Coding Guidelines From Online Manual

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Simple Machines prides itself on its clean and pure code. This document provides guidelines for all coding done in relation to Simple Machines including Simple Machines Forum. This includes all development done by the SMF Team and users affecting customizations (mods/themes), core development, and tools. As with most things in life, there may be circumstances where these guidelines cannot be followed exactly. Breaking them, however, should be a last resort.

Hopefully, these guidelines will help you better understand the Simple Machines code.

Preface

This document is meant for semi-experienced users. As such, it does not define many basic terms such as CSS, HTML, PHP, and MySQL. If you do not know what any one of those terms mean, you may be better off familiarizing yourself with those topics before continuing with these guidelines. The term ‘foobar’ is used throughout this document as a placeholder for real variable and function names.

If you have any questions about this document, please see the SMF Coding Discussion board in the SMF Community Forums. You may visit the function database for information about the files, functions, and variables described in this document.

This document is free for distribution. Please translate this to as many languages as possible.

Model View Controller (MVC)

SMF is based on a Model-View-Controller (MVC) architecture which separates content and presentation. The software uses the action present in the URL and the file associated with that action to function as the controller. Various loading and processing functions serve as the models, and the many theme and template functions make up the views.

Each group of actions should have their own controller file. For instance, admin actions use Admin.php. Supporting functions and/or functions that are used in multiple controllers should be placed in a model file. In the case of Admin.php we use Subs-Admin.php. The last piece of the puzzle is to create a view file – Admin.template.php.

The view is divided into two parts – structure (PHP & HTML) and presentation (CSS). Although, not all templates have their own CSS file – that would be overkill. Structure is then split into two parts – template functions and a separate language file. If you're looking for the various files, you can find controller and model files in the 'Sources' directory, the view files in the 'Themes' directory, and the language files in the default theme directory in a sub-directory called 'languages.' The actual locations of these directories may vary across SMF installations, but they default to the forum's root directory.

Naming Conventions

You should use the following naming conventions when coding for any Simple Machines product.

Descriptive Naming

  • The name of the variable or function should describe what it is or does. For instance, use $message_settings instead of $mset.
  • The name of the variable or function should signify what the object is being used for, not where it is to be used.
  • Use English as the default language when choosing a name for your variable or function.

Camel Case and Underscores

  • Use underscores ($foo_bar) or camelCase ($fooBar).
  • Do not use camel case when naming tables, columns, or indexes in databases. They do not work in all database systems.

Database

  • When a column is an ID, it should prefixed with ‘id_’ as in ‘id_member’.
  • Tables with the purpose of logging should be prefixed with ‘log_’ as in ‘log_errors’.

Files

  • When you are displaying an index of information to be displayed to a user such as BoardIndex.php and MessageIndex.php, the file name should end with ‘Index’.
  • A file that is used for the management of a feature like members should be prefixed with ‘Manage’. For instance, SMF's file is named ManageMembers.php.
  • Files that are not the controller file for an action, but instead contain many functions that can be used in several files, should be prefixed with ‘Subs-’. For instance, SMF's posting functions are placed in a file called Subs-Post.php.
  • Classes should have their own file, prefixed with ‘Class-’.

Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)

  • ID and class names must be lower case.
  • ID and class names should always describe what they do, not where they are to be used.
/* WRONG! This class name tells where the element goes. */
.rightmenu
{
}

/* CORRECT! This class name tells what the element is or does. */
.profilemenu
{
}

Database

SMF supports multiple databases, so following these guidelines is extremely important to make sure that remains so.

Functions

  • Do not use database-specific functions to send a query to the database (i.e. - mysql_query() for MySQL). Use $smcFunc['db_query']().
  • Do not use database-specific functions to handle query results (i.e. - mysql_fetch_array() or mysql_fetch_assoc() in MySQL). Most of the time you should be using the associative array returned by $smcFunc['db_fetch_assoc'](). In rare cases like when using list(), you may use $smcFunc['db_fetch_row']().
  • Always use $smcFunc['db_free_result']() to free the resource when you are finished with it.

Queries

Queries have the ability to make your forum run fast or to cripple it. It all depends on how your query is designed. You, as a developer, should do your best to optimize your queries.

