README

A comprehensive PHP_CodeSniffer ruleset that extends WordPress Coding Standards with ByteEver-specific conventions for modern PHP development.

Features

🎯 WordPress-First: Built on top of WordPress Coding Standards (WPCS) 3.1.0
🐘 PHP Compatibility: Supports PHP 7.4 - 8.5 with PHPCompatibility checks
⚡ Performance: Configured for parallel processing with 8 threads
🎨 Sensible Defaults: Pre-configured with practical exclusions for real-world development
📝 Tab Indentation: Enforces consistent tab-based indentation
🔧 Customizable: Easy to extend and override rules per project

What's Included

Base Standards

WordPress: Complete WordPress coding standards
WordPress-Extra: Additional WordPress-specific rules
WordPress-Docs: Documentation standards
PHPCompatibilityWP: WordPress-specific PHP compatibility checks

ByteEver Customizations

Tab-based indentation (1 tab = 1 indent level)
Space inside parentheses for better readability
Relaxed file naming requirements
Allowance for shorthand array syntax []
Sensible exclusions for database queries and nonce verification
Comment and doc comment tokens ignored in indentation checks

Installation

Install via Composer:

composer require byteever/byteever-sniffs

The package will automatically:

Install PHP_CodeSniffer and required dependencies
Register the ByteEver-Default standard
Set it as the default standard for your project

Usage

Command Line

Quick Check

vendor/bin/phpcs .

Using Composer Script

composer run phpcs

Custom Configuration

vendor/bin/phpcs --standard=ByteEver-Default path/to/files

IDE Integration

For better IDE integration, create a .phpcs.xml.dist file in your project root:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<ruleset name="Project Coding Standards">
    <description>Project-specific coding standards based on ByteEver defaults.</description>

    <!-- Scan these directories -->
    <file>src/</file>
    <file>inc/</file>
    
    <!-- Exclude these paths -->
    <exclude-pattern>vendor/</exclude-pattern>
    <exclude-pattern>node_modules/</exclude-pattern>
    <exclude-pattern>*.min.js</exclude-pattern>

    <!-- Configuration -->
    <config name="minimum_supported_wp_version" value="6.2" />
    <config name="testVersion" value="7.4-8.5" />

    <!-- Use ByteEver standards -->
    <rule ref="ByteEver-Default" />

    <!-- Project-specific customizations -->
    <rule ref="WordPress.WP.I18n">
        <properties>
            <property name="text_domain" type="array">
                <element value="your-text-domain"/>
            </property>
        </properties>
    </rule>
</ruleset>

Continuous Integration

Add to your CI workflow:

# GitHub Actions example
- name: PHP CodeSniffer
  run: composer run phpcs

Configuration Details

PHP Version Support

Minimum: PHP 7.4
Maximum: PHP 8.5
Compatibility: Uses PHPCompatibilityWP for WordPress-specific compatibility checks

Key Rules Applied

WordPress Coding Standards (with sensible exclusions)
Tab indentation (1 tab per indent level)
Space inside parentheses for readability
Superfluous whitespace detection
PHP compatibility checking for WordPress

Excluded Rules

The following rules are excluded for practical development:

File naming conventions (WordPress.Files.FileName)
Nonce verification requirements
Direct database query restrictions
Global variable override prohibitions
Some documentation capitalization requirements

Customization

Project-Level Overrides

Create a phpcs.xml.dist file to override or add rules:

<rule ref="ByteEver-Default">
    <!-- Enable a rule that's disabled by default -->
    <exclude name="WordPress.Files.FileName" />
</rule>

<!-- Add custom exclusions -->
<rule ref="WordPress.Security.NonceVerification.Missing">
    <exclude-pattern>admin/ajax-handlers/*</exclude-pattern>
</rule>

Inline Annotations

Disable rules for specific code blocks:

// phpcs:disable WordPress.Security.NonceVerification.Missing
if ( isset( $_POST['data'] ) ) {
    // Process data without nonce check
}
// phpcs:enable WordPress.Security.NonceVerification.Missing

Requirements

PHP 7.4 or higher
Composer
PHP_CodeSniffer 3.9.0 or higher

Dependencies

dealerdirect/phpcodesniffer-composer-installer: ^1.0
phpcompatibility/phpcompatibility-wp: ^2.1
wp-coding-standards/wpcs: ^3.1.0

Contributing

Fork the repository
Create a feature branch
Make your changes
Test with composer run phpcs
Submit a pull request

License

GPL-3.0-only

Author

Sultan Nasir Uddin
Email: sultan@byteever.com
Organization: ByteEver

Part of the ByteEver development toolkit for WordPress and PHP projects.

byteever / byteever-sniffs

Maintainers

Details