MidwestWebDeveloper.com: personal blog from a professional web developer. ramblings about code, etc.

This is nowhere near an all inclusive list of things you can do to make your life easier when having to maintain a website.  These are just a few tips and tricks worth knowing.

1) Never use absolute paths.  Use relative paths instead.

For example, this is a no-no:

include('/home/user/public_html/some/file');

Instead, try this:

include($_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] . '/some/file');

Or even this:

include('../../some/file');

Then if (when!) you migrate to a new server, and your base web dir changes, you won't have to update your file paths throughout your code.

2) Use a config file.

Don't hard code your email address throughout your site.  define() it in a config file that you include() everywhere.  Same goes for mysql credentials, or any other text which may need to change at some point.  Putting everything in an external config makes a migration much easier.

Example:

define('EMAIL','my@email.com');
define('DB_USER','mydbusername');
define('DB_PASS','mydbpassword'); 

Or, use global variables:

$GLOBALS['EMAIL'] = 'my@email.com';
$GLOBALS['DB_USER'] = 'mydbusername';
$GLOBALS['DB_PASS'] = 'mydbpassword'; 

3) Place re-used web page code into external files. include() them.

Got a navigation menu that appears on every page?  Place it into a file (e.g. navigation.php) and include() it on every page.

Google Analytics?  Same deal--- include() it.

Doing so makes site maintenance MUCH easier.