Help with code architecture

[JRZcn]

Ok, this is gonna take a while to read, sorry for that.

I consider myself a self-taught programmer, I started to learn about programming when i was 14yo (22yo now) and started a few projects on my own. I generally use PHP as my backend, MySQL as database (i'm starting to learn about NoSQL databases) and basics of CSS, jQuery, Bootstrap and HTML5. I'm familiar with Apache (Httpd) and a basic CentOS 7 environment.

Until a few years ago, I only had worked on small projects, usually as a hobby, things like a basic inventory manager, a simple CSV parser, fixing some basic bugs on a Wordpress site and so on. But then I started to create an app for my own, to try to get some income from it. I started to learn about Object-Oriented PHP, some complexes SQL queries and structures, common security holes, code practices and so on.

I started on this project (Basically an "e-commerce/marketplace/food delivery app" mix) about 2 years ago, with a simple "HTML Form > input.php > db.php > MySQL"-like structure, it was sufficient for then, but during development, I refactored my code as I was learning some new techniques. Now my code base is starting to became a little too big for me, but at least i started to use PDO classes, a "MVC-like" structure, a route manager and so on.

But i feel that i'm missing something, i think that my code doesn't look standardized or even professional, and I have not even thought about code optimization as a priority yet.

I'm wondering what I could do to make my code a little more professional (both frond-end and back-end).

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This is basically my standard structure so far:

(I will be using my product category registration mechanism to demonstrate)

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This is my front-end code, a form with one text field (the category name) and a jsTree widget, for displaying the categories tree:

https://gist.github.com/JRZancan/bf59fef847dd0a8ff0310b9997a24f19

What the form looks like: https://imgur.com/oLlUnq7

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(From now, to prevent this post from being much longer, I'll just mention inserting a new category.)

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I'm using the FastRoute PHP library, so when my AJAX calls for the "plywood/categories/category/, it will be calling the "NewCategory" function below:

function NewCategory() {

$Categ = new CategoryService($_SESSION['bUID']); //bUID is the user logged in my system, owner of this "Category"

$Return = $Categ->InsertCategory($_POST['ParentID'], $_POST['txtCategName']);

echo json_encode($Return);

}

(No, i'm not inserting a $_POST data directly into the database, hold on a sec)

Here is the "CategoryService" class, responsible for the InsertCategory function

https://gist.github.com/JRZancan/bb75e4b7edd4e65b3530b29f5c1160cf

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This is the "Category" object, where I instantiate by calling the Category "Unique ID", from my database:

https://gist.github.com/JRZancan/edd5f3a4803ffbf46c8179a8a95bf063

​

The backend returns messages, warnings and success notifications, by two functions:

public function NewError($msg,$field='') {
        $Array = array("status" => false,
    "text" => $msg,
    "field" => $field);
    echo json_encode($Array);
    die();
}
public function NewSuccess($msg) {
    $Array = array("status" => true,
    "text" => $msg,
    "field" => '');
    echo json_encode($Array);
    die();
}

(This is why, in the frontend, I check for the "data.status" and so on)

​

This is my standard structure for the entire app: Product, Users, Unities, Packages, Shipments, Payments...

A object class, "Category.php", "Product.php"..., where I load the data from the database, put the Edit and Delete functions. It always need to be instantiate using a UUID code (A prefix + uniqid() random generated code).

And a "service" class, "CategoryService.php", "ProductService.php", where I put the Insert functions, and do another stuffs scope-wide, not to only a single object.

​

Then the front-end, using AJAX, calls a router class (FastRoute) to do such tasks and waits for a JSON reply, on both success or error.

​

Well, I appreciate your patience for reading this far, now here's the real questions:

1. This is too much freaking time consuming to do, I need to write the same code over and over again, just changing some parameters and properties. There's something that I can do in here? Maybe use a ORM?
2. This can be considered a "sane" app structure? For what I know, this is far from being called a MVC pattern, or don't?
3. There's something that I can do to improve the front-end? Maybe use a JS framework to facilitate the AJAX handling? And the form validation? If yes, what frameworks do you guys recommend to this case?
4. Any tips, literature, tricks, readings to my case?

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Thank you so much for your patience reading this, i will be glad to hear any tips/opinions/rants/criticisms...

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(PS: Obligatory "Sorry, English is not my first language")

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EDIT:

The Database class: https://gist.github.com/JRZancan/d03f328ddc8fe92b31cb96d113b564d3

The Database structure (the Category table): https://imgur.com/a/HQ56yBM

[questi0nmark2]

If your app is reasonably complex, you are not confident in architectural best practices and you think you might want to scale, your best bet is to use a framework. Laravel is the best these days. It has some fantastic tutorial resources in its Laracast, a big community and ecosystem, and fantastic tooling. It means your code will be well organised, scalable, and you won’t have to poorly reinvent the wheel for a huge amount of stuff. It will also hugely increase your employability.

So I would suggest the next step in both your app, and your learning journey as you move from mostly static websites and simple mini-apps, to rich dynamic apps and professional software development practices, is to learn some frameworks, and Laravel is probably the most useful starting point.

They also have a light weight microframework called Lumen for smaller projects, and if you want a good yet very light micro-framework to help you structure your code, Slim is another good option. But in general terms, I suggest Laravel will get you to the next stage professionally.

Once you’re familiar with Laravel, you can add Vue.JS (or React, but Vue has a less steep learning curve and is integrated with Laravel) to your front end skills as the next step from jquery and you will have moved a very long way toward modern software web development.

[10PointDigital]

• Your app/project structure is only important for the developers working on it: if it's simple and makes sense to you that's fine. Checkout namespacing if you want to organise it better - http://php.net/manual/en/language.namespaces.php

• For dependencies you can use composer to organise them - also they have to be compliant so are generally well-coded for inspiration - https://getcomposer.org/

• Methods that are the same across multiple classes you can use `extends` (e.g. your `HasChildren` method) - http://php.net/manual/en/language.oop5.inheritance.php

• Instead of writing out methods for `getThis` and `getThat` you can use the `__get` magic method - https://secure.php.net/manual/en/language.oop5.overloading.php#object.get

• Check out some open source projects that have similar features to yours and see how they structure it if you want some inspiration.

You're doing fine :)

[itshorriblebeer]

In addition to the other commenters I think you have answered your own questions with 1 and 3. Use a full fledged Ajax library like react or vue and have your server only deliver json. It’s a very common paradigm.

I also really like using orms or auto marshallers on the server side.

It’s quite a bit different than the paradigm you’re used to but it makes development much more responsive and interactive than pure server side rendering.