Five advanced Code Generator tips

Following our previous article: Five general POG tips, we’ve now compiled 5 of our favorite “advanced” tips for the more experienced POG users out there. So here it goes:

1. Reposition attributes
One of the latest ‘hidden’ features recently introduced allows users to reorder the attribute and type fields. A typical scenario is that you have an object with several attributes and you’ve decided you needed to add a few more. If you click on the “Add Attribute” button, your attributes are added at the bottom of the list. However, you can easily reposition the field order by clicking on the attribute name field and using your using the Up and Down Arrows of your keyboard to move the attribute up and down the list! (currently buggy in Safari, sorry)

2. Naming conventions
This tip was already mentioned as part of the previous article but we can’t stress enough the importance of having a good naming convention within your object and attributes. We recommend camel case or using the underscore character for your attributes. For example, “firstName” (camel case) or “first_name” (underscore). Having a good naming convention will not only improve code cleanliness, but it’ll also be extremely helpful when we introduce new POG features soon.

3. Customize object attributes
POG, by default, offers the most common attribute types, for e.g. VARCHAR ( 255 ) and INT ( 11 ). However, you can easily customize the length of the attribute to fit your needs. If you only need VARCHAR ( 20 ) for instance, simply choose “Other” from the drop down list and type the attribute type you need.

4. Use POG with databases other than MySQL
Because POG is compatible with PDO, you can use generated objects with databases other than MySQL, such as SQLite, Firebird, PostgreSQL, or even SQL server!. Our tutorials cover examples of how to use these alternative databases. Feel free to take a look around!

5. Stay in the loop
The POG development team works on improvements and new features daily, (yes every day!). As we make new annoucements, make sure you hear about them by subscribing to our RSS feed and subscribing to our Google group. As we strive to provide the best PHP code generator possible, we also appreciate feedback. A high proportion of cool features that are unique to POG were in fact suggested by developers like you. So don’t be shy and leave us a note on our Google group!