Your coding practices: user download entire PHP file?

tomandhannah

My PHP pages all contain "actions". At the top of each page is something like:

$action = $_GET['action'];
if ($action) {$action == $action) {

Then, all throughout the rest of the page are the action's defined:

if ($action == "edit") {
$dosomething = "here";
}

So, I try to keep all my functions and actions on one (very long) page. It's my crazy way of organizing and keeping files separated.

So, here's my question(s): Is this a good idea? I have a couple of PHP files that are easily 38KB. Does the user have to download all 38KB worth of data? Or does PHP only send the user the data he/she needs? I know that PHP just passes over the "ifs" that are irrelevant, or the functions that aren't called. But will this coding practice make my pages slow? And cause the user to download large amounts of data with each page load?

Thanks in advance for your advice...

ucbones

it's all done server-side, so the user only downloads what is needed. I (personally) prefer to do everything in separate files with includes, but that's just a personal preference.

Remember, if you're editing from a remote server, you'll have to download and upload the big file for each edit.

JM2C,

ucbones

AstroTeg

I use the same idea of having an action and piling a lot of code in one PHP file. One of the PHP files I have is up to 51k in size and it doesn't contain any HTML (it uses templates so the template it uses has all the HTML code). The server chews on this pretty quickly.

Remember:

web request -> web server figures out web request (sends to PHP for processing) -> PHP parses requested page -> PHP produces output -> web server feeds output to browser

The browser is only going to see the final output.

ppowell

Best practice methods I have seen within the PHP universe involve breaking up reusable code include libraries and using as much OO as conceivably possible. Though in my case that can result in libraries containing up to 30 - 35 classes resulting in 50K PHP libraries. But since the libraries are logically included per naming instance (if you're in the 'image' section, only include the 'image' libraries), it's not that bad.

Phil

AstroTeg

I've read some discussions where OOP can be overkill for a web site. It depends on the requirements, the project, and coding style and skills involved. Having libraries and including them when you need them is important though.