  • Queries should never be in the template files.
  • Most of the time it is best to use joins instead of using multiple queries or subselects. Sometimes this is not the case. You should do simple benchmarking to test the difference.
  • You may not use UNION, SET PASSWORD, BENCHMARK, subselects, or comments in a query.
  • Use LIMIT whenever the WHERE clause contains a column that does not have a UNIQUE index – to include primary keys.
  • When selecting columns, only select those which you are going to use. Do not use SELECT *.
  • When doing the shorthand INNER JOIN, always enclose the tables in parentheses (i.e. - FROM (table1 as t1, table2 as t2)).
  • All keywords should be capitalized.
  • When using more than one table in a query, use an alias for the table name.
  • Always use {db_prefix} before the table name.
  • Never use reserved words.
  • You do not need to add the database name to tables.
  • All comments should be before the call to $smcFunc['db_query'](), there should be no comments inside of queries.
  • Do not rely on the default value. If you are doing an insert and the table has a column that you have no value for, don't include that column.

Query Example 

// Get their name and part of their address (excuse the wrapping)
$result = $smcFunc['db_query']('
    SELECT ppl.first_name, ppl.last_name, add.city, add.address
    FROM people as ppl
    LEFT JOIN addresses as add ON (add.id_address = ppl.id_address)
    WHERE ppl.id_person = {int:person}
    AND (ppl.middle_name = 'foo' OR ppl.suffix != 'jr')
    AND {bool:condition},
    array(
        'person' => $id_person,
        'condition' => $condition
    )
);

Whitespace

Whitespace is important in making your code easier to read and follow. Use whitespace in the following situations.

  • Use one LF after $smcFunc['db_query']('.
  • Indent once past the base of the query.
  • Use one space after each keyword, column name, and table name.
  • Do not use spaces when using a function such as COUNT(column).
  • Each of the following keywords should be on their own line: SELECT, DELETE, UPDATE, FROM, JOIN, LEFT JOIN, WHERE, AND, OR, GROUP BY, ORDER BY, LIMIT, etc.

Exception: when AND & OR are used in a sub-condition, they do not need to be on their own line. See the example at the end of this section for more information on that.

Schema

  • All tables should use the $db_prefix.
  • Tables should work with HEAP or MyISAM. Do not expect a user to have InnoDB or any other engine enabled.
  • If a column has no reason to ever be NULL, specify NOT NULL. This saves space in the table data.
  • Use default values whenever possible. Always assume that those values may be used at some point.
  • Use the smallest data type possible, but remember that it needs to scale. Come up with reasonable maximums for IDs, and that will be the maximum size of your column. Use a corresponding column type.
  • Remember that using an UNSIGNED number will nearly double the amount of rows allowed. Use UNSIGNED when are you defining an ID.
  • Primary keys are strongly recommended.

Schema Example 

CREATE TABLE {$db_prefix}mountains
(
    id_mountain smallint(5) unsigned NOT NULL auto_increment,
    name varchar(25) NOT NULL default ,
    date_found int(10) unsigned NOT NULL default '0',
    PRIMARY KEY (id_mountain),
    KEY found(date_found)
) TYPE = MyISAM;

PHP

Whitespace

  • Use the BSD/Allman indentation style.
  • Use Unix line feeds (LF) instead of carriage returns like the old Mac® style (CR) and not a combo like Windows® (CR+LF). That does not mean use Unix indentation style.
  • No whitespace at the end of lines.
  • Use tabs, not spaces, for proper indentation.
  • There is no need for braces (curly brackets) with one line of code after a control structure.
  • Use braces (curly brackets) for switch ... case and every other time there are multiple statements.
  • Do not use a space after function names and before ();. So, use fooBar(); and not fooBar ();.
  • Space before and after the equal sign. For example $var = 'foo';
  • When many common assignments are being done, it is common to use more space so that all of the assignments align with each other. This is acceptable.
  • There should be no extra line after the closing ?>.
  • Each statement should be on its own line.
  • Use one space after control structures such as if (), elseif (), for (), while (), etc.
  • Use one space after language constructs such as echo, list, require, etc.
  • Do not indent statements in the global scope (not inside of a class, function, statement, etc.).
  • Every argument, except the last, in an argument list should have a space after the comma.
  • When declaring (not using) a function, the function name should have a space after it and before the ‘(’. So, use fooBar () and not fooBar().
  • One space before and after the ‘.’ when concatenating.

