Coding styles

[mrbaseball34]

<?php
  if(isset($_REQUEST["msg"])) {
?>
  <tr>
    <td align="center" colspan="3"><font color="#FF0000"><b><?php echo $_REQUEST["msg"];?></b></font></td>  

  </tr>
<?php 
  }
?>

So, what are the advantages of the code above vs. the code below?

<?php
  if(isset($_REQUEST["msg"])) {
    echo "  <tr>".
         "    <td align=\"center\" colspan=\"3\"><font color=\"#FF0000\"><b>".$_REQUEST["msg"]."</b></font></td>".
         "  </tr>";
  }
?>

Is it just preference? Personally, I like the one on the bottom, way too many opening and closing tags and 2 less lines. I DO NOT have short_open_tags enabled.

We purchased a script from a developer and his code is loaded with the style on top. His coding style is absolutely atrocious. I also believe there were multiple developers because in some code he had structures like this:

for($i=0;$i<$record;$i++):
if($name==strtoupper($array[$i]['title'])):
$found=1;
break;
else:
$found=0;
endif;
endfor;

Yes, it also included no indention. They also developed the HTML using Dreamweaver and the HTML is horrible. No templating at all. I have a good mind to redo his code and start selling the script myself.

[ixalmida]

I also prefer your second example. However, I would prefer it more if your braces were lined up. It makes the block of code much easier to match up to the parent statement.

I'm also okay with not having braces for single-line conditionals or loops, as long as they are on separate lines and the second line is indented.

Again, this is my personal preference which I base strictly on readability. I think of legible code blocks as inverted paragraphs. The first line of code is just outdented instead of indented.

[NogDog]

Even the alternate if/else syntax is much better if indented:

<?php
for ($i = 0; $i < $record; $i++):
   if ($name == strtoupper($array[$i]['title'])):
      $found = 1;
      break;
   else:
      $found = 0;
   endif;
endfor;

PS: An editor with a code "beautifier" option can be very useful when dealing with other people's code. 🙂

[dagon]

i vote for neither of the top 2 but to use a templateing system. I don't want html in my php or visa versa.

[dockeryz]

To answer your question, there aren't any advantages. I really can't even say there are any disadvantages. The only way to truly test it would be by it's time consumption, which would be VERY VERY minute in difference. So little that there's no reason to care. Unless of course you're running one of those old antique machines, like a C64 or something; which would be highly unlikely.

To answer in my opinion though, I agree with most of the repliers, the second options in the OP is my habit. Opening and closing PHP tags are frustrating to decipher. Either way, the only thing that matters is time.

Zane Dockery
http://forums.flingbits.com

[cahva]

When using PHP inside views, the first way is the way to go as in the long run its more clearer and easier to spot spelling errors. HTML Syntax highligting wont work inside echoed html.

Heres how I would do the first example:

<?php if(isset($_REQUEST["msg"])): ?>
  <tr>
    <td align="center" colspan="3"><font color="#FF0000"><b><?php echo $_REQUEST["msg"];?></b></font></td>  

  </tr>
<?php endif; ?>

EDIT:
Actually I would'nt do it like that. What the hell is that font and b tag doing there 🙂

To non-programmers that is more human readable than the first example with brackets. In elsewhere I use brackets, but in layout its IMO better to use this version.

[ixalmida]

Not to mention echoing a message that appears to be user input without even bothering to strip tags first.

I also want to add to my original post, though I stand by what I said. If you want to check the HTML, that is simple enough to do in a browser. The second example is cleaner and more readable to me, but I would add that I try not to use string concatenation when I can avoid it. The concatenated string looks messy more often than not.

I would write it more like this:

if(isset($_REQUEST["msg"]))
  {
  echo "
    <tr>
      <td style='text-align: center; font: bold #FF0;' colspan='3'>{$_REQUEST["msg"]}</td>
    </tr>";
  }

Yes, I do lose the IDE code coloring on the HTML with this format, but that rarely presents any issues for me. I will only jump out of the PHP block when the HTML block is long enough for it to make sense to me.

