Coding guidelines

In general, your server behavior’s code should be compact and robust. Web application developers are very sensitive to the code added to their pages. Follow generally accepted coding practices for the document type’s language (ColdFusion, ASP.NET, JavaScript, VBScript, PHP, Visual Basic or Java). When writing comments, consider the different technical audiences that might need to understand the code, such as web and interaction designers, or other web application developers. Include comments that accurately describe the purpose of the code, and any special instructions for including it within a page.

The following is a list of coding guidelines to keep in mind when creating server behaviors:

Error checking is an important requirement. The server behavior’s code should handle error cases gracefully. Try to foresee every possibility. For example, what if a parameter request fails? What if no records are returned from a query?

Unique names help to ensure that your code is clearly identifiable and avoids name collisions with existing code. For example, if the page contains a function called hideLayer() and a global variable called ERROR_STRING, and your server behavior inserts code that uses those names too, the server behavior may conflict with the existing code.

Code prefixes allow you to identify your own runtime functions and global variables in a page. One convention is to use your initials. Never use the MM_ prefix, as it is reserved for Macromedia use only. Macromedia precedes all functions and global variables with the prefix MM_ to prevent them from conflicting with any code that you write.

var MM_ERROR_STRING = "...";
function MM_hideLayer() {

Avoid similar code blocks so that the code you write doesn’t resemble too closely the code in other blocks. If a code block looks too much like another code block on the page, the Server Behaviors panel might mistakenly identify the first code block as an instance of the second code block (or conversely). A simple solution is to add a comment to a code block to make it more unique.

Related topics

• About custom server behaviors
• Server behaviors