Built North Coding Standards

WordPress coding standards for Built North projects, extending WPCS with modern PHP practices.

This package provides a consistent set of coding standards for all Built North WordPress projects. It extends the WordPress Coding Standards (WPCS) while allowing modern PHP features and PSR-4 autoloading.

Add to your project via Composer:

composer require --dev builtnorth/coding-standards

Create a phpcs.xml file in your project root:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<ruleset name="My Project">
    <description>Coding standards for my project</description>
    
    <!-- Use Built North standards -->
    <rule ref="BuiltNorth"/>
    
    <!-- Project-specific text domain -->
    <rule ref="WordPress.WP.I18n">
        <properties>
            <property name="text_domain" type="array">
                <element value="my-text-domain"/>
            </property>
        </properties>
    </rule>
</ruleset>

# Check your code
vendor/bin/phpcs

# Fix auto-fixable issues
vendor/bin/phpcbf

# Check specific file or directory
vendor/bin/phpcs src/

# Check with specific standard
vendor/bin/phpcs --standard=BuiltNorth

• WordPress Coding Standards (WPCS) 3.0+
• PHP Compatibility checks for PHP 8.1+
• PSR-1/PSR-2 file structure rules

• ✅ Short array syntax []
• ✅ Short ternary operator ?:
• ✅ Namespaces and PSR-4 autoloading
• ✅ Modern PHP 8.1+ features

• File naming conventions (we use PSR-4)
• Yoda conditions requirement
• File comment requirements
• Overly strict comment punctuation

Automatically excludes from scanning:

• /vendor/
• /node_modules/
• /build/ and /dist/
• *.min.js and *.min.css
• WordPress core files
• Test bootstrap files

Your project's phpcs.xml can add additional rules:

<rule ref="BuiltNorth"/>

<!-- Add project-specific rules -->
<rule ref="WordPress.WP.EnqueuedResourceParameters"/>

<!-- Or exclude specific rules -->
<rule ref="BuiltNorth">
    <exclude name="WordPress.NamingConventions.PrefixAllGlobals"/>
</rule>

<rule ref="WordPress.NamingConventions.PrefixAllGlobals">
    <properties>
        <property name="prefixes" type="array">
            <element value="my_prefix"/>
            <element value="MyNamespace"/>
        </property>
    </properties>
</rule>

- name: Install dependencies
  run: composer install

- name: Run PHPCS
  run: vendor/bin/phpcs --report=checkstyle | cs2pr

Add to .git/hooks/pre-commit:

#!/bin/bash
vendor/bin/phpcs --filter=GitStaged

Our coding standards aim to:

1. Embrace Modern PHP: Use PHP 8.1+ features while maintaining WordPress compatibility
2. Prioritize Readability: Code should be self-documenting with clear naming
3. Support PSR-4: Use modern autoloading instead of WordPress file naming
4. Balance Strictness: Enforce important standards without being pedantic
5. Enable Consistency: Same standards across all Built North projects

• PHP >= 8.1
• Composer
• WordPress project (for context-aware rules)

To contribute to these standards:

1. Clone the repository
2. Make your changes to BuiltNorth/ruleset.xml
3. Test with real projects
4. Submit a pull request with reasoning for changes

MIT