[mrbaseball34]

Some times, I use heredoc syntax for my html code. That makes this a lot easier, too.

[NogDog]

One thing that helps if you are echoing HTML in double quotes: use single quotes for HTML attribute values, and then you don't have to escape them. It's both easier to type and read:

echo "<p class='single_quote'><span id='easier_to_read'>Isn't that nicer?</span></p>";

[laserlight]

NogDog wrote:

One thing that helps if you are echoing HTML in double quotes: use single quotes for HTML attribute values, and then you don't have to escape them. It's both easier to type and read:

I prefer to echo with single quotes, and then use double quotes for quoting the values. There is a small advantage in that this works well with the default behaviour of htmlspecialchars.

[dalecosp]

I prefer to put all my HTML in include files, as part of function names, and then call them, so a page looks like this:

<?php

include "inc.php";
Auth();
Header();
Body();
Footer();

exit;
?>

And, of course, I might be kidding, but there's a tiny bit of truth in this post.

[mrbaseball34]

NogDog;10967527 wrote:

One thing that helps if you are echoing HTML in double quotes: use single quotes for HTML attribute values, and then you don't have to escape them. It's both easier to type and read:

echo "<p class='single_quote'><span id='easier_to_read'>Isn't that nicer?</span></p>";

Yeah, and php array keys, too, i.e.

echo "<p class='single_quote'><span id='easier_to_read'>{$myarray['text']}</span></p>";

[mrbaseball34]

dalecosp;10967530 wrote:

I prefer to put all my HTML in include files, as part of function names, and then call them, so a page looks like this:

<?php

include "inc.php";
Auth();
Header();
Body();
Footer();

exit;
?>

Can you elaborate on this technique and how you interspace PHP variables with HTML in your included files?

[dalecosp]

mrbaseball34;10967545 wrote:

Can you elaborate on this technique and how you interspace PHP variables with HTML in your included files?

OK, first off, and I've not been around here much in a looooong time 'til recently, you need to know I'm something of a troll.

I said I might do it that way. That doesn't mean I do. I'll look through some old projects and see if I can shed any light on that.

[dalecosp]

<?php

/* a snippet from an intraweb, written about 2002/3.  There are few 
comments in the code, so I've added commentary based on my memory.
Hope they're right ;-)  

*/

$PageTitle="Billing Module --- View Worklogs";

include 'modularhead.html';  // does HTML output for header, uses
                                        // $PageTitle which is also in the output
                                       //  also calls things like is_authorized()
                                      //  and checks for "popup" messages


if (!$_POST && (!($_GET['month'] && $_GET['year']))) {
        lines(1);                                            //one "<br>" is echoed
        SelfPostForm();                                      //HTML form declaration
        Space(12);                                           //hee hee, I think 12 "&nbsp;"
        Button("View by Customer");                           // HTML "submit"
        lines(2);
        Space(12);
        Button("View by Date");                             // another "submit"
        lines(2);
}
elseif ($_POST['submit']=="View by Date") {
        lines(1);
        SelfPostForm();
        Space(12);
        echo "
                Select Calendar Period for Log View
                <br>
                <br>

I can't divulge who we did this for ... I think they're still using it. ATM, can't recall exactly why we did it this way--- somebody's idea from some style of programming someplace else.

Once we got hang of the thing, it went pretty quick, though. But many of the scripts are really long....

[ixalmida]

Hmm...I like some of the things you did, but I wouldn't want all of my code to be that modular. I like to have at least one part of my page where I have some creative freedom.

I do a few similar things though:

// Begin code section, processing input, etc...

// Begin page setup...
$page_title = "Home Page";
$javascript = "function someJavaScript() { alert('Page is loaded!'); }";
$on_load = "someJavaScript()";

// Pull in the page header (incl. logo, navbar, etc.) and some security stuff...
include('header.php');

// Content div starts here...

echo "This is where most of the work is done!";

// End of content div!

