Welcome Back PHP Fans.
This week we have a step by step checklist to help you make the switch from HTTP to HTTPS, in order to secure your websites and make them safer.
Also this week, WordPress 4.8 Beta 2 has been released, ready for you to set up on a test site.
The 5th annual PHP Conference China takes place next month, over two days in Shanghai. Tickets are on sale now.
Plus in the latest Laravel News podcast, the guys discuss multi-tenancy in Laravel with their guest Tom Schlick.
And finally, if you're interested in studying PHP Design Patterns to improve your code, take a look at this free 10 day trial course to get you started.
Have a great weekend folks,
Cheers
Katie and Ade |
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Articles
How to Switch from HTTP to HTTPS
Over the last few years, Google has made it abundantly clear that they want the web to be a safer place. The best way they can do that is to encourage website and business owners to secure their websites by switching from HTTP to HTTPS. Use this handy checklist to help guide you along migrating your website from HTTP to HTTPS. I’ll take you through step by step to ensure you’ve got your bases covered before, during and after you make the switch.
Providing Insight Into Drupal Association Financials
It is critical that the Drupal Association remains financially sustainable so we can fulfill our mission into the future. As a non-profit organisation based in the United States, the responsibility of maintaining financial health falls on the Executive Director and the Drupal Association Board.
Preparing your Applications for PHP 7 with Symfony Polyfills
According to the May 2017 PHP Stats, 53% of PHP developers use PHP 7.0 or 7.1, but only 10% of Composer packages require PHP 7.0 or higher. In fact, 1 in 4 packages still require PHP 5.3, which is used by less than 1% of developers. Upgrading your development machines is usually a simple task, but upgrading the rest of the infrastructure (servers, tools, etc.) usually requires more resources. This is where Symfony Polyfills can help you prepare the code of your application for PHP 7.
Web Developer Security Checklist
Developing secure, robust web applications in the cloud is hard, very hard. If you think it is easy, you are either a higher form of life or you have a painful awakening ahead of you. This checklist is simple, and by no means complete, but it contains some of the more important issues when developing that have been painfully learned over time.
Being a Good Writer is an Important Career Skill
Writing doesn’t have to be hard; it can and should be an extension of speech if you just reframe your feelings about it. Learn how to get better at it. |
Tutorials and Talks
PHP Word Document Generator to Convert HTML to DOCX Part 1: Using VS PHP Word HTML Class or PHPDocX Example
Many PHP applications require to export documents in Microsoft Word formats. However, most PHP developers only have experience in generating HTML Web pages. Read this article to learn how to quickly create Microsoft Word DOCX format using HTML templates.
Generate a JSON Feed with Laravel
JSON Feed is a new standard to formalise a JSON based RSS feed that aims to simplify creating feeds by doing away with the XML standard. Implementing a feed for your site is simple, and the spec is surprisingly clear.
Re-Introducing Composer – the Cornerstone of Modern PHP Apps
In this article, we will tackle the basics of Composer, and what makes it such a powerful and useful tool.
What Is WP-CLI? A Beginner’s Guide
WP-CLI has been around for quite some time now (circa 2011) and has steadily gained momentum in the WordPress developer community. But what is it exactly, and how can you use it in your WordPress workflow? This is a tutorial aimed at beginners, so don't worry if you're not a command line guru. If you've never used the WP-CLI or the command line before, then you're in good company and definitely in the right place!
Inserting Binary Data into SQL Server with ZF1 & PHP 7
If you want to insert binary data into SQL Server in Zend Framework 1 then you probably used the trick of setting an array as the parameter's value with the info required by the sqlsrv driver.
Arduino and Raspberry Pi Working Together Part 2 (now with i2c)
The easiest way to connect our Arduino board to our Raspberry Py is using the USB cable, but sometimes this communication is a nightmare, especially because there isn’t any clock signal to synchronize our devices and we must rely on the bitrate. There’re different ways to connect our Arduino and our Raspberry Py such as I2C, SPI and serial over GPIO. Today we’re going to speak about I2C, especially because it’s pretty straightforward if we take care with a couple of things. Let’s start.
Building Your Startup: Securing an API
Recently, I introduced you to Yii's simple REST API generation and Meeting Planner's new "RESTful" service API. At that time, I mentioned that these APIs were only loosely secured. Sure, there was a shared secret between the client and the server, but there were a couple of problems. First, the secret key and user tokens were repeatedly transmitted in query parameters of SSL calls. And there was no other authenticity check for the data, allowing a middle-person attack. In today's episode, I'll guide you through how I secured the API against these weaknesses for a more robust API.
PHP Generics and Why We Need Them
In today's blog post we'll explore some common problems with arrays in PHP. All the problems and issues listed could be solved with a pending RFC which adds generics to PHP. We won't explore in too much detail what generics are. But at the end of this read you should have a good idea as to why they are useful, and why we really want them in PHP. So without further ado, lets dive into the subject.
A Package to Enable Short Class Names in an Artisan Tinker Session
Tinker is probably one of my most used Artisan commands. A minor annoyance is that it can be quite bothersome having to type the fully qualified classname to do something simple. Today we release a new package called laravel-tinker-tools. When fully installed it lets you use the short class names in a tinker session.
