Code Formatting Issues

[Emmtee]

looking at the current PHP code there's SQL code which is rendered beyond unreadability...

 

example:

  $specials_query_raw = "select p.products_id, pd.products_name, p.products_price, p.products_tax_class_id, p.products_image, s.specials_new_products_price from " . TABLE_PRODUCTS . " p, " . TABLE_PRODUCTS_DESCRIPTION . " pd, " . TABLE_SPECIALS . " s where p.products_status = '1' and s.products_id = p.products_id and p.products_id = pd.products_id and pd.language_id = '" . $languages_id . "' and s.status = '1' order by s.specials_date_added DESC";

 

now look at it, when clearly formatted like this:

  $specials_query_raw = "

SELECT 

 p.products_id, 

 pd.products_name, 

 p.products_price, 

 p.products_tax_class_id, 

 p.products_image, 

 s.specials_new_products_price 

FROM " 

 . TABLE_PRODUCTS . " p, " 

 . TABLE_PRODUCTS_DESCRIPTION . " pd, " 

 . TABLE_SPECIALS. " s 

WHERE 

 p.products_status = '1' 

 and s.products_id = p.products_id 

 and p.products_id = pd.products_id 

 and pd.language_id = '" . $languages_id . "' 

 and s.status = '1' 

ORDER by 

 s.specials_date_added 

 DESC"

;

i bet you could read the second example MUCH faster than the original one

 

SQL queries work well with multiline requests, so no problem on this...

additional benefits:

- more compact diff files with clearer changes and easy matching

- allows keeping patches when just small parts of the request code change

- much better readability (reduced debugging time, reduced human errors)

 

That's why I suggest to adapt to such formatting for the SQL code

 

... another issue are the LOADS of interpreter-close, interpreter-open blocks... it's a nice feature to use it, but without clear comments it renders the if-else structure horrible to see - take any html page code of OSC and take a look for something like this:

<?php

 }

?>

... then try to find the part where the block starts...

... suggesstion: use COMMENTS like

<?php

 if (something) {  #### START OF BLOCk_SOMETHING ####

?>

.....

<?php

 } ############## END OF BLOCk_SOMETHING #####

?>

 

 

last thing I saw:

very short HTML code between Interpreter-mode-changes

suggestion -> use echo/print for short HTML snipplets inside PHP code

 

feedback welcome

[Emmtee]

fix:

when re-formatting SQL statements, one can encounter errors due to split results page function in general.php - it's using spaces in front of SQL keywords - when indenting with tabs, this can be a killer, removing the spaces yields old behaviour for me, tests still in progress...

 

btw: i split default.php into 3 submodules in order to get it into a readable form.... discovering some redundancy in HTML code :)

 

example:

 	 <!-- body - left nav end    -->  

	 <!-- body - main part start -->

	 <?php

   print '<td width="100%" valign="top">';

   if ($category_depth == 'nested') {

  	 ## CASE 1

  	 include(DIR_WS_MODULES . 'default_nested.php');

   } 

   elseif ($category_depth == 'products' || $HTTP_GET_VARS['manufacturers_id']) {

  	 ## CASE 2

  	 include(DIR_WS_MODULES . 'default_products.php');

   }

   else {

  	 ## CASE 3 (ELSE/DEFAULT)

  	 include(DIR_WS_MODULES . 'default_default.php');

   }

   print '</td>';

	 ?>

	 <!-- body - main part end -->

	 <!-- right_navigation start-->