Potential to implement and adhere to more modern PHP standards

[mallardduck]

Hello folks of Contentstack,

I'm creating this issue to seek out some insight on the state of this package and potential for improvement. While things worked out of the box (more or less) there were a few things I found that threw me off. First, was the 'more or less' part - in that the Asset model implements a Query function, but also extends BaseQuery which has its own query function. This may not be an issue on every PHP version, but it is for me on PHP7+.

Looking beyond that issue, the other odd things I found were essentially just effects of being used to modern PHP community standards. I can certainly see how some of this may be personal opinions to a degree, however I feel that many of these standards are well accepted and established enough to warrant usage.

Wishlist for this package:

• Conform to using the PSR-4 Autoloading Standard.
• Implement more complete PHPDoc for everything (over time).
• Use composer.json file to support autoloading via composer, or non-composer loader file.
• Update Test Cases to use Autoloading and composer to pull PHPunit dependency
• Work to apply and enforce PSR-1 and PSR-2 Standards and styles.
• Setup package in the Packagist repo for easier installs and composer based autoloading.

(Essentially in order of priority, IMO)

Overall I think taking steps towards these items would improve the experience of developers working with Contentstack through a PHP environment. The changes will afford most PHP developers a more familiar experience when getting started with Contentstack.

Also to be clear, these are items I'm willing to help work on. I've even already got a fork created that has a number of these tasks completed. The only hangup is that I'm using a trial version of Contentstack - so the time-frame I can assist within is limited.

[ninadhatkar]

Hi @mallardduck ,

Thanks for your valuable suggestions. We would like to keep up with latest coding styles, tools and methodologies for all our modules. From above wish list if you could help us for following points on priority that will guide our developers on future development.

• Work to apply and enforce PSR-1 and PSR-2 Standards and styles.
• Use composer.json file to support autoloading via composer, or non-composer loader file.
• Conform to using the PSR-4 Autoloading Standard.
• Update Test Cases to use Autoloading and composer to pull PHPunit dependency

Appreciate your help. Please provide us your stack details on support@contentstack.com, we will keep check on your trial version of Contentstack.

Thanks.

[mallardduck]

Thank you for the reply @ninadhatkar! I really appreciate the response and am excited that your team is open to working on these items.

As mentioned I have created a fork of the PHP SDK library and made some efforts on these items. However I did this in a pretty quick manner; so while it works, the changes aren't as easy to follow as they could be. To improve readability of the change sets I will re-work specific items into branches to create some Pull Requests.

Here is the order I would suggest implementing things in:

• Use composer.json file to support autoloading via composer, or non-composer loader file.
• Conform to using the PSR-4 Autoloading Standard.
• Work to apply and enforce PSR-1 and PSR-2 Standards and styles.
• Update Test Cases to use Autoloading and composer to pull PHPunit dependency

This order should provide the best experience for implementing the changes, as well as the upgrade process for any current users of the PHP SDK.

I believe that implementing the PSR-1 and PSR-2 standards and styles will be a great help. Once done they can be enforced more consistently and automatically via php-cs-fixer and/or StyleCI.

[mallardduck]

@ninadhatkar Any updates on this? I understand these are some pretty big changes I'm proposing - however they would go a long way to making your Saas more accessible and accepted by the PHP community.

[mcarcangiu-ea]

Didn't have time to actually look at the PR. As @mallardduck put so much effort on it, I would like to push on a feedback from you guys @ninadhatkar!