Among the numerous scripting languages out there, PHP development enjoys huge prominence among the developers looking for effective measures to make their website look appealing with great functionality. PHP enables web developers to design enticing web pages. However, the fact remains that no matter how efficient or supreme a developer you are, there are chances of you making a few common mistakes as the process of website development goes on.
Here we talk about certain aspects that need to be taken care of during the creation of a website to ensure fast functionality and easy multitasking.
Single quotes hold great importance
Often we see developers going with double quotes, with that being an easy way out, as there is no need to deal with the issue of escaping characters and dot values. However, the fact can’t be denied that single quotes are any day better as they are significant in ensuring better performance due to minimal processing. In the case of double quoted strings, processing tends to take much time as here whole string is required to be read in advance so that the variable, if any, can be detected inside. Then again server works faster on single quotes noting there is no need for PHP to read the whole string in advance.
Database caching holds importance
Database caching is vital in enhancing loading speed as well as restricts the use of resources needed to load a page. However, this must be implemented carefully by the developers who also ought to ensure a proper maintaining caching system for the website.
Use semicolon the right way
As it comes to PHP, each statement is certain to end with a semicolon and developers are known of it. For instance, if there is no semicolon at the end of a statement, then PHP is going to consider everything till the next semicolon as one statement. This forms syntax error.
However, developers must ensure that they don’t put a semicolon at the end of control structures. This ways the results are ignored. In addition, PHP treat the code found in the block as an empty statement.
Rightly use semicolon after a Break or Continue
Mostly web developers end up missing semicolon post Break in the inner loop. This way the code is left to only output 0 and exit. Now as you miss a semicolon after a Break and Continue, debugging of switches and evaluation tend to become tricky.
Quotes must be used around string keys
As it comes to PHP it’s necessary to quote literal strings as you work with arrays where string keys are used. In the case of absence of quotes, PHP settles with a constant with that name. What happens next is conversion to string, whereas presence of the constant generates astonishing results.
Avoid mysql extension:
The usage of mysql extension in SQL databases is certainly not secure, besides being erratic. At the same time, it doesn’t present any support to SSL, missing several of modern MySQL features. Thus developers must steer clear of it and rather go for MySQLi or PDO.
Rewrite URLs
Rewriting URL is imperative as it is useful in funneling all requests into a single index.php file. This way you can select the best response sans code repetition. Additionally website usability can be increased, improving SEO.
When to use headers
Header, session_start, setcoookie or the other functions can’t be modified once the output has been sent to the client. Now the easiest way out to the issue that occurs when headers sent function still could be helpful in figuring out if headers have been sent, is omitting the closing “?>” tag.
Remove development configurations:
This step is vital and once the removal has taken place, it must be mentioned as removed. What occurred during Cnet case was non-removal of the development configuration.
Significance of E_ALL during PHP development:
It’s advised to turn error reporting on from the start of development process itself. This way you can find about things that may prove to be crucial at the later stage as well as allows you know all about the problems.
Once you take care of these aspects, the PHP programming will tend to be a cakewalk.
