Rules
We will describe the list of rules that form the standards
Namespace prefix
All classes and functions must have a namespace of at the minimum PEAR2. An example:
<?php
namespace PEAR2;
class MyClass {}
?>
Classes may use longer namespaces, for instance an HTTP_Request class may instead choose to use this declarative syntax:
<?php
namespace PEAR2\HTTP;
class Request {}
?>
As such, underscores are no longer required of any classes if there is a namespace. Class PEAR2_HTTP_Request instead becomes PEAR2\HTTP\Request. Package names, however, will use underscores, making PEAR2_HTTP_Request the package name.
Requirement
No Exceptions to this rule
use of include/require/require_once/include_once not allowed
include/require/require_once/include_once is not allowed for loading class
files. Users will be expected to
load files either with __autoload() or a customized
solution for more advanced users.
Instead, classes should simply be used. import with a comment describing
the class's location must be used to document all internal
dependencies (as written below). Instead of:
<?php
require_once 'PEAR2/OtherPackage.php';
$class = new PEAR2\OtherPackage;
?>
this class should simply be used:
<?php
$class = new PEAR2\OtherPackage;
?>
This allows packages to work without modification no matter how they are structured on-disk, including running out of a single large file, inside a phar archive, and provides much-needed flexibility.
Requirement
No Exceptions to this rule
Directory structure
Follows the directory structure in the PEAR2 Subversion repository:
PEAR2/Package_Name/
src/ <-- all role="php"
data/ <-- all role="data"
tests/ <-- all role="tests"
docs/ <-- all role="doc"
www/ <-- all role="www"
examples/ <-- role="doc" example files
(php executable files that exemplify package usage)
Note that all package.xml files must specify a baseinstalldir of "/" for the src/ directory:
<contents> <dir name="/"> <dir name="src" baseinstalldir="/"> ... </contents>
Requirement
Exceptions may be made to this rule with approval from the PEAR Group
Class-to-file convention
All public classes must be in their own file with underscores (_) or
namespace separators (\) replaced by directory separator, so that
PEAR2_PackageName_Base class or
PEAR2\PackageName\Base class is always
located in PEAR2/PackageName/Base.php (this is required to make autoload
work)
Requirement
Exceptions may be made to this rule only with explicit approval from the PEAR Group via a public vote
Base Exception class
PEAR2\Exception is used as base class for all exception classes. Each
package must define a base class that is packagename_Exception. For
example, the PEAR2\PackageName class defines an exception as follows in
PEAR2/PackageName/Exception.php:
<?php
namespace PEAR2\PackageName;
class Exception extends PEAR2\Exception {}
?>
'PEAR2\Exception will be its own package'
Requirement
No Exceptions to this rule
Data files
package.xml replacement tasks should not be used to retrieve path
locations for php, data, or www files. Replacements
are still allowed in doc and test files.
The installation structure of a package has implicit
php_dir/src
installation location, and data files are always located in
php_dir/data/channel/PackageName/. To retrieve a data
file within PEAR2/PackageName/Subfile.php, you could
use code like this example
<?php
...
// retrieve data from info.txt
$info = file_get_contents(dirname(__FILE__) .
'../../../data/pear2.php.net/PEAR2_PackageName/info.txt');
?>
Requirement
No Exceptions to this rule
Loading other classes
Inside optional component loading methods (like factory or driver
loading, etc.)
class_exists($classname, true) should be used where a "class not found"
fatal error
would be confusing. For example, when loading a driver, a graceful exit
via exception
with helpful error message is preferrable to the fatal error:
<?php
if (!class_exists("PEAR2_PackageName_Driver_$class", true)) {
throw new PEAR2\PackageName\Exception('Unknown driver ' .
$class . ', be sure the driver exists and is loaded
prior to use');
}
?>
Requirement
This rule is optional and is a suggested coding practice