DEVELOPER INFO
--------------
phpPgAdmin is Free/Open Source software and contributions are welcome from
everyone. Please be sure to join the developers' mailing list:
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/phppgadmin-devel
SOURCE REPOSITORY
-----------------
phpPgAdmin uses git for source control management. The phpPgAdmin git repository
is hosted at github:
https://github.com/phppgadmin/phppgadmin
To clone the phpPgAdmin source to your development system, execute the following
command:
git clone git://github.com/phppgadmin/phppgadmin.git
After making changes, generate a patch using "git format-patch" and submit it
to the phpPgAdmin devel mailing list.
Alternatively you can clone the phppgadmin repository on github and make a pull
request. For details on how to make pull requests, see:
https://help.github.com/articles/using-pull-requests
Please note that submitting code is considered a transfer of copyright to the
phpPgAdmin project. phpPgAdmin is made available under the GPL v2 license.
Push access to the main phpPgAdmin git repository can be granted to developers
with a track record of useful contributions to phpPgAdmin at the discretion
of the phpPgAdmin development team.
TIPS FOR DEVELOPERS
-------------------
When you submit code to phpPgAdmin, we do expect it to adhere to the existing
coding standards in the source. So, instead of using your personal favourite
code layout style, please format it to look like surrounding code.
In general, we want the code to be portable, standard compliant (e.g. to W3C
(X)HTML and CSS) and independent of specific configurations of PHP, the web
server, PostgreSQL or the user browser. We also try to support as many versions
as possible of these applications.
Test your code properly! For example, if you are developing a feature to create
domains, try naming your domain all of the following:
* "
* '
* \
* words with spaces
*
Don't forget to make sure your changes still pass the existing Selenium test
suite. Additionally, you should add or update the test suite as needed to
cover your new features.
If you are adding a new class function, be sure to use the "clean",
"fieldClean", "arrayClean" and "fieldArrayClean" functions to properly escape
odd characters in user input. Examine existing functions that do similar
things to yours to get yours right.
When writing data to the display, you should always urlencode() variables in
HREFs and htmlspecialchars() variables in forms. Rather than use action=""
attributes in HTML form elements use action="thisformname.php". This
ensures that browsers remove query strings when expanding the given
relative URL into a full URL.
When working on database classes, always schema qualify your SQL where it is
possible with the current schema ($data->_schema) for pg73+ classes. Then don't
forget to write your method for older classes which don't support schemas.
When working with git, always make sure to do a 'git pull' both before you
start; so you have the latest code to work with; and also again before you
create your patch; to minimize the chance of having conflicts. If you plan to
submit your code via github pull requests, we strongly recommend doing your
work in a feature specific branch. If you want to submit multiple patches,
they should all live in their own branch. Remember, smaller changes are easier
to review, approve, and merge.
COMMON VARIABLES
----------------
$data - A data connection to the current or default database.
$misc - Contains miscellaneous functions. eg. printing headers & footers, etc.
$lang - Global array containing translated strings. The strings in this array
have already been converted to HTML, so you should not
htmlspecialchars() them.
$conf - Global array of configuration options.
WORKING WITH RECORDSETS
-----------------------
phpPgAdmin uses the ADODB database library for all its database access. We have
also written our own wrapper around the ADODB library to make it more object
oriented (ADODB_base.pclass).
This is the general form for looping over a recordset:
$rs = $class->getResults();
if (is_object($rs) && $rs->recordCount() > 0) {
while (!$rs->EOF) {
echo $rs->fields['field'];
$rs->moveNext();
}
}
else echo "No results.";
UPDATING LANGUAGE FILES FOR THE MONO-LINGUAL
--------------------------------------------
If you need to add or modify language strings for a new feature, the preferred
method is:
* cd into lang/ subdirectory
* modify english.php file only!
If you've done it correctly, when you create your patch, it should only have
diffs of the lang/english.php file. For more information on how the language
system works, please see the TRANSLATORS file.
UNDERSTANDING THE WORK/BRANCH/TAG/RELEASE PROCESS
-------------------------------------------------
All new work for phpPgAdmin is done against the git master branch. When we feel
we are ready to do a new release, we create a branch (ex. REL_4-1). This
becomes the stable branch for all future 4.1.x releases, and any bugfixes needed
for 4.1 would go in that branch.
When we release a new revision, we tag that at release time (REL_4-1-1), so a
checkout of any tag should give you the same files that downloading the release
would have given you. As a general rule, we do not introduce new features into
existing stable branches, only bugfixes and language updates. This means if you
want to work on new features, you should be working against the git master.
Eventually we will call for another release, and that will be branched (REL_4-2)
and the cycle will start over.
On occasion we have created out-of-band branches, typically labeled as DEV_foo.
These were used for temporary, concurrent development of large features, and
should not be used by other developers. When development of those features is
completed, the branches get merged in as appropriate, so no further development
should occur on those branches.
GETTING HELP
------------
We prefer most discussion of development to take place on the phpPgAdmin
devel mailing list, so that discussions can be archived and be searchable.
However, if you are into IRC, a couple of us hang out on #phppgadmin on
freenode, and occasionally discuss things there.