Functions & Language Constructs

  • Arguments with default values go at the end of the argument list in the function definition. For example, function foo ($bar, $var = true, $arg = 'foobar');.
  • Wrapper functions (functions that do nothing more than call another function) should not be used.
  • Use isset() instead of in_array().
  • Use empty() instead of isset() && $var != && $var != 0 && $var != false.
  • Use include_once() instead of include() and require_once() instead of require(). Code that you want to run more than once should be inside of a function.

Variables

  • Initialize all variables.
  • Although there may be the rare case where a constant is desired, they should be used sparingly. If you want to put a variable in the global scope, use global. When you do need to use a constant, they should be uppercase.
  • There are some special variables that we use such as $modSettings, $context, $sourcedir, etc. You can find out more about those in the documentation. Use those variables before creating your own.
  • $_GET and $_POST are available via $_REQUEST. It doesn't make a difference in terms of security to know where the data is coming from since all user data is dirty (see Security).
    • All $_REQUEST variables have been escaped. If you wish to use them you are going to have to unescape them.
    • All $_GET variables have been modified with htmlspecialchars__recursive(). You will need to undo those special characters if you want to use the plain text.
  • It is usually best to use an associative array instead of numeric.
  • Avoid internal type changing/conflicts. PHP won't mind, but it will become confusing as you start to work with that variable. For example, don't do $var = 'foo'; $var = $var == 'foo' ? true : false;

Error Handling

  • All code should be E-STRICT compatible.
  • You should almost never use @ to silence an error. If you expect there to be an error, check to see if you will receive that error first. For instance, if you are going to include a file, check to see if it exists if you expect it to fail. Otherwise, use require_once().
  • Simple Machines has its own error handling functions. You will surely see them while debugging your code. They should be used when you want to return an error. To see those functions, look in Errors.php.

Comments

  • Comment often!
  • Use comments to describe a block of code or as a placeholder for future code/mods.
  • Comments should be unique per the file and should try to be unique per the entire application.
  • Comments should be kept under 80 characters per line.
  • One line comments should use ‘// ’ - two forward slashes (//) and a space then the text. It should end with a period.
  • Multiple line comments should use /* */ and each are on their own line.

Comment Examples 

// Here goes a one-liner... so a dog and a man walk in to a bar
function do_something()
{
	foobar();
}

/* This is my comment.
I want to comment some more.
Keep on commenting.
*/
echo 'I love Rock & Roll, put another dime in ©';

Miscellaneous Guidelines

  • Always use <?php and ?>. Never use short tags!
  • SMF uses procedural programming for most things. If you are not creating an entire class, please do not use object oriented programming (OOP). Future versions of this document will include guidelines for writing OOP PHP code.
  • Use single quotes. You may use double quotes when you want to concatenate a variable, but should only be used in smaller strings.
  • Free as many resources as possible.
  • Do not use deprecated features. Nor should you use features that don't exist in the minimum version.

Proper PHP Example 

<?php
// Copyright © 2007: Joshua Dickerson

foo_bar('x', 'woot');
if (empty($_REQUEST['bla']))
{
	require_once('some_file.php');
	have_fun();
}

// Declare a function.
function foo_bar ($arg, $arg1, $arg2 = false)
{
	global $modSettings, $context;
	static $counter;

	if ($arg2)
		ex_of_calling();
	elseif ($arg)
		$foo = array();

	foreach ($arg as $key => $value)
		$arg2 = $key;

	while ($arg1)
	{
		do_something();
		fooBar();
	}

	$abc = 123;
	$woot = 098;
	$yawie = 12;
}
?>

Output

We have a lot of goals for output. Semantic markup, accessible output, usable output, XHTML 1 or HTML 4.01 valid, and CSS 2 valid. That can be a bit confusing. To break it down – semantic markup means that the tags are used in a manner that make sense to a human and machines (ie search engines). Like headings used for headings, div used to divide sections, p used for paragraphs, etc. It also must validate in the document type. Whether that be XHTML or HTML. The CSS files also must be valid. There are a lot of browsers out there that accept mistakes/kludges in markup, we don't. The accessible part is a little less simple. It means that your markup should be all of the above including the ability for it to change easily for people with impairments. Font size, screen size, etc are things that need to be thought about.

