Derek Binkley

Derek is the Technical Lead at the National Conference of Bar Examiners, the creator of licensing exams for attorneys. He actively mentors other developers, specializes in Java, PHP, JavaScript, MySQL and Oracle and advocates for accessible design of websites and applications. When not in front of a computer he enjoys spending time with family, traveling and drinking a local craft beer.

twitter: @DerekB_WI

Articles

Teaching Through Code Review

By Derek Binkley

In March 2020, our world shut down. Our connections with colleagues were severed, and the ways we connect with others were changed and will possibly never return to our pre-pandemic norms. We have been overworked, stressed, lonely and afraid. In this environment, we need more than ever to find ways to build each other up and succeed as a team. That is why I propose taking our code review process and changing it from a point of conflict into an opportunity for learning. by Derek Binkley

Published in Parallelize Your Code, February 2022

Encore, Encore, Bravo, Bravo! Combining Front End Development with PHP Using Symfony and Vue

By Derek Binkley

PHP has been a leading language for web development for over twenty-five years, coexisting with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to create a full front and back end application. JavaScript frameworks have skyrocketed in popularity, but it can often be challenging to see how to integrate these frameworks with your PHP web application. Symfony Encore gives us a great way to incorporate any front-end framework with PHP. Let’s take a look at how this works using Vue JS and Symfony.

Published in Newfangled Views, January 2021

Add Location Based Searching to Your PHP App With Elasticsearch

By Derek Binkley

Searching based on a user’s location is a feature of many websites and applications. This type of search adds relevancy and value to a website, especially when these results include the distance from a point or within a polygon, and are combined with fast text searches. In this article, we’ll take an in-depth look at how Elasticsearch supports searching based upon latitude and longitude. We’ll look at the different types of location searches and how to integrate these searches into a PHP-based backend API.

Published in Find the Way With Elasticsearch, July 2019

Map, Filter, and Reduce in PHP

By Derek Binkley

Even though MapReduce was created for parallelization, which PHP does not natively support, the syntax is supported. In this article, I outline how to use map, filter, and reduce with PHP collections and the benefits you can gain over traditional for loops.

Published in How to Tame Your Data, June 2019

Hands on With Accessibility

By Derek Binkley

There are many tools available to help check our site for accessibility. These tools are great, but they only get you part of the way to an accessible website. There are lots of judgment calls based on how you may think your site is accessed. In this article, I will guide you through the assistive technology used to access websites to help you understand the myriad of ways your site may be used.

Published in Long Running PHP, March 2018