What architecture should I use for writing my firs

Question

I just want to build my first dynamic Website. I want to use PHP, MYSQL, AJAX, HTML, CSS

I have some beginner Questions:

• Should the Header and Navigation Bar excluded in a header.php and print out with echo?

• Should the design tags in the echo in php (like: <a>1 Test test</a>) or only return the the data

• Is there a good example for making dynamic websites?

My main problem is that i don't know how to make a clear structure. Where to make the right design (print out in the php ?)

Answer 1

I'd suggest to use some template system (Smarty would be good). It does not really matter where do you put your header and navigation bar at first glance. When do you need to exclude Navigation bar and store it separately? When you want to have ability to include different nav. bars in different parts of your website.

For example I have a website with several subdomains: about.website.dev, special.website.dev and, let's say, terms.website.dev

At about.website.dev my navigation bar's entries will be: "Who I am", "What do I do", "How cool am I"; at special.website.dev: "Goods", "Solutions", "Tips" , etc.

Your navigation bar's template is the same: just a loop though all entries, but content differs. In this case you separate navigation bar from header. If you don't use templates, you just create three files (in this case): about.nav.php, special.nav.php and terms.nav.php and then you just include appropriate navigation bar.

If your nav. bar is all the same everywhere on your website, you can store it in header.php. Once you need to separate, it will not be difficult, but still I'd suggest to use templates though just to get used to "proper website development".

Take a look at different templating systems like Smarty or Savant. I, personally, like Django's (python) templating system most. And get used to separate your view and business logic.

Answer 2

Use MVC - http://www.yiiframework.com/doc/guide/1.1/en/basics.mvc See Yii-framework http://yiiframework.com, it has all you need :)

Answer 3

If you want a good book on the subject, try

• MySQL/PHP Database Applications by Brad Bulger, Jay Greenspan and David Wall

What you are asking is pretty much a matter of taste. The more complex your application will be, the more work should go into an elaborate and maintainable structure.

My opinion is: Learn the basics first and then look at frameworks. It makes it a lot easier if you understand what happens under the hood.

Answer 4

Try Agile Toolkit, probably the easiest PHP UI framework to get started with designed for web software.

You'll step over many problems. http://agiletoolkit.org

Depending of the choice of framework/plain PHP, you should do it in accordance with their practices. For instance in Agile Toolkit you use templates, so you put your header and footer into templates/jui/shared.html file. It's explained in the first screencast.

If you reinvent the wheel and go ahead with plain PHP, then you should do better do include 'header.php'; . Good framework lets you NOT learn about inner workings of web software. Bad framework needs you to know everything anyway.

Answer 5

IMHO, you would be better off having a look at a php-based web application framework. such as the list at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_web_application_frameworks#PHP

Even though it may be a little more to learn upfront (the framework as well as php), they all have solid enough structures to develop dynamic websites with. Find one that is light enough and has good tutorials and you'll find yourself learning the php language along the way. I believe this will be easier than just using raw php at the beginning stage.

When you know more you can then make a judgement call on which frameworks you prefer and suit your needs or coding style or even revert back to raw php.

Answer 6

There's a lot of good answers here already - but just to add....

Do split functionality into separate include files - and use a consistent way of locating these files.

Do find a good PHP coding style and stick to it. e.g. horde, PEAR

Don't have code or HTML executed inline in include files - it should only do something when you specifically invoke it from your controlling script.

If you are including files which generate HTML, make sure they provide functionality for closing any tags they open. i.e. not just a 'header.php'

Since CSS and Javascript files should not be directly declared outside the HEAD of the HTML document do look at ways by which invoked functionality can add these into an existing HTML document - one obvious solution is to use a templating system combined with output buffering but you can also inject additional JS and CSS files into the HEAD section later in the document by using javascript.