All output should be contained inside a template! echo

Simple Machines uses one thing and one thing only to output information. We do not use print() or heredoc2. We only use echo. It is not a function, it is a language construct. So, you don't need parenthesis around it's output. As well, you can pass an unlimited number of arguments to it. Send multiple arguments with the use of commas instead of concatenation (using periods) Place a space after the comma, not before. Put line breaks inside of the quotes. There is no need to use “\n”. PHP whitespace and markup whitespace do not relate. When you want your output to be indented, you need to add tabs. Your PHP/echo statements should still line up with the function and other statements that they are in as per the PHP guidelines. Example of proper usage of echo:

// Using a long string with no variables. echo 'This is our very long string. We don\'t need any variables';

if ($code) echo $foobar; else echo 'This is to show you what concatenation looks like ', $txt['see'], 'what I mean by putting line breaks inside of quotes';

// Short string with variable. echo "this $is a $short $string";

// Proper indentation and spacing. if ($woot) { echo '

w00t!';

if ($woot % 2 == 0) echo '
woot w00t woot';

echo '

';

} Example of improper usage of echo:

// DO NOT DO IT LIKE THIS! echo "$var"; echo "output"; echo <<<EOD heredoc $stupid heredoc EOD; print "bla \'bla\' bla"; echo 'see what I mean by line breaks' . "\n", "look at how bad this looks" . "\n" . "compared to just putting the line breaks in quotes";

Usable AND Accessible!

These are two distinctly different and important terms but are rarely thought about. Making a page accessible does not mean that it shouldn't look good. The guidelines below will help you to achieve an accessible page. We have many types of users. We are devoted to making it possible for all users to access a page. Thus, you have to consider differences between users. A page should look and sound good as best you can. Remember, there are users out there that use screen readers. You might have a 21” monitor with a high resolution. Other users may be reading your page on a mobile device with a 2” screen and no graphics. A lot more users than you may think don't have JavaScript enabled. Think about how many people might disable JavaScript so they don't get popups or ads.

Graceful Degradation

All browsers should be able to use a page regardless if JavaScript is enabled, screen size, operating system, browser version, etc. What can't be made to look pretty with JavaScript or CSS due to the browser should still work and should look as good as possible.

HTML

HTML is used to define the structure of a document, not the presentation (make this bold, this small, this big). Use HTML 4.01 or XHTML 1.0 transitional/strict doctype. Aim for strict. Usually a list should be used for menus. Use <p> for paragraphs. Use <br /> only for a single line break. Two or more define a paragraph so use that. If you need more space in between paragraphs use extra margin through CSS. Don't use <p> when you need 3 or more line breaks, but don't use <br /> when you need 2 line breaks. You should not use 3 line breaks in anything except user submitted text. Do not use <a name=”anchor”> for anchors. Use <{tag} id=”anchor”> since all ids are unique they act as anchors. Where {tag} is usually a header tag. Although <b>, <i>, <big>, <small>, <tt> are not deprecated, you should understand that they are strictly for presentation. They serve no purpose other than to make your output look different. If you want to show emphasis on text, consider using <strong> or <em>. If you want to create a heading, consider using <h#>. Here are some commonly used deprecated tags that should not be used: You may wish to show text with a strike through it. You may be using <s> to signify that it is for deleted text. Instead, consider using <del> and <ins>. If you are only striking it for presentation, considering using the CSS text decoration “text-decoration: line-through;”. Do not use <pre> when you really want to show a code snippet. There are the <code> and <sample> tags for that. Perhaps the most commonly used deprecated tag is <font>. This tag has no semantic value. Next time you are thinking of using <font>, use <span>. Internet Explorer does not support <q> or <button>. Do not use them. Tables are for tabular data! Think of a table as a spreadsheet. Would your data work well in a spreadsheet? Are you only using a table because it makes it easier to layout data? Use <th> and <caption> to define the data in the table. Forms are a block level tag. They do not require to be wrapped by a div. Related fields should be grouped with a <fieldset> tag. All fieldsets should have a legend All form fields should have a label using the <label> tag. Related options in a select box should be grouped using the <optgroup> tag When creating a list of form controls, it is usually best to use a definition list <dl>. Define the label with <dt> and the control with <dd>. Never use a reset button. One mistaken click will cause the entire form to disappear!

