PHP is one of the most powerful programming languages around. Many top brands and businesses across the globe utilize PHP to empower their websites and applications. Of course, if the best players are using it then it might be the best too.
But the question is that a significant percentage of online websites and applications are now made from PHP. So, the advantage you were trying to take by utilizing the best technology available has now become quite ubiquitous.
But there is a way that you can still use PHP to gain that competitive advantage as well as have a more efficient development process that will produce even more efficient PHP products.
The answer is PHP best practices. Expert PHP developers in India implement these practices to deliver top-quality end-to-end PHP services and products beyond expectations. Following these best practices will also help you enhance your PHP skills and development process. So let's have a look at some of the top most common yet ignored PHP best practices.
Top PHP development practices
1. Follow PHP Standard Recommendations
Sometimes some developers don't follow the coding style standards and if another developer were to work on that code later, it becomes hard to understand the code, make changes to it, and then update it.
So, if you want to write a clean code that other developers can easily understand then you have to follow the PHP Standard Recommendations. There are a lot of benefits of using a standard style of coding and it is the PHP best practice any developer can imply.
2. Turn on Error Reporting
If you are working on PHP development, then you must turn on Error Reporting, for it will allow you to find:
- Critical warnings
- Warnings
- Errors
You can use this best practice to correct all the errors in the coding but first, you need to put on the E_ALL to be able to view all the errors in your coding. Without error reporting, finding bugs is a challenging task and there might be a possibility that they pass through the production undetected.
3. Remove “*” Database Queries
The database requires you to have queried for the data if you connect with it. In a row, you can collect all the fields using “*”. But the columns would be filled with excess and unnecessary data that doesn't even need to be included in the query. So, it is highly recommended that whenever you need to query the column, you should only retrieve the ones that you might need to keep the resource levels to a minimum. This will also help you strengthen the security of your application.
4. Clean User Input
Sometimes it happens that you wanted the users to insert their phone numbers but east they insert some special characters or letters that might break your program. So it becomes necessary that you filter all of the users’ input because if you don't, then you will be leaving a big hole in the security of your application. PHP offers a variety of in-built functions that can help you ensure the user input is:
- Validated
- Escaped
- Sanitized
To check whether proper values are inserted in the field or not, you can use the filter_var function.
5. Learn to Use Namespaces
One of the most in-demand PHP features is Namespaces because it can help developers reduce the number of errors and conflicts in their code. You can use this feature to avoid any type of pesky name collision in case you have functions and classes with the same name. You can find some great examples of namespaces and sub-namespaces in the PHP manual. Namespace NAME is used to define namespaces. Some developers find using namespaces to be more complicated but if you follow the PHP manual, it can be a piece of cake.
6. Comment on Everything
It doesn't matter if you are using PHP or any other programming language, commenting on the code is the most common yet best programming practice you can ever learn. And still, a lot of developers forget about it. So, even if you are a solo programmer on the project, you have to comment on your code for the following:
- Future developers
- Future understanding
Developers tend to ignore commenting on their code because they think they will remember what their code does. But when after a year or two, the time finally comes when they need to change or update the code, they have to take some time to figure out their code. Think how another developer is supposed to figure out your code, if, without comments, it takes some time for you to figure it out.
When it comes to commenting, you should be commenting on any line of code that you find even a little obscure. Because in the future, it will help you or anyone that is looking at that line of code to understand and update with ease.
7. Upgrade to the Latest Version of PHP
In any programming language or technology framework, the latest version is always faster and better than its previous one. It would also be far more efficient than the older versions. Bugs and issues will be fixed, the latest features will be added and many more.
The latest PHP version in the market is 8.2 and 8.3 is said to be released by the end of 2023. After every launch of a new version, you should manually upgrade your PHP and understand what new features and functionalities it brings on board with it. It is true that sometimes, new versions are equipped with a lot of new features that are not useful to you but it is also true that these versions are highly optimized and are better suitable to meet your project requirements.
Bonus – 8. Do not store passwords using reversible encryption
Using reversible encryption can be harmful for the following reasons:
- Reversible encryption is easy to crack and decrypt. This makes your sensitive information vulnerable to theft.
- Reversible encryption can be misused to spy on you and track all your activities. And the process of encryption and decryption would leave a clear trail of activities for someone to follow.
- If there is a static key provided for the encryption and decryption process, reversible encryption can be used to catalog all the passwords as well.
Instead of using reversible encryption, developers should implement a strong hashing algorithm such as bcrypt or Argonaut to hash the passwords. In comparison to the encryption algorithms, the outputs created using hashing algorithms are more secure.
So, it can help save passwords and other sensitive information based on the sheer computing power required to find clear-text (decryption) equivalents. In addition to that, the hashing algorithm is faster in comparison to the encryption algorithm, which makes them more suitable for fast and responsive applications.
Final words
So this was a short list of best PHP practices that you should implement in your development project to yield better results. I know I have left out a lot of things, but these are some of the pretty common yet mostly ignored practices. So I chose to discuss them. I hope you enjoyed reading the article. Tell me, which PHP best practices to secure your website do you implement for your PHP project?
