So, you’re about to build an entire web application in PHP. You’ve worked out how you’re going to do it, you’ve got a general idea what it’ll look like, maybe you’ve even chosen a framework (if you don’t have any to choose from, find some). Before you go any further, take a step back and run through this checklist.

1. Plan. Do some design mockups, work out what functionality will go in what classes. You can never plan enough, and good planning can save you days of code rewriting later.
2. Research. This is probably one of the most-forgotten areas of project planning. Chances are what you’re building has been done before, so do a bit of research on existing applications similar to yours. Consider any problems you may encounter and see how other applications handled these challenges. SourceForge is a great place to start.
3. Future proof. Depending on your application, this might not be terribly important, but consider what technologies are being used at the moment and may start being used. This article has a few suggestions. For example, maybe in future you’ll add a microformat-export function, and your code needs to be structured differently to support that?
4. Don’t reinvent the wheel. Most developers I’ve seen simply don’t practice this enough. Sure, you’re using your framework for some common tasks, but many people assume they’ll need to write a lot of their own code for complex routines. Before you start, check out PEAR and PHP Classes.
5. Set some timeframes and get into it! Now that you have a good idea of what you’re going to build, and how you’ll make it happen, set some goals and get coding!

Tags: code reuse, PHP, php tips

Akash Mehta in PHP | on Sunday, January 27th, 2008 at 2:15 am.
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