CSS

CSS is used to define the presentation of a document, not the structure. Don't be afraid of CSS. It can make changing a lot of elements of a page a lot faster. It can also decrease the size of your output. It can also be used to change your styles based on the user's interface. Use the BSD/Allman indentation style. Try to avoid in-line styles, and useless class names such as ‘bigred’, another user may decide that the text needs to be normal sized, but bold and blue. Only use pseudo classes for links. Internet Explorer 6 and below don't support them. Use CSS shorthand as often as possible. An excellent article on this can be found on 456BereaStreet.com. Do not do browser sniffing. The proper alternative is to use feature sniffing. If a value is 0, do not use a value type (px, em, etc). Box model: This is where a correct doctype comes in. IE < 6 uses IE box model. IE >=6 uses W3C when a correct doctype is set. You may use IE condocsditional comments. Use them sparingly. JavaScript

Our JavaScript guidelines use the same indentation and whitespace guidelines as PHP. Never alter the prototype of Object. Avoid global objects. Use the var keyword in all functions. Put stuff in the smf namespace/object. Large mods can have their own namespace if they need to. Avoid eval(), including hidden ones. eval() is allowed in very specific situations, such as parsing JSON, but it shouldn't be used anywhere else. Hidden eval()s are something like onclick = "function();". Instead, just use onclick = function; Don't browser detect, instead use feature detection. And if possible, do feature detection outside of a function. Don't do calculations in the 2nd part of a for loop. for (var i = 0; i < theArray.length; i++) -> for (var i = 0, l = theArray.length; i < l; i++) Avoid the this keyword, because what it refers to can be unpredictable. Use it only in functions that you know will be run only by an event, when the alternative is messing around with the Event object. More info on the this keyword. Avoid string concatenation. If you need to join many strings, put them in an array and use the join method. Use use regular expressions – they're faster than most JavaScript string testing functions. Use object literal notations. It's quick and simple.

Security

Security

Simple Machines prides itself on its security history. We would like to keep it that way. We have added several guidelines to keep security tight. Are you my SMF?

We have come up with a simple, but effective solution to make sure that your file is being used only on your system and only by SMF. The example below defines exactly how this check should appear. It should appear at the very beginning of your file, just after the copyright/license block. You may change what is output on die() but it isn't recommended. Example of SMF check:

if (!defined('SMF')) die('Hacking attempt...'); Wash those variables, you don't know where they've been!

Everything that comes from a user can be a potential security risk. After all, you don't know if that user is your sweet old Granny, or some crazed hacker hell bent on destroying your website. All integers should be defined as integers before you start working with them. That includes array keys and values. Does that mean that you have to cast every $_REQUEST variable to an integer? No. That means that you must cast all $_REQUEST variables that should be an integer to an integer. Example of casting to int:

$_GET['foo'] = (int) $_GET['foo']; $bar = array ( 'my_fav' => (int) $_POST['bar]['my_fav'], 'ghost' => (int) $_GET['boo'], ); // (int) $var and settype($var, 'int') do the same thing. $id_groundup = (int) $id_groundup; $id_yo_momma = settype($id_yo_momma, 'int'); All variables being passed to the database must be escaped! This is a favorite exploit among hackers — SQL injection. Does that mean that you should escape every $_REQUEST variable sent to you? Yes, but we have a solution for that. In QueryString.php, there is a function called cleanRequest(). It escapes all $_REQUEST variables for you. Although, that means when you are working with $_REQUEST variables, you need to un-escape them with stripslashes(). The permission system

Do not hard code the groups that you want to give access to. Use allowedTo() and isAllowedTo() where allowedTo() should be used for a basic check and isAllowedTo() should be used as a check/error combination. When you want to get a list of boards a user has a permission to, use boardsAllowedTo(). Session checks

Before you start to work with input passed through a form from a user, you should always check their session. Whenever you have an action in the administration center, use validateSession() to ensure the user is who they say they are. Note that adminIndex() will do this for you.

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