PHP Large Project Development

[ganjasensation0098]

What are the basic things needed in building large project in php? and some tips also.

[vishal]

If its a large project then you can depend on any PHP Frameworks like Cakephp or CodeIgniter.This makes it somewhat easy and less time.
Then you must have a good SRS of what you are going to do.

[lemon-tree]

A good version control system: Git or SVN are the most common ones you'll find, although there are some good alternatives too. Depending upon how you are distributing the workload, you will find that each one has its own benefits and detriments. Personally, I prefer Git due to its less centralised approach, but you'll have to do a little testing to see which is your preference.
To be honest, you should be using a some form of version control on any project you do, large or small. Implementing it into your workflow is very simple and the benefits gained in both expandability and feature tracking make it vital. For example, I can tell you precisely when I added a function and can even go down to when each line of a script was made and who made it.
Also, if you feel that you don't want to be using the command line to do all of the commits etc, then there are many applications, both free and paid, for any OS that will provide a GUI of your repository.

You'll also probably want to use some form of IDE, rather than just having a folder with all your files in it and opening them one at a time. The environment allows to be far more efficient at your coding any good one will have syntax highlighting and may also show you parse-errors on-the-fly.

[enjoy0309r]

hey, first you need to know the basic knowledge of PHP.

Once you finished that, you can study some small scripts, such as free and open source php guestbook.

Then, you have enough experience in PHP code. You can study some big projects, such as Joomla, zen cart, etc.

Generally speaking, this is a long way to go.

[fretwizz]

If you know, how do you determine when to choose OOP?

[dotinfiniti29]

I would reccomend oop for any large scale project.
It is fluid, scalable and perfect for re-use of code.
Good luck

[rorybas]

If you are doing a large scale project but none of the pages are too complex then I can recommend Dreamweaver since it writes the code for you! Also if you want it to do a little more you can tweak the code it has written.

[Gonrah]

If you are going to work on large project you probably will use mysql databases. They can be used of everything. Your username and profile details are stored in mysql tables, our post are also part of such tables.

[ganjasensation0098]

Do you consider postgres instead of mysql for the backend?

[callumacrae]

Always use OOP!

As lemon-tree said, use a version control system. I prefer Git, but I have experience in both and both will do the job. If there are multiple people working on this project, you will want an online git host, such as GitHub.

Think up some coding standards - or use someone elses, such as the phpBB Coding Standards - and give them to your entire development team (or if it's just you, make sure you stick to them), as you want you code to be consistent.

Plan ahead! Spend a week or two writing down and thinking about what your want the final product to do, how it'll do it, etc. There's nothing worse than finishing everything, then finding you've got to make some major code edits to the core because it doesn't allow x or y.

If you've got a development team, communication is important. Use something like IRC to discuss what you're going to do next.

As Vishal said, you can consider using a framework. This will make life easier for you. I would recommend taking a look at Symfony, as it leaves the developer with a lot more control.

Why not make your project support multiple databases? If you're using PDO (which you should anyway), it supports multiple databases and it is easy to switch between them. Read my PDO tutorial here. You could also use a DBAL such as Doctrine DBAL.