Hi,
Essentially I know the theory for working in PHP, SQL, HTML, Sessions, etc. However, what I am missing is connecting the dots most efficiently.
I am trying to build a very simple online car configurator. The flow is:
- user picks a brand
- depending on the previous choice, user is presented with models, user picks one
- depending on the previous choice, user is presented with model lines, user picks one
- depending on the previous choice, user is presented with engines, user picks one
- depending on the previous choice, user is presented with options, user picks 0-n options
- user can submit a form that generates an email with all of the previously chosen options.
My current “design” works. But it is very nasty to maintain and I am sure there are better ways of going about it.
- I have a single, monolithic PHP file where everything happens. I don’t use any classes or functions. I don’t use AJAX.
- Roughly the steps are as follows:
- Start session, check the phase the user is in by looking at what has been set already in the session E.g. if user has already selected a brand, models must be shown etc.
- SQL statement depending on phase, is executed to show all relevant items for that phase within the same PHP file.
- When a user clicks on any item, they simply call the same PHP page via GET (e.g. ?BrandID=2).
- That value is then stored into the same session.
- got to 1. for the other items.
- My session variables are very simple and unstructured: $_SESSION[‘BrandID’], $_SESSION[‘ModelID’], etc.
I know this is a weird and sort of generic question. But I would love to know what the best practices are of how to structure this whole thing. How would you structure it?
- should I use classes for the sessions, SQL queries, etc.?
- Is there a better way than to use GET?
- Should I have the SQL queries and or session logic defined in a separate file/function/class?
Input is greatly appreciated. Cheers!
Best regards,
Hans
