Data Dictionary
 

Hello,

In general, what would a data dictionary for a website contain? I've been told I need to create one. Apparently, it should state every variable used, what it does and what it contains. Is this true? I have close to 2600 lines of code for my shopping cart (not all php). It could take forever... :-/

Sounds crazy to me, but if you're allowing users to tweak all your code, and build their own modules for it, then you will need to do it!

It's actually for an assessment for college. The code is never going to be changed and is well commented as it is. It sounds totally crazy and unnecessary to me and have no idea why it's needed.

to me a data dictionary means an application model, the model contains information that describes the application's data structure, like ER diagrams etc but i could be wrong.

You could use phpdoc to build that. That's how I see this thing done easily. Or, you could go with natural docs.

I thought of that too Xenon, but if it's a college assignment, I think it may be important to distinguish between whether his teacher wants a program API, or a database 'data dictionary'...

Then natural docs could come in handy then. You can basically add any comment to your text/code/what ever. I think he has to build more like a resume of the application, than a technical documentation book.

It's confirmed, I've to list every variable used and describe what it does :|

Then, let me just wish you good luck with that :-P

Every variable? Not just parameter/argument vars? Ouch.

If it makes you feel any better, I just spent the last two or three days adding documentation to 3800 lines of code over 11 files myself. Not *every* variable of course, but the extra 1200 lines has to count for something.
-m