PrestaShop coding standards provide guidelines and best practices for developing high-quality and efficient modules and themes for the popular e-commerce platform.
By following these standards, developers can ensure consistency, maintainability, and scalability of their PrestaShop projects.

PrestaShop is a popular open-source e-commerce platform that allows businesses to set up and run their own online stores effectively. Many developers choose PrestaShop for its flexibility and customization options, as well as its large selection of modules and themes. However, to ensure that your PrestaShop store runs smoothly and securely, it is essential to adhere to the platform's coding standards.

Coding standards are a set of guidelines and best practices that developers should follow when writing code. These standards help ensure that code is consistent, maintainable, and easy to read. By following PrestaShop's coding standards, developers can write code that is more organized, secure, and efficient, ultimately leading to a better user experience for customers.

1. Use Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) Principles

PrestaShop is built on an object-oriented programming (OOP) framework, which means that developers should follow OOP principles when writing code for the platform. This includes defining classes and objects, encapsulating data and behavior, and using inheritance and polymorphism.

By following OOP principles, developers can create code that is more modular, reusable, and easier to maintain. This can help prevent bugs and errors, as well as make it easier to add new features or make changes to existing code in the future.

2. Follow PSR-2 Coding Standards

PrestaShop follows the PHP Framework Interoperability Group (PHP-FIG) coding standards, specifically PSR-2. This standard defines a set of guidelines for coding style, including rules for indentation, naming conventions, and formatting.

By following PSR-2 coding standards, developers can ensure that their code is consistent and easy to read. This can make it easier for other developers to understand and work with the code, as well as help prevent mistakes and errors in the code.

3. Use Namespaces and Autoloading

Namespaces and autoloading are two features of PHP that help organize and load classes and functions more efficiently. By using namespaces, developers can group related classes and functions together, helping to prevent naming conflicts and make the code more organized.

Autoloading allows developers to automatically load classes and functions as they are needed, rather than having to manually include them in each file. This can help reduce the amount of code duplication and make the code more efficient and scalable.

4. Sanitize and Validate User Input

One of the most common security vulnerabilities in web applications is improper input validation. To prevent security vulnerabilities, developers should always sanitize and validate user input to prevent SQL injection, cross-site scripting (XSS), and other types of attacks.

PrestaShop provides built-in functions for sanitizing and validating user input, such as the pSQL and Tools::htmlentitiesUTF8 functions. By using these functions, developers can ensure that user input is properly sanitized and validated before being used in the application.

5. Use Prepared Statements for Database Queries

Another common security vulnerability is SQL injection, which occurs when untrusted data is inserted directly into a SQL query. To prevent SQL injection attacks, developers should always use prepared statements to execute database queries.

Prepared statements separate the SQL query from the data, preventing attackers from injecting malicious code into the query. PrestaShop provides built-in functions for creating prepared statements, such as the Db::getInstance()->executeS function. By using prepared statements, developers can ensure that their database queries are secure and protected from attacks.

6. Optimize Code for Performance

To ensure that your PrestaShop store runs smoothly and efficiently, developers should optimize their code for performance. This can include minimizing the use of database queries, reducing the number of HTTP requests, and caching data and files where appropriate.

By optimizing code for performance, developers can improve the speed and responsiveness of their applications, leading to a better user experience for customers. This can also help reduce server load and bandwidth usage, making your PrestaShop store more scalable and cost-effective.

In conclusion, PrestaShop coding standards are essential for developing secure, efficient, and maintainable code for your e-commerce store. By following these guidelines, developers can create code that is organized, secure, and easy to read, ultimately leading to a better user experience for customers. By using object-oriented programming principles, following PSR-2 coding standards, and using namespaces and autoloading, developers can write code that is more modular, reusable, and efficient. Additionally, by sanitizing and validating user input, using prepared statements for database queries, and optimizing code for performance, developers can ensure that their PrestaShop store runs smoothly and securely.