This guide will give you solutions to common PHP design problems. It also provides a sketch of an application layout that I developed during the implementation of some project s. php .ini quirks Some settings in the php .ini control how PHP interpretes your scripts. This can lead to unexpected behaviour when moving your application from development to the productive environment. The following measures reduce dependency of your code on php .ini settings. short_open_tag Always use the long PHP tags: php echo "hello world"; ?> Do not use the echo shortcut . asp_tags Do not use ASP like tags: <% echo "hello world"; %> gpc_magic_quotes I recommend that you include code in a global include file which is run before any $_GET or $_POST parameter or $_COOKIE is read. That code should check if the gpc_magic_quotes option is enabled and run all $_GET, $_POST and $_COOKIE values through the stripslashes ...