things to myself so that I don't forget what the code does      forloops.php   1.74KB   2 downloads   I would appreciate some help. Thank you!!!