CODETRACK NAMING CONVENTIONS EXPLAINED

                                              or

                    "It's not so important to be rational, just consistent!"




        o CodeTrack internal PHP constants (i.e., DEFINEs)

            All caps with CT_ prefix:     if ( sizeof($hits) == CT_MAX_SEARCH_RESULTS ) ...


        o CodeTrack internal PHP lookup array constant construction (analagous to SQL static lookup tables)

            Comma-separated list with *no* spaces between entries!

            1) DEFINE ("CT_ACCESS_LEVELS", "Developer,Analyst,QA,Manager,Admin");
            2) DEFINE ("CT_DEVELOPER_RESPONSES", ",Fixed,Analyzing,As Designed,Enhancement,Duplicate Bug,Not Fixed");
                                                  ^
                                                  Note: Null entries are created via "empty" opening comma


        o CodeTrack PHP Global variables

            All lowercase, separated by underscores sufficed with _g:  $current_session_g


        o CodeTrack PHP function names

            All lowercase, separated by underscores:  FUNCTION save_password( $foo, $bar )


        o CodeTrack PHP variables storing array lengths (i.e., sizeof($big_array))

            All lowercase, separated by underscores sufficed with _cnt:   $project_cnt = sizeof($project_table);


        o All CodeTrack PHP page names (i.e., destination in main switch case block for $page)

            All lowercase, no separator between words

               1) if ($page == "newuser") ...
               2) case "savebug":  ...


        o PHP internal Boolean constants

            All caps:   $force_attachment = FALSE;


        o Apache and PHP built-in variables

            All caps (including array elements) separated by underscores:

               1) $HTTP_SERVER_VARS["REQUEST_METHOD"]
               2) $page = $HTTP_POST_VARS["page"];


        o XML elements or other entities which will "become" XML downstream

            Leading caps, separated by underscores if multi-word

               1) XML entries:  <Password> ... </Password>
               2) XML Array indexes:  $user_data["Password"],  $project_data["Preferred_Title"]
               3) HTML variable to become XML:   <input type=text name='user_data[Full_Name]' >


        o XML element name exception-to-the-rule

            "ID" is always all-caps when an XML node element:  <ID>0003</ID>


        o Non-XML form data variables

            All lowercase separated with underscores:

            1) Inside HTML forms:  <input type=password name="old_pw">
            2) Once instantiated server-side: $old_pw


        o Javascript function names

            Mixed case, no separators:  function validPhone(p) { ... }


        o  Style sheet class names

            1) Instantiation as mixed case prepended with a period (duh):    .txtBlack  {  color: black;  }
            2) HTML reference:  mixed case, explicitly named:    <div class='txtSmall'>


        o All HTML markup tags

            Lower case, no exceptions

               1) die("<br><center><h3>Fatal: No user role found!");
               2) <td class='txtGrey'>Foo</td>


        o Static and dynamic URLs

            All lower case.  If multiple variables are passed, separated by the literal "&amp;"

               1) http://server/codetrack.php?page=home&amp;all=1
               2) <option value="codetrack.php?page=changeproject&amp;redir=home&amp;project=CodeTrack">CodeTrack</option>

            (I know, looks a little goofy compared to the traditional:  some.cgi?x=1&y=2  but the "old school"
              way won't validate as legal W3C 4.01 HTML.)


        o XML database names

            All lower case; the simpler, the better. ("Don't use big words when a diminutive will do!")

               bugs.xml
               users.xml
               projects.xml
               permissions.xml