// Pull in the page footer
include('footer.php');

There are probably parts of the content div I could pull in as well, but I haven't had the time on my current project to plan things out like I'd like to. The advantage of this method (imo) is the time savings. The only part of this page that I have to code is the content.

Of course, this is a single-column page and multi-column layouts can be a bit trickier, but I've done them like this as well. It also gives me a lot of confidence in the consistency and security of my pages. I don't have to worry that I forgot to check credentials on a particular page.

[mrbaseball34]

@xalmida, I understand about doing that but how is header.php and footer.php formatted?
How do you "pass variables" into the from your index?

[ixalmida]

Hmm...I suppose there's no harm in that. I cut out some extraneous stuff, but the basic structure is here.

I actually do some stuff here that I've shunned in other threads, but since the page header is "set it and forget it", I'm not overly concerned with making the code pretty.

header.php:

<?php
#############################################################
##  SOME BASIC PHP FUNCTIONS
#############################################################
include_once('php_funcs.php');

#############################################################
##  SEE IF DB LINK IS UP, IF NOT, START IT
#############################################################
if(! isset($link) || empty($link))
	include_once('c:/xampp/htdocs/includes/dbconn.php');

#############################################################
##  FUNCTION TO VALIDATE USER'S SESSION AND GET ANY ERRORS
#############################################################
$err = session_validate();

#############################################################
##  PREVENT SESSION HIJACKING IN PAGE TITLE
#############################################################
if(isset($page_title))
	{
	$page_title = $page_title;
	$pg_header = strip_tags($page_title);
	}
else
	$page_title = $pg_header = "My Website";

#############################################################
##  GET ROOT & DOCROOT
#############################################################
$root = "https://".$_SERVER['SERVER_NAME'];
$docroot = $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'];

#############################################################
##  SELECTED NAVBAR BUTTON (BASED ON ROOT FOLDER)
#############################################################
$btn1 = $btn2 = $btn3 = "";
$folders = explode("/", $_SERVER['SCRIPT_FILENAME']);
switch($folders[0])
	{
	case "folder1":
		$btn1 = "class='sel'";
		break;
	case "folder2":
		$btn2 = "class='sel'";
		break;
	case "folder3":
		$btn3 = "class='sel'";
		break;
	default:
	}

#############################################################
##  BEGIN PAGE OUTPUT
#############################################################?>

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
  "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
  <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
  <meta http-equiv="Pragma" content="no-cache">
	<meta http-equiv="Expires" content="-1">
  <title><?php echo $pg_header ?></title>
  <link href="<?php echo $root ?>/default.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />
  <script type="text/javascript" src="<?php echo $root ?>/includes/js_funcs.js"></script>
  <?php if(isset($javascript)) echo $javascript; ?>
</head>

<body onload="<?php if(isset($onload)) echo $onload; ?>">
<div id="border">
<div id="banner">
	<a href="<?php echo $root ?>"><img
  	src="https://<?php echo $root ?>/images/logo.png" /></a>
	<div id="tagline"><img src="<?php echo $root ?>/images/tagline.png" /></div>
	<div id="logout">Welcome <?php echo $_SESSION['first_name'] ?>!
  <a href="<?php echo $root ?><?php echo $root ?>/logout.php">(logout)</a></div>
</div>
<div id="navbar">
	<table><tr>
  	<td><a href="<?php echo $root ?>/folder1" <?php echo $btn1 ?>>Folder 1</a></td>
  	<td><a href="<?php echo $root ?>/folder2" <?php echo $btn2 ?>>Folder 2</a></td>
  	<td><a href="<?php echo $root ?>/folder3" <?php echo $btn3 ?>>Folder 3</a></td>
  </tr></table>
</div>
<div id="content">
<h2><?php echo $page_title ?></h2>
<h3><?php if($err) echo "$err"; else echo "&nbsp;"; ?></h3>

footer.php:

</div>
<div id="footer">&copy; My Company, 2010
  <p style="float:right; display: inline;"><a href="<?php echo $root ?>/terms.php"
    target="_blank">View License Agreement</a></p>
</div>
</div>
</body>
</html>