Coding Guidelines (UseBB 1)

Standard file templates

All pages should be in Unix format (\n for newlines). Please use a text editor set up to use the Unix format.

A normal page

The following is the template for a normal (directly accessible) page in UseBB.

<?php
 
/*
	Copyright (C) 2003-2007 UseBB Team
	http://www.usebb.net
	
	$Header: $
	
	This file is part of UseBB.
	
	UseBB is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
	it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
	the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
	(at your option) any later version.
	
	UseBB is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
	but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
	MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
	GNU General Public License for more details.
	
	You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
	along with UseBB; if not, write to the Free Software
	Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA  02111-1307  USA
*/
 
define('INCLUDED', true);
define('ROOT_PATH', './');
 

//
// Include usebb engine
//
require(ROOT_PATH.'sources/common.php');
 
//
// Update and get the session information
//
$session->update('pagename');
 
//
// Include the page header
//
require(ROOT_PATH.'sources/page_head.php');
 
### The page's contents comes here ###
### (Delete this note)             ###
 
//
// Include the page footer
//
require(ROOT_PATH.'sources/page_foot.php');
 
?>

An included page

The following is the template for an included page in UseBB.

<?php
 
/*
	Copyright (C) 2003-2007 UseBB Team
	http://www.usebb.net
	
	$Header: $
	
	This file is part of UseBB.
	
	UseBB is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
	it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
	the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
	(at your option) any later version.
	
	UseBB is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
	but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
	MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
	GNU General Public License for more details.
	
	You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
	along with UseBB; if not, write to the Free Software
	Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA  02111-1307  USA
*/
 
//

// Die when called directly in browser
//
if ( !defined('INCLUDED') )
	exit();
 
### The page's contents comes here ###
### (Delete this note)             ###
 
?>

Note: don’t forget the ?> and to put a newline character (\n) after the ?>!

Variables

Variable naming

Variables are need to be named clearly and understandable. Variable names can contain a single word or multiple words joined with an underscore. For example:

$variable
$another_variable

These are legimate names. The following are not:

$anothervariable
$anotherVariable

Variable initialization

Used variables always need to be initialized first. For example:

$variable = array();
foreach ( $this as $that )
	$variable[] = $that;

Also, !empty() needs to be used first when checking a variable for anything else in an IF expression. For example:

if ( !empty($_POST['user']) && preg_match(USER_PREG, $_POST['user']) )

The default error reporting in UseBB (E_ALL) should produce an error when a variable was not initialized before usage. For security reasons, never change the error reporting level when developing!

Indentation and whitespace

Note: All examples contain certain whitespace. Please beware of them and use them in your code! The usage of whitespace also counts as a coding guideline!

Indentation in UseBB is done with tabs, no spaces. Indentation follows when we are inside a loop (foreach, while, ...) and in an if or else clausule. For example:

if ( !empty($this) ) {
	
	$this = htmlentities($this);
	$that = trim($that);
	
} else {
	
	$this = 'this';
	
}

Note we place empty lines after the line ending with { and before the line starting with }, and that those lines also contain indentation.

When using no { and }, which is preferred for a single statement inside the loop or clausule, no empty lines are needed. For example:

if ( !empty($this) )
	$this = htmlentities($this);
else
	$this = 'this';

Whitespace is needed before and after the brackets in an if, foreach, while, ... expression. Also, there needs to be a space before and after curly braces (except when the brace is the first or the last character on the line - tabs not included). See the previous examples.

A closing curly brace (}) is always placed at the same indentation as where the clausule started. See the previous example.

Also, array elements are indented:

array(
	'key' => 'value';
);

Ternary operator

The use of the ternary operator (short form of IF) is allowed for assigning a value to a variable. For example:

$some_variable = ( !empty($another_variable) ) ? $another_variable : '';

Note the condition of the expression needs to be surrounded by brackets. Also note the whitespace used in the statement.