{"id":914,"date":"2019-05-24T08:52:20","date_gmt":"2019-05-24T08:52:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/smohub.com\/blog\/?p=914"},"modified":"2019-05-24T08:54:05","modified_gmt":"2019-05-24T08:54:05","slug":"new-features-php7-for-wordpress-developers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/smo.vn\/blog\/new-features-php7-for-wordpress-developers\/","title":{"rendered":"New features PHP7 for WordPress Developers"},"content":{"rendered":"
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PHP has changed a lot in the last few years. And even before that, it had changed a lot. In short, modern PHP is a great and cool language, with only a few of the worst problems that people who last used it a decade age will remember. (Modern) PHP 7 and WordPress haven\u2019t really gone together historically.<\/p>\n

But the gap between the PHP we\u2019ve always had (to encourage you to write) for WordPress and modern PHP is big. In this article I\u2019ll blaze through the highlight features that\u2019ll make developing for WordPress in a PHP 7 world great. Surely most of the techniques that one used for being a good PHP+WordPress developer for while are still good to know. But surely some of them are due for an upgrade this year.<\/p>\n

What I mean by \u201cmodern PHP,\u201d and how it differs from WordPress<\/h2>\n

As I write this, PHP 7.3 is the \u201cmodern\u201d version. And WordPress PHP for a while has maintained compatibility with PHP 5.2. While the number of versions between 5.2 and 7.3 may be fewer than a WordPress developer would guess (i.e, it wasn\u2019t the approximately 20 it kind of looks like), it is a lot. And a lot changed. So here we\u2019re going to be confined to strict summaries of core features that are interesting and better since PHP 5.2. Please, if I forgot your favorite leave me a comment.<\/p>\n

Syntactical Niceties: PHP has Short Array Syntax! Etc<\/h2>\n

This will just be a sequence of small changes in your syntax that PHP 7 WordPress code will allow. Where I can recall, I\u2019ll give a bit of history and bit of summary. But as I said this is a lot of ground that comes from WordPress PHP 7 compatibility, so I\u2019ll move quick and just touch on all the topics.<\/p>\n

PHP SHORT ARRAY SYNTAX<\/h3>\n

This one\u2019s quick: in PHP 5.4, we got full-fledged support for shorter array syntax. Be gone, function-looking array declarations. And welcome your square brackets. So\u00a0array(1)<\/code>\u00a0is really just\u00a0[1]<\/code>. What\u2019s not to like? In other words, we have this available always and everywhere:<\/p>\n

$args<\/span> =<\/span> [<\/span>'posts_per_page'<\/span> =><\/span> 7<\/span>]<\/span>;<\/span>\r\n<\/code><\/pre>\n
Pretty cool.<\/p>\n
NULL-COALESCE OPERATOR<\/h3>\n
This ones a little more nerdy and complex. Because we\u2019re in a hurry, we\u2019ll assume you have some familiarity with ternary operators.\u00a0I wrote an article about them if you\u2019re not familiar.<\/p>\n
Now, what does this do? What it does is let us bypass a necessary\u00a0isset<\/code>\u00a0call in legacy PHP. So historically PHP would error if you assumed a value (most often in an array) existed and it didn\u2019t. Now using the\u00a0??<\/code>\u00a0operator, you don\u2019t have to worry. Code sample:<\/p>\n
$x<\/span> =<\/span> [<\/span>\"yarr\"<\/span> =><\/span> \"meaningful_value\"<\/span>]<\/span>;<\/span>\r\nvar_dump(<\/span><\/span>$x<\/span>[<\/span>\"aharr\"<\/span>]<\/span> ?<\/span>?<\/span> $x<\/span>[<\/span>\"waharr\"<\/span>]<\/span> ?<\/span>?<\/span> $x<\/span>[<\/span>\"yarr\"<\/span>]<\/span>)<\/span>;<\/span> \/\/ string(16) \"meaningful_value\"\r\n<\/span><\/code><\/pre>\n
SPACESHIP OPERATOR<\/h3>\n
This one mostly I mention because it\u2019s got a fun name. What\u2019s PHP\u2019s spaceship operator? It\u2019s this:\u00a0<=><\/code>. This is really a shorthand functionality that\u2019s useful in just a small number of cases, but for things like\u00a0usort<\/code>, you used to have to make longer expression often with a ternary operator. Now you can do simpler things. Relevant sample code:<\/p>\n
\/\/ Sort $things by 'foo' property, ascending\r\n<\/span>usort(<\/span><\/span>$things<\/span>,<\/span> function<\/span> (<\/span>$a<\/span>,<\/span> $b<\/span>)<\/span> {<\/span>\r\n    return<\/span> $a<\/span>[<\/span>'foo'<\/span>]<\/span> <<\/span>=><\/span> $b<\/span>[<\/span>'foo'<\/span>]<\/span>;<\/span>\r\n}<\/span>)<\/span>;<\/span>\r\n<\/code><\/pre>\n
OOP-ish Niceties You Should Consider (from PHP 5.x)<\/h2>\n
WordPress itself, and WordPress development generally, isn\u2019t super object-oriented. There are objects around, but I\u2019d say more than half of the WordPress code I regularly see isn\u2019t object-oriented. Most of these features will only make sense if you\u2019re a little familiar with OOP. If you\u2019re not, we\u2019ve got\u00a0a great free course to help you come up to speed on OOPHP<\/p>\n
PHP NAMESPACES ARE USEFUL!<\/h3>\n
This one I\u2019ve written up\u00a0at length here at Thoughtful Code. So I\u2019ll keep this one short and sweet. Namespaces let us keep like things together through a method other than shoving them into an object. We have \u201cvirtual folders\u201d called \u201cnamespaces\u201d, so that I may have something like\u00a0RequireFeaturedImage\\Utility<\/code>\u00a0as a place that I then throw a couple different classes or functions. It\u2019s pretty powerful.<\/p>\n
If you want to understand PHP namespaces in more depth, I already wrote that:<\/p>\n