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Life as a Web Developer

Blogs > tofucake
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tofucake
Profile Blog Joined October 2009
Hyrule19190 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-07-06 21:34:07
July 03 2010 15:33 GMT
#1
So I recently started my new job as a web developer at a company that does auto financing. One of the internal tools they use is a system designed by a guy named Bob. Bob is not good at PHP. Below is an unedited snippet of his code, which is present in almost every single one of about 3000 files (the $message assignment is different on every page, but basically the same). Retarded spacing aside, it's just dumb. Also, the passwords are stored in plaintext.


....and this is just the start. The rest of the code is worse.

$systempath           =  $_SESSION[ 'systempath'         ];
$systemname = $_SESSION[ 'systemname' ];
$systemid = $_SESSION[ 'systemid' ];
$userid = $_SESSION[ 'userid' ];
$userpassword = $_SESSION[ 'userpassword' ];
$username = $_SESSION[ 'username' ];
$systemaccesslevel = $_SESSION[ 'systemaccesslevel' ];
$loginstatus = $_SESSION[ 'loginstatus' ];
$message = $_SESSION[ 'message' ];

$message = 'Perform Loan History Processing';

// set the session variables

$_SESSION[ 'systempath' ] = $systempath;
$_SESSION[ 'systemname' ] = $systemname;
$_SESSION[ 'systemid' ] = $systemid;
$_SESSION[ 'userid' ] = $userid;
$_SESSION[ 'userpassword' ] = $userpassword;
$_SESSION[ 'username' ] = $username;
$_SESSION[ 'systemaccesslevel' ] = $systemaccesslevel;
$_SESSION[ 'loginstatus' ] = $loginstatus;


[Update]
switched quotes to codes. Now you can see the dumb spacing.

*
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ilovezil
Profile Blog Joined August 2006
United States4143 Posts
July 03 2010 15:41 GMT
#2
ya, simply terrible!



??
RumZ
Profile Blog Joined March 2010
United States956 Posts
July 03 2010 15:43 GMT
#3
Wow.... that is going to take some time fixing eh?

It could be worse, I am doing some network administration on a server client setup that has not been updated from service pack 0 in 2 years on windows xp, the computers are also running incompatible version of symantec endpoint protection, and not only are they not supported anymore, each client is running a different version of the software.


But, I digress, I think your problem is way more painful if not able to be dealt with systematically.
fabiano
Profile Blog Joined August 2009
Brazil4644 Posts
July 03 2010 15:44 GMT
#4
lol

I guess its a good place to ask, which one is the best programming practice for php: use directly the $_SESSION[] variables or pass its content to a common variable?

eg. use $_SESSION['username'] all over the code or $username = $_SESSION['username'] and use $username for the rest of the code?
"When the geyser died, a probe came out" - SirJolt
Count9
Profile Blog Joined May 2009
China10928 Posts
July 03 2010 15:55 GMT
#5
Well... at least you know he read the PHP in 20 minutes book =) It's usually better when they write horrible code, and then leave you awesome comments with justifications.
tofucake
Profile Blog Joined October 2009
Hyrule19190 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-07-04 13:17:20
July 04 2010 13:09 GMT
#6
You guys haven't see the javascript yet. EVERY SINGLE LINE HAS AN EXPLANATORY COMMENT.

// resets the flag indicating whether the up or down key has been pressed
isKeyUpDownPressed = false;




On July 04 2010 00:41 ilovezil wrote:
ya, simply terrible!



??

He sets some variables, and then without changing any of them (sans $message), he sets them back again. It's a waste of space and processing power.


On July 04 2010 00:44 fabiano wrote:
lol

I guess its a good place to ask, which one is the best programming practice for php: use directly the $_SESSION[] variables or pass its content to a common variable?

eg. use $_SESSION['username'] all over the code or $username = $_SESSION['username'] and use $username for the rest of the code?
Both are acceptable, but only in certain situations. If you're doing processing and only want to display something, using local variables is best. I only use SESSION scope variables for tracking things that rarely or never change (a user ID) or things I don't want to be exposed (redirect after login). Other things he used SESSION scope for are things that should never, ever, for any reason, be stored anyway (plaintext password). Much of what he does could be sped up by using relational databases.
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vnlegend
Profile Blog Joined December 2006
United States1389 Posts
July 04 2010 13:56 GMT
#7
I don't really understand what this means but the guy could just be older and not too good with new technology.

