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Code Style Guide
Welcome to the ThinkUp Code style guide. When submitting pull requests, please make sure that your changes conform to the styles below.
Styles loosely based upon Drupal’s coding standards, which are themselves loosely based on the PEAR coding standards.
This document is a work in progress. When in doubt, follow the same style as existing ThinkUp code.
- Readability trumps compactness: Name your variables something descriptive, with the next programmer who will be updating your code in mind. Never name a variable $var; avoid overly generic names like $data. Instead of naming an instantiation of the OwnerInstanceDAO $oid, name it $owner_instance_dao. The extra characters and typing will save future programmers time. CPU and memory is cheap; human hours are not.
- Never say die: Never ever use the die() method. If there’s an error or exception, throw that Exception and let the app handle the exception appropriately.
- Never use global variables: The global keyword is a red flag. Don’t use it. Pass in your parameters or use singletons to access variables.
- Lines should have no trailing whitespace at their end.
- All indentation should not use tabs; use 4 spaces instead.
- Comments, class, and variable names should use US English spelling.
- Require_once statements should use single quotes, no parentheses, ie,
require_once 'init.php';
ThinkUp implements the Model-View-Controller design pattern. All new code should follow suit. Read more about ThinkUp’s MVC implementation here.
When organizing and naming new files, keep the following guidelines in mind.
View filenames should match the names of the controllers they correspond with. For example, the public.tpl view goes with the public.php controller.
Separate folder names by a dot. For example, the /account/index.php controller’s view filename is account.index.tpl.
Included template filenames start with an underscore, like _header.tpl
Each file should contain exactly one class or interface.
Prefix filenames with class. for classes, and interface. for interfaces. For example, the CrawlerPlugin interface file is named interface.CrawlerPlugin.php. The User class file is named class.User.php.
Variables: Use lowercase with underscores to name variables, i.e., $view_template, unless its a constant. For constants, use underscores with all uppercase, i.e., const KEY_SEPARATOR="|";
Methods: Use CamelCase to name methods, i.e., public function isUserInDB($user_id);