PHP - good coding practise and sticky radio buttons

With PHP, it's very easy to knock together a page with a couple of radio buttons and a small application just be taking the "bull at a gate" approach - but if you develop code like this, and without planning, you end up with a very long application that's hard to follow and maintain and - unless you've very good at repeatedly debugging the same code - it's going to be unreliable too.

Much better to move all the standard stuff into functions and just keep the data in the main program or even in data files.

To give you an idea, here's a sample I've just written with sticky radio buttons - as a demonstration - showing you how I've separated the mechanism from the actual data:

<?php



function mystickyradio($spec) {

        $html = "<tr><td>".htmlspecialchars($spec[0])."</td><td>";

        $bname = htmlspecialchars($spec[1]);

        for ($k=2; $k<count($spec); $k+=2) {

                $chkd = ($_REQUEST[$spec[1]] == $spec[$k+1]) ? " checked" : "";

                $html .= "<input type=\"radio\" name=\"$bname\"";

                $html .= " value=\"".htmlspecialchars($spec[$k+1])."\"$chkd>";

                $html .= htmlspecialchars($spec[$k])."<br>";

                }

        $html .= "</td></tr>";

        return $html;

        }



$rb1 = array("Do you do regular weight training?","muscle",

        "Occasionally or never","1",

        "Yes, as part of my exercise routine","1.2",

        "Yes, and I'm a bulky lad","1.5");



$rb2 = array("Select your age range","old",

        "Under 21","0-20",

        "21 to 65","midlife",

        "over 65","old");



$form = "<form method=\"POST\"><table border=1>";

$form .= mystickyradio($rb1);

$form .= mystickyradio($rb2);

$form .= "<tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td><input type=\"submit\"></td></tr>";

$form .= "</table></form>";



?>

<html>

<head>

<title>Data driven sticky radio boxes</title>

</head>

<body>

<h1>Demo Sticky form from parameters</h1>

Please fill in this form<br>

<?= $form ?>

<hr>

Instructions, copyright, etc

</body>

</html>

A real life application would have some "business logic" to actually handle the data entered, of course, and I would move the functions out into a separate include file so that they could be used across all my work. Similarly, the HTML template would be separated out for easier maintainance by an HTML expert. Ah - we're headed for the "4 layer model" again ...

Run the code here
(written 2006-10-17, updated 2006-10-19) 2131

Associated topics are indexed under

H110 - PHP - HTML Web Page Data Handling
  [3926] Filtering PHP form inputs - three ways, but which should you use? - (2012-11-18)
  [3036] Sending out an email containing HTML from within a PHP page - (2010-11-07)
  [2135] What features does this visitors browser support? (PHP) - (2009-04-22)
  [2107] How to tweet automatically from a blog - (2009-03-28)
  [2046] Finding variations on a surname - (2009-02-17)
  [2025] Injection Attack if register_globals in on - PHP - (2009-02-04)
  [1831] Text formating for HTML, with PHP - (2008-10-11)
  [1169] Emailing as HTML (Web Page) - PHP example - (2007-04-30)
  [1136] Buffering output - why it is done and issues raised in Tcl, Perl, Python and PHP - (2007-04-06)
  [1053] Sorting people by name in PHP - (2007-01-26)
  [1001] .pdf files - upload via PHP, store in MySQL, retrieve - (2006-12-19)
  [789] Hot answers in PHP - (2006-07-02)
  [589] Robust PHP user inputs - (2006-02-03)
  [50] Current cost in your local currency - (2004-09-16)

H115 - Designing PHP-Based Solutions: Best Practice
  [4069] Even early on, separate out your program from your HTML! - (2013-04-25)
  [3820] PHP sessions - a best practice teaching example - (2012-07-27)
  [3813] Injection Attacks - PHP, SQL, HTML, Javascript - and how to neutralise them - (2012-07-22)
  [3539] Separating program and artwork in PHP - easier maintainance, and better for the user - (2011-12-05)
  [2679] How to build a test harness into your PHP - (2010-03-16)
  [2430] Not just a PHP program - a good web application - (2009-09-29)
  [2221] Adding a newsfeed for your users to a multipage PHP application - (2009-06-06)
  [2199] Improving the structure of your early PHP programs - (2009-05-25)
  [1794] Refactoring - a PHP demo becomes a production page - (2008-09-12)
  [1694] Defensive coding techniques in PHP? - (2008-07-02)
  [1623] PHP Techniques - a workshop - (2008-04-26)
  [1533] Short and sweet and sticky - PHP form input - (2008-02-06)
  [1490] Software to record day to day events and keep an action list - (2007-12-31)
  [1487] Efficient PHP applications - framework and example - (2007-12-28)
  [1482] A story about benchmarking PHP - (2007-12-23)
  [1391] Ordnance Survey Grid Reference to Latitude / Longitude - (2007-10-14)
  [1390] Converting from postal address to latitude / longitude - (2007-10-13)
  [1389] Controlling and labelling Google maps via PHP - (2007-10-13)
  [1381] Using a MySQL database to control mod_rewrite via PHP - (2007-10-06)
  [1323] Easy handling of errors in PHP - (2007-08-27)
  [1321] Resetting session based tests in PHP - (2007-08-26)
  [1194] Drawing hands on a clock face - PHP - (2007-05-19)
  [1182] Painting a masterpiece in PHP - (2007-05-10)
  [1181] Good Programming practise - where to initialise variables - (2007-05-09)
  [1166] Back button - ensuring order are not submitted twice (PHP) - (2007-04-28)
  [1052] Learning to write secure, maintainable PHP - (2007-01-25)
  [1047] Maintainable code - some positive advice - (2007-01-21)
  [945] Code quality counts - (2006-11-26)
  [936] Global, Superglobal, Session variables - scope and persistance in PHP - (2006-11-21)
  [839] Reporting on the 10 largest files or 10 top scores - (2006-08-20)
  [572] Giving the researcher power over database analysis - (2006-01-22)
  [563] Merging pictures using PHP and GD - (2006-01-13)
  [426] Robust checking of data entered by users - (2005-08-27)
  [394] A year on - should we offer certified PHP courses - (2005-07-28)
  [340] Code and code maintainance efficiency - (2005-06-08)
  [261] Putting a form online - (2005-03-29)
  [237] Crossfertilisation, PHP to Python - (2005-03-06)
  [123] Short underground journeys and a PHP book - (2004-11-19)

5363

Back to
Welcome, Martin

Previous and next
or
Horse's mouth home

Forward to
Too much for the National Trust

Some other Articles

Python - function v method
Python - extend v append on a list
Courses at Well House Manor
Too much for the National Trust
PHP - good coding practise and sticky radio buttons
Welcome, Martin
Where quality costs less
Visibility
A pattern in change
Well House Manor Hotel, Melksham, Wiltshire

4086 posts, page by page

Link to page ... 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82 at 50 posts per page

This is a page archived from The Horse's Mouth at http://www.wellho.net/horse/ - the diary and writings of Graham Ellis. Every attempt was made to provide current information at the time the page was written, but things do move forward in our business - new software releases, price changes, new techniques. Please check back via our main site for current courses, prices, versions, etc - any mention of a price in "The Horse's Mouth" cannot be taken as an offer to supply at that price.

Link to Ezine home page (for reading).
Link to Blogging home page (to add comments).

You can Add a comment or ranking to this page

Public Training Courses

Running regularly at our UK training Centre.
[Schedule] - [About] - [Book]

Like this? ??