Developing a website for a business becomes the most beneficial way of marketing and growing a business. And as we know developing a website is not easy it needs professional skills, knowledge of programming language and coding. One of the important and streamlined programming languages to build a website in PHP.
Don’t worry if you do not have any idea to use PHP or maybe you do not have any friend available to help you. The best idea is to click here tohire PHP developer. But again it’s not easy to use PHP codes, it needs some strategies and tips. To make you work easier here are 8 best tips and tricks to operate a PHP programming language successfully in 2021
Bring flexibility in your function
When you add a single item in any object, you use the typical or fixed-function and When you add multiple items, do you create another function? For making the functions flexible to make them eligible to use for every sort of parameters, we use this type of function. For instance,
Function for adding a single gift:
function add_gift($item_id , $qty)
{
$_SESSION[‘gift’][$item_id] = $qty;
}
add_gift( ‘Phone’ , 1 );
Function for adding more than one parameter:
function add_gift($item_id , $qty)
{
if(!is_array($item_id))
{
$_SESSION[‘gift’][$item_id] = $qty;
}
else
{
foreach($item_id as $i_id => $qty)
{
$_SESSION[‘gift’][$i_id] = $qty;
}
}
}
add_gift( ‘Phone’ , 1 );
add_gift( array(‘Laptop’ => 1 , ‘Pen’ => 2) );
Stop using require, require_once, include or include_once
Nearly every hire PHP developer uses this way to regulate external files. Your script should be comprising various files on top such as class libraries, files for utility and helper functions, etc like this :
require_once(‘includes/Configure.php’);
require_once(‘includes/Database.php’);
require_once(‘class/general_functions.php’);
Moving on to make it unique, the codes you are using needs to be flexible. Write different helper functions to include things more effortlessly.
For instance,
function include_class($class_name)
{
//path to the class file
$path = ROOT . ‘/include/’ . $class_name . ‘.php’);
if(file_exists($path)) {
require_once( $path );
}
}
include_class(‘Configure’);
include_class(‘Database’);
For the repeated task, try to formulate a class
To do this Object-oriented programming is the best solution as it has many merits such as it is more efficient and avant-garde than any other conventional programming language style. It is the most powerful programming technique used for flex coding and creating a class for repeated tasks.
class Rectangle
{
// Declare properties
public $length = 0;
public $width = 0;
// Method to get the perimeter
public function getPerimeter(){
return (2 * ($this->length + $this->width));
}
// Method to get the area
public function getArea(){
return ($this->length * $this->width);
}
}
Once a class has been interpreted, it’s time to create another PHP file.
require “Rectangle.php”; // Include class definition
$obj_rec = new Rectangle; // Create new object through the class.
$obj->length = 30; // Set the object property values
$obj->width = 20; // Set the object property values.
// Read the object property values again to show the change
echo $obj->length; // 0utput: 30
echo $obj->width; // 0utput: 20
// Call the object methods
echo $obj->getPerimeter(); // 0utput: 100
echo $obj->getArea(); // Output: 600
Always rectify character encoding for a MySQL connection
This is a very ubiquitous mistake done by beginners or we can say they confront this problem of encoding like Unicode/UTF-8 characters are stored in MySQL tables correctly, PHP also shows them correctly, but when you save them, they do not show up accurately. The secret is a MySQL connection collection.
$host = ‘local_host’;
$username = ‘_root_’;
$password = ‘_password_’;
//Attempt to connect to the database.
($con = mysqli_connect($host , $username, $password);)
//Check the connection validity through statements.
if (!$con)
{ die (“Could not connect to database host: “. mysqli_connect_error()); }
//Set character set of the connection
if(!mysqli_set_charset ( $con , ‘UTF8’ ))
{
die(‘mysqli_set_charset() failed’);
}
After connecting to the database, now set the connection characters
Don’t Use stringing If Statements
To increase the speed and performance use Switch instead of repetitious If conditions. This is a very valuable tip for PHP developers as it allows you to explore more than those if-else if-else chains.
Look at this example
if($color == ‘yellow’)
echo “The color is yellow”;
if($color == ‘black’)
echo “The color is black”;
if($color == ‘red’)
echo “The color is red”;
if($color == ‘pink’)
echo “Color is pink”;
Now we will do this same with the help of switch
switch ($color ) {
case ‘yellow’ :
echo “The color is yellow” ;
break ;
case ‘black’ :
echo “The color is black” ;
break ;
case ‘red’ :
echo “The color is red” ;
break ;
case ‘pink’ :
echo “Color is pink” ;
break ;
}
Use of a Prepared Statement for SQL injection attack
Try to not use normal SQL query and utilize only Prepared Statements for SQL injection attacks. The initial step to prevent a SQL injection attack is to establish which of your applications are vulnerable.
How to implement it?
You need to implement a prepared statement with Parameterized Queries.
For instance,
$cid = $_GET[‘cid’];
$get_prepare_query = db_prepare_query(“select * from “.TABLE_CATEGORIES.” where category_id = ?”);
$get_prepare_query->bind_param(‘s’, $cid);
$get_category_prepare_result = db_prepare_result($get_prepare_query);
$get_category_result = array_shift($get_category_prepare_result);
if(sizeof($get_category_result) == 0 ) tep_redirect(tep_create_url(”));
$category_id = $get_category_result[‘category_id’];
All large array function always should be with the chunk
To optimise our array work for long periods, we can do this with the help of array chunks. PHP offers the feature of allowing to slice through an Array into smaller chunks. The array_chunk() function is used for the purpose. It is a built-in function in PHP and used to break an array into fractions or chunks of given size depending upon the parameters ratified to the function.
A function of PHP for array chunk is:
array_chunk($array, $size)
HTTP GET and POST Methods
A client requests an HTTP request to the server, then the server returns a response to the client. This way HTTP works as a request-response protocol between a client and server.
There are two types of methods:
GET – Requests data from a defined resources.
POST – generates data to be processed to a specified resources.
Try to utilise the POST method always. like this:
if(isset($_POST[“name”])) {
echo “Welcome “. $_POST[‘name’];
}
Check variable exists before use
Infer if a variable is set and is not NULL and remember to check variables before use.
if(isset($_POST[“name”])) {
echo “Welcome “. $_POST[‘name’];
}
The isset () function is used to verify whether a variable is set or not. The isset() function responds false if the given variable contains a NULL value.
These 8 best tips and tricks will help to build your website more efficiently. If the person you hire PHP Developer knows these tips will give you the best quality of work in less time.
Thank you for reading.
Author Bio:
Sunny Chawla is a Managing Director at Alliance Recruitment Agency. He specializes in helping client for international recruiting, staffing, HR services and Careers advice service for overseas and international businesses.
