PHP Daemons and Long-Running Processes

By Tim Lytle

Have you ever had a cron job filled with *? Had a database field called checked_out you used to make sure one process didn’t try to do the work another process was trying to do but hadn’t finished yet? Logged into a server late at night to restart the report job? Let’s talk about a better way to do these things.

Evolving PHP

By Chris Pitt

PHP is not a new language. It began as a template layer for C applications, but it has become so much more. Just as the language has evolved, so too have how it is now used. Today, there are some who use it for asynchronous architecture and others who advocate for functional programming. These concepts came from other languages, where syntax and semantics allow for them; where syntax and semantics are built with these things in mind. I want us to explore the ways in which we can evolve PHP. There are a couple of reasons we might want to do this.

Containers Are a Pile of Lies! Part Two

By Larry Garfield

While the kernel offers all sorts of APIs to manipulate namespaces and processes at a fine-grained level, that is often not especially helpful when trying to build systems at a more coarse-grained level, such as a macro container. As is common practice in programming, therefore, various other tools have sprung up to abstract those low-level APIs into easier to use higher-level APIs.

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.

Illuminating Lumen

By Joe Ferguson

Lumen is a microframework from the creator of Laravel advertised as “Decidedly Laravel. Delightfully Minimal.” If you are looking at taking your first dive into building an API or microservice, Lumen is a welcome starting point for those already familiar with Laravel.

Reviewing Code

By Chris Tankersley

Code reviews are one of the best ways to help a team ensure they’re writing the best code possible. In all of the jobs where we have done peer-lead code reviews, we have caught more bugs and had better discussions about code than in places or times where we just hammer code through the approval process. I know, I know; we all write beautiful, bug-free code, so why go through the hassle of a code review?

• Read PDF
• Read Web Version

Lessons Learned Running a PHP User Group

By James Titcumb

When I founded PHP Hampshire, I had no idea what I was doing, nor what I was letting myself in for. That said, I had a great time learning the ropes, learning more about what people will expect of you, and crucially—meeting new people in the field. The core purpose of a user group is to gather like-minded people together. Whether the folks attending use this for networking, socializing, or learning is entirely up to them, so one important facet is to ensure the platform you set up will cater to everyone.

Twitter for PHP Development

By Edward Barnard

The Internet Research Agency indictment carries strong implications for the software development community. We’ll educate ourselves by drilling down into examples of computational propaganda with Twitter. Then, we’ll relax and learn how we can use Twitter to further our professional development by connecting to the greater PHP community.

Signed Commits With Git

By Eric Mann

Many developers confuse platforms like GitHub with tools like Git. On the one hand, this is a bit confusing for those trying to learn the terminology we use on a daily basis. On the other hand, the visibility of GitHub—and its fantastic community features—make it easier for developers to get a handle on critical elements of the underlying utility. In recent years, one of the most visible features developers have discovered is commit signing.

How Many Tools?

By Eli White

As programming has continued to evolve, things have gotten a lot more complicated. I mean we’ve come a long way since the early 80’s when I was writing: `10 GOSUB 200` Complexity is good in what it allows us to now do. At the same time, complexity makes it much harder for new developers to enter the ecosystem. It makes it harder in general for developers as their skill set needs to expand wider and wider, instead of focusing on a single task.