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Phalcon Coding Standard

Last update: 2019-07-04

Phalcon is written in Zephir, a language that the Phalcon Team invented and is actively developing. Therefore, there are no established coding standards that developers can follow, should they wish to.

In this document we outline the coding standard that Phalcon is using for editing Zephir files. The coding standard is a variant of PSR-12 developed by PHP-FIG

Files

  • Files must use only UTF-8 without BOM.
  • File names must be named StudlyCaps.
  • All files must use the Unix LF (linefeed) line ending.
  • All files must end with a single blank line.
  • Folders are also named StudlyCaps and the folder/sub-folder tree follows the namespace of the class.
phalcon/Acl/Adapter/Memory.zep

namespace Phalcon\Acl\Adapter;

use Phalcon\Acl\Adapter;

class Memory extends Adapter
{

}
  • Code must use 4 spaces for indenting, not tabs.
  • Lines should be 80 characters or fewer. The hard limit on line length is 120 characters.
  • There must be one blank line after the namespace declaration, and there must be one blank line after the block of use declarations.
  • There must not be trailing whitespace at the end of non-blank lines.
  • Blank lines may be added to improve readability and to indicate related blocks of code.
  • There must not be more than one statement per line.

Classes

  • Class names must be declared in StudlyCaps.
  • Opening braces for classes must go on the next line, and closing braces must go on the next line after the body.
  • Abstract classes must be prefixed by Abstract
  • Interfaces must be suffixed by Interface

Constants

  • Class constants must be declared in all upper case with underscore separators.
  • Class constants must appear at the top of the class.
  • Class constants must be sorted alphabetically by constant name.
namespace Phalcon\Acl;

class Enum
{
    const ALLOW = 1;
    const DENY  = 0;
}

Properties

  • Class properties must be declared in camelCase.
  • Class properties must be sorted alphabetically based on name.
  • Whenever possible, properties must have a default value.
  • Whenever possible, properties must have a docblock that defines their type with the @var declaration.
  • Properties must not be prefixed with underscore _. The only exception is if the property name is a reserved keyword such as default, namespace etc.
namespace Phalcon\Acl\Adapter;

use Phalcon\Acl\Adapter;

class Memory extends Adapter
{
    /**
     * @var string | null
     */
    protected activeKey = "" { get };
}

Methods

  • Method names must be declared in camelCase.
  • Methods must be sorted alphabetically and based on their visibility. The order is public, protected and private. __construct if defined must be at the top of the class.
  • Method names must not be prefixed with underscore _.
  • All methods must have a return type. If the method does not return anything it should be marked void
  • Opening braces for methods must go on the next line, and closing braces must go on the next line after the body.
  • Visibility must be declared on all properties and methods; abstract and final must be declared before the visibility; static must be declared after the visibility.
abstract public function getElement() -> var;

final public function getElement() -> var;

public static function getElement() -> var;
  • Control structure keywords must have one space after them; method and function calls must not.
  • Opening braces for control structures must go on the same line, and closing braces must go on the next line after the body.
  • Control structures such as if must not have parentheses around the conditional, unless it is a complex one.
if typeof variable === "array" {

}

Method Arguments

  • In the argument list, there must not be a space before each comma, and there must be one space after each comma.
  • Each method must have its type declared before it
  • Method arguments with default values must go at the end of the argument list.
public function setElement(string! name, var value) -> void;
  • Argument lists MAY be split across multiple lines, where each subsequent line is indented once. When doing so, the first item in the list must be on the next line, and there must be only one argument per line.

PHP Files

PHP files such as tests must follow PSR-12.