Advice on refactoring PHP Project
- by b0x
I have a small SAS ERP that was written some years ago using PHP.
At that time, it didn't use any framework, but the code isn't a mess.
Nowadays, the project grows and I’m now working with 3 more programmers.
Often, they ask to me why we don’t migrate to a framework such as Laravel.
Although I'd love trying Laravel, I’m a small business and I don't have time nor money to stop and spend a whole year building everything from scratch. I need to live and pay the bills.
So, I've read a lot about this matter, and I decided that doing a refactoring is the best way to do it.
Also, I'm not so sure that a framework will make things easy.
Business goals are:
Make the code easier to new hired programmers
Separate the "view", in order to:
release different versions of this product (using the same code), but under different brands and websites at the minimum cost (just changing view)
release different versions to fit mobile/tablet.
Make different types of this product, selling packages as if they were plugins.
Develop custom packages for some costumers (like plugins/addon's that they can buy to put on the main application).
Code goals:
Introduce best pratices, standards for everyone
Try to build my own MVC structure
Improve validation of data/forms (today they are mixed in both ajax and classes)
Create automated testing routines for quality assurance.
My current structure project:
class\
extra\
hd\
logs\
public_html\
public_html\includes\
public_html\css|js|images\
class\
There are three types of classes.
They are all “autoloaded” with something similar with PSR-0, but I don’t use namespaces.
1. class.Something.php
Connects to Database using specific methods. I.e: Costumer-list();
It uses “class.Db.php”, that it’s an abstraction of mysql on every method.
2. class.SomethingProc.php
Do things that “join” things that come from “class.Something.php”. Like IF/ELSE, math operations.
3. class.SomethingHTML.php
The classes with “HTML” suffix implements only static methods and HTML code only.
A real life example:
All the programmers need to use $cSomething ($c to class) and $arrSomething (to array).
Costumer.php (view)
<?php
$cCosumter = new Costumer();
$arrCostumer = $cCostumer->list();
echo CostumerHTML::table($arrCostumer);
?>
Extra\
Store 3rdparty projects/classes from others, such MPDF, PHPMailer, etc.
Hd\
Store user’s files outsite wwwroot dir.
Logs\
Store phplogs and the system itself logs
(We have a static Log::error() method, that we put in every method of every class)
Public_html\
Stores the files that people use.
Public_html\includes\
Store the main “config.php” file and all files that do “ajax things”
ajax.Costumer.php, for example.
Help is needed ;)
So, as you can see we have some standards, and also for database things.
But I want to write a manual of our rules. Something that I can give to any new programmer at my company and he can go on.
This is not totally a mess, but it could be better seeing the new practices.
What could I do to separate this as MVC, to have multiple views.
Could you give me some tips considering my goals? Keep im mind the different products/custom things for specific costumers without breaking the main application.
URL for tutorials, books, etc, would be nice.