** 30 years later **
16-yr old kid looks at tofucake's work: Who the hell wrote this dumb ancient code?

But anyway, looks like a good opportunity to get credit for making improvements.
Marines > everything
thedeadhaji *
Profile Blog Joined January 2006
39489 Posts
July 04 2010 14:17 GMT
#8
btw I like your ID
Count9
Profile Blog Joined May 2009
China10928 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-07-04 14:40:57
July 04 2010 14:39 GMT
#9
Wow, awesome, don't know how I missed this >.> I love thedailywtf, this is just as bad as some of code they got on there. (Of course, I don't have to work with this guy)

Maybe he auto generated some of those javascript things :/
tarpman
Profile Joined February 2009
Canada719 Posts
July 04 2010 16:38 GMT
#10
yeah, this sort of thing smells like copy-paste to me. likely he copy-pasted a bunch of stuff, tweaked it until it sort of worked, and then never touched it again :D
Saving the world, one kilobyte at a time.
QueueQueue
Profile Joined July 2009
Canada1000 Posts
July 04 2010 16:41 GMT
#11
On July 04 2010 22:09 tofucake wrote:
You guys haven't see the javascript yet. EVERY SINGLE LINE HAS AN EXPLANATORY COMMENT.

Show nested quote +
// resets the flag indicating whether the up or down key has been pressed
isKeyUpDownPressed = false;




At least people won't be lost >.<
tofucake
Profile Blog Joined October 2009
Hyrule19190 Posts
July 05 2010 20:54 GMT
#12
I want to submit something to DailyWTF...but I have no clue what to....it's all so bad.
Liquipediaasante sana squash banana
King K. Rool
Profile Blog Joined May 2009
Canada4408 Posts
July 05 2010 22:20 GMT
#13
lololol

Is bob still working there?
haduken
Profile Blog Joined April 2003
Australia8267 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-07-05 22:23:00
July 05 2010 22:22 GMT
#14
I've seen worse. I've worked on a project where the lead developer refused to use any control statements what so ever believing that they have a risk of malfunctioning. So the whole project was done assembly style except... in C#.

I still can't believe why this guy was hired and why he still works there.
Rillanon.au
NoHrt
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
Canada236 Posts
July 05 2010 23:37 GMT
#15
heh,

are you interested in assisting a fellow SC2 with your programming skills ? Im looking for help with a few things.

PM me if interested
l2sc.net | Lead Director | l2sc.tv NoHrt.518
tofucake
Profile Blog Joined October 2009
Hyrule19190 Posts
July 06 2010 00:46 GMT
#16
No...Bob was fired. Actually, about half way through the project he stopped responding to emails and phone calls (he was a contract hire, apparently).

On July 06 2010 07:22 haduken wrote:
I've seen worse. I've worked on a project where the lead developer refused to use any control statements what so ever believing that they have a risk of malfunctioning. So the whole project was done assembly style except... in C#.

I still can't believe why this guy was hired and why he still works there.

That hurts to think about.
Liquipediaasante sana squash banana
michiko
Profile Joined April 2010
United States75 Posts
July 06 2010 15:07 GMT
#17
I like the comment line you showed, rofl.

I mean it is a great practice to comment lines of code often, but E-V-E-R-Y line?

Espcially, ROFL, when the line itself describes what it does

//This resets the is key down flag to not being enabled
isKeyDown=false;

ROFL? What coder couldn't decipher that without the //?
----

And yes, I love that first post you make. In PHP it is very dangerous to store information in the session variables, who knows when it'll get changed or w/e as you navigate through the pages.

It's also a bad idea to store important information in there (like you said, just a session_id variable, user_ids, web cart information).

User names and passwords, any customer information stored in session? Bad News Bears.

Hell, I don't even use the $_[GET], i stick to POST so kiddies can't URL hi-jack my code.

---

Do you have a good source of code for properly storing passwords? I don't use plaintext, but I'm interested to hear your thoughts / methods on how to properly store, check and carry a PW value.

GOOD BLOG! 5/5!

tofucake
Profile Blog Joined October 2009
Hyrule19190 Posts
July 06 2010 15:18 GMT
#18
I'll post the creation bit here, and the whole password shpiel on pastebin. I create and store passwords based on SHA-1, with part of the SHA'd password used as the salt for SHA-ing the password to check it. Win.

function createpasswordhash($user, $raw_pass)
{
// this should ONLY be used to create NEW passwords, as
// the salt is based on the time
$salt = sha1($user . array_sum(explode(' ', microtime())));
$raw = $salt . sha1(sha1($user) . sha1($salt . $raw_pass));

return $raw;
}

The whole thing... http://pastebin.com/0dD00pu0
It makes use of my SQLController class for checking, but that should be easy enough to figure out. I can write up something about that later, though.
Liquipediaasante sana squash banana
michiko
Profile Joined April 2010
United States75 Posts
July 06 2010 15:30 GMT
#19
Awesome, great code. I won't steal - but that for sure helps!

I have one question:

$row = $DB->Fetch($query);

the "->"

I'm not a full-time coder, I do PHP contractually (soon-to-be full time, i hope).


Is that vanilla PHP? Are you using a framework? I recall -> calls being a big part of the Kohana framework.

$DB->Fetch sounds fricken awesome - for sure nicer than raw PHP MySQL queries...
tofucake
Profile Blog Joined October 2009
Hyrule19190 Posts
July 06 2010 15:40 GMT
#20
-> is part of PHP's OOP syntax. Like I said, I'll post my SQLController class later. I don't mind if you use my password stuff, as long as you stick a comment in there attributing it to me.
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