Some general coding approach

1. Development Notes
Alex King

2. Transparency FTW
• Code should be obvious
(comments help, but are supplemental)
• Abstraction worth layers of complexity
(it’s got to be
adds
it, frameworks vs. one-
offs)
• Searchability is important
• Readability > most of the time)
(within reason,
Performance

3. Example
class Example {
static $meta_prefix = ‘_foo_’;
NO! [...]
function bar() {
update_post_meta($post_id, self::$meta_prefix.‘my_key’, 1);
}
}
class Example {
YES [...]
function bar() {
update_post_meta($post_id, ‘_foo_my_key’, 1);
}
}

4. Refactoring is
Development
• Clever = brittle
• Avoid too many levels of abstraction
• Shallow code is more readable/
changable
• Consistent variable names
foreach ($objects as $object) {...

5. Data Formats / APIs
• Keep data as “pure” as possible
• Can always refactor what the
accessor functions do, but don’t
change the formats (if at all possible)
• JSON encode vs. serialize for
serialized data (allows for SQL find/

6. Example
// hard-coded // database backed
function foo() { function foo() {
return array( global $wpdb;
‘bar’,
‘baz’, // some stuff happens here
);
} return $wpdb->get_col(“
SELECT [...]
”);
// filtered }
function foo() {
return apply_filters(
‘foo_data’,
array(
‘bar’,
‘baz’,
)
);
}

7. Micro-MVC
• Model = Get / prep data
• Controller = Do something with it
• View = Return / Output

8. Example
// munged controller / view // controller
foreach ($items as $item) { $_items = array();
$item->prop = utility($item); foreach ($items as $item) {
echo [$item...]; $item->prop = utility($item);
} $_items[‘id_’.$item->id] = $item;
}
$items = $_items;
// we can insert another step here
// easily when refactoring
// view
foreach ($items as $item) {
echo [$item...];
}

9. Getting / Saving Data
• Basic utility (method on a Model)
• Run everything through this
• Do thosecheck permissions/validation
(do
not
in a Controller)
• One place to make changes
• Easier refactoring

10. Recap
• Transparency FTW
• Developing = Refactoring
• Embrace MVC

11. Dev Plans, Comments &
Commit Messages
• Convey intent
• When code cannot be readable,
outline what the code is doing
• Document decisions