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Whoever said coding is easy in PHP is either an expert PHP developer or has been making some or all of the following mistakes and no one has raised a finger on them yet. This article will be a consciousness check on whether have done it all right all along or whether you have been erring on the same side. Read on and find out for yourself.
1. Ignoring Unicode or UTF-8: Unicode is a universal code that enables the implementation of any language of the world and any symbol in a web application. It is reliable when we pass the Unicode using utf-8 encode function in PHP from server to the client machine; so that the application can be changed with respect to local language. But, many PHP developers are absolutely unaware of this function. They use traditional ASCII System for the same which neither perfect nor efficient in any manner. So, PHP developers should learn and implement Unicode in codebase for designing enterprise standard cross culture and multi lingual web applications.
2. Cache mismanagement: Cache management is the most important feature for crafting highly efficient and optimized web application. Many PHP development professionals used to ignore this feature. As a result, there will be excess unnecessary load on the server leading to slow response of the application. It may also lead to timeout condition which is extremely annoying for the user. With proper use of cache and cookies i.e. by storing client data on client browser, a PHP developer can improve the performances of the web application to a large extend. Especially, when your application is dealing with some basic yet important client data like user credentials, geographic location API and timestamp, you should take the benefit of cache memory in enhancing the performance of the application and hence improving the user experience.
3. No proper exception handling: Most of the PHP developers forget to implement this feature. Exception handling is one of the tremendous tools that are given to the web developers. It just needs to be implemented properly; but, severely lacks with even experienced PHP web developers. Actually, this tiny thing is usually overlooked by PHP developers due to work stress or whatever. But, this is extremely important to add Exception handling code in proper places without any fail before your application goes to production stage. It makes the application not only error free but also proactive enough with artificial intelligence.
4. Session gets away from the application in between: Sometimes, we find PHP developers forget to include the session() validation check in web pages. It is often noticed in later pages of the application. This enables the user to access unethical data of another user. So, in every page at the top, PHP developers must validate the session data. Session data usually keeps the user information like UserID, password etc. After successful authentication of user data through the session, the user should be admitted to traverse across the web pages.
5. Versioning is not used by many PHP developers: Many PHP developers do not use any Versioning software like Tortoise SVN or RTC or others. They used to keep a back-up folder instead! This is highly irrelevant to keep your client web project as your personal multimedia file! So, avoid this bad practice and use a SVN tool or RTC to keep your web project safe. With versioning tool, you could see what changes you made even after 10 years; you can compare the changes made between two versions. Most importantly, it enables you to roll back to a previous version if needed due to client demand or application demand.
6. Many PHP web developer uses * for database access: This is one of the common practices found in most PHP developers. They used to write query like "Select * from employeedb where emp_Id=10067". This is horrible! Do you need all data of that employee? If no, why retrieve all those data from database? It hampers the performance of the application and slower the server. To avoid this, you should request only relevant data from database like "Select empName, basicSalary, grossSalary from employeedb where emp_id=10067" to retrieve the 3 relevant data instead of whole row.
7. Forget to close the db connection: This is yet another irresponsible act that few PHP developers do! They open the database and retrieve the data but after rendering the data to web page, they forget to close the database connection. It enables the hackers to hack your database. So, you must serious enough while dealing with these types of database access stuffs and complete the action with closure of the database connection with the server.
8. Improper db query that may lead to SQLInjection: This is often found in the codes of PHP developers. They used to put some unwise database query while retrieving the data from database. Mainly when they use variables wrongly in SQL query for database access. They also make the query highly vulnerable with wrong use of upper codes and without eliminating slash. Now, their web application becomes a paradise for hackers. They can access the database with tricks like SQL injection or even directly by modifying the query. They can even take the control of the admin in no time. So, while writing db query make sure your query is strong enough and can never be fall in trap of SQLInjection or other hacker's tricks.
9. Many integrate unreliable third party code to application: This is often found with every open source developer including PHP. PHP has one of the largest developer's communities in the world. There are millions of free and open source modules and plug-ins available over internet and they can make your task easy. You can take the help of those open source codes and modify them as per your requirement to integrate with your web application. But are you choosing the reliable code? If not sure, simply ignore them. Using unreliable code will decrease the standard of your application due to performance issues and lack of optimization. We are not saying to avoid all third party open source codes, just make sure you are accessing from the right resource.
10. Lack of willingness to adopt futuristic features: Web world is changing at a much faster pace than any other domain. Smartphone and tablets are becoming the most important part of web browsing devices in the industry. So are you making your application responsive so that it can give similar user experience in all these devices? If no, start it now. Implement modern technologies like HTML5, CSS3, Bootstrap and jQuery etc to make your website fit for the smart industry. Don't let your website dull due to your incompatibility with the latest trend; make it cross device, cross platform and cross browser compatible to win millions of hearts of the industry.
11. Ignoring server side validation: This is the most important mistake done by PHP developers. They usually do the client side validation with JavaScript but forgets to do the same in server side with PHP. In turn, your database may be filled with corrupt data by the hackers. So, make sure that you are doing the server side validation without any fail and giving no chance for the unethical guy to hamper your beautiful database.
You have read these points and you can work on them to make no more mistakes in your PHP web application, or, you can hire the services of a professional offshore software development company that has a decade of expertise in developing user friendly and robust web applications using PHP. If you decide on the later course of action, it is highly recommended to avail the services of Mindfire Solutions, a 16 year old custom software development company from India. Please send in your web application development requirements to sales at Mindfire Solutions dot com.