When To Use Factory Instead of Direct Object Construction
Factory is an object responsible for creating other objects. It is often considered a good practice to move the process of object creation from the consumer’s code into the factory. Even more, some people say that you should avoid the use of new keyword in your code as much as possible. As for me, I think that you should be careful when someone says that you should always …. Instead, it is better to understand why in some cases factories are useful, but sometimes they are a needless over engineering, so you can make a right decision according to text context.
How to Use Laravel Mix in Non-Laravel Projects
If you, like me, just want to get up and running on a project as quickly as possible, you probably don’t want to spend time configuring build tools like Webpack. Laravel Mix solves this problem, and makes asset compiling incredibly easy, but what if you want to use it on a non-Laravel project? This article shows you how to accomplish that. |
News and Announcements
WordPress 4.8 Beta 2
WordPress 4.8 Beta 2 is now available! This software is still in development, so we don’t recommend you run it on a production site. Consider setting up a test site just to play with the new version.
Backdrop 1.7 Released
Backdrop CMS, the comprehensive CMS for small to medium businesses and non-profits, has seen it's 8th on-time release! Backdrop 1.7 includes substantial improvements to Views, Layouts, and the Rich-Text editor.
Want to host DrupalCon North America in Your City? We Have the RFP for You
DrupalCon LogoWe are excited to open our RFP process for DrupalCon North America. We are currently looking at locations for 2019 and at locations for 2020. We are running the RFP process concurrently for both years.
PHP Conference China - 17-18th June 2017, Shanghai
The 5th Annual China PHP Conference is a 2-day event filled with high quality technical sessions about PHP Core, PHP High Performance, PHP Engineering, and MySQL 5.7/8.0 more. Don’t miss out on 2 great days sessions, delicious food, fantastic shows and countless networking opportunities to engage with speakers and delegates. Tickets are on sale now.
Laracon EU - 28-30th August 2017, Amsterdam
Are you a developer who has a passion for building web-applications? Do you love Laravel or are just in the process of getting started? Do you want to meet the community members that help make it all happen? Then this is the place to be. Laracon EU is a unique international Laravel event with over 600 attendees. The conference has multiple tracks and is focusing on in-depth technical talks. Come learn about the state of the industry while networking with like-minded and diversely experienced developers. Early Bird tickets are on sale now.
Web Summer Camp - August 30th-September 2nd 2017, Croatia
Hands-on and engaging workshops providing useful know-how and first-hand experience, along with encouraging knowledge sharing. We are looking for PHP, eZ Publish/eZ Platform, Symfony, JavaScript, React/React native, user experience, user research, information architecture, design systems, CSS and project management workshops. The last tickets are on sale now.
SymfonyLive San Francisco: October 17th-20th 2017
We’re back! SymfonyLive is coming back, that’s right, back to our beloved San Francisco for a whole new chapter in our conference series for 2017. We are ecstatic to return to the city by the bay and host the American Symfony community. Symfony fans of The City, don’t miss the upcoming presentations, discussions, symposiums, meetups and our wonderful conference happy hour. Early Bird Tickets are on sale now, and the Call For Papers is now open.
PHP[World] Conference - November 15-16th 2017, Washington DC
Four years ago the team behind php[architect] magazine wanted to create a conference designed to bring all the PHP communities together. Hence, the idea of php[world] was born. It's an event that is intended to bring the entire world of PHP together in one place, to encourage cross-pollination of ideas and sharing of ideals. The Call For Papers is now open. |
Podcasts
Three Devs and a Maybe Podcast - The Applied Mathematics of Programming with Liam McLennan
In this weeks episode we are lucky to have Liam McLennan on the show. We start off discussion with his Math background, how he got into programming and how it can be seen as Applied Mathematics. From here we move on to highlight his experiences whilst consulting, what it entailed, and the importance of ‘tact’. This leads us on to look into what drew him to Functional programming, F# and creating Pluralsight courses. Finally, we delve into the different areas of the Nokia Ringtone Composer Emulator from his F# Fundamentals course.
dev/hell Podcast Episode 90: Same as It Ever Was
Chris and Ed talk about Ed’s new laptop and his decision to transition to do OSMI full-time. They also talked about their new Patreon that’s helping them find sponsors for the podcast.
Voices of the ElePHPant - Interview with Larry E.Masters
This week Cal Evans talked to the head of the Cake PHP framework, Larry E. Masters.
Changelog Podcast #250: The Backstory of Kubernetes with Tim Hockin and Aparna Sinha Guest: Tim Hockin Guest: Aparna Sinha
Tim Hockin and Aparna Sinha joined the show to talk about the backstory of Kubernetes inside Google, how Tim and others got it funded, the infrastructure of Kubernetes, and how they've been able to succeed by focusing on the community.
MageTalk LIVE at Imagine 2017 – “Mark Lavelle, Cognitive Commerce, and Jamie Clarke Throwing Shade, OH MY”
Part 4 of our LIVE recordings at Magento Imagine 2017. MageTalk LIVE continues with an interview with Mark Lavelle, CEO of Magento.
Laravel News Podcast LN38: Laracon Sessions with Tom Schlick
In Laracon Sessions Episode Two, Jake and Michael are joined by Tom Schlick to discuss his talk on multi-tenancy in Laravel, as well as your regular dose of Laravel framework and community news.
The Laracasts Snippets Episode 63: Let's Talk About Visual Debt and Typehints
I recently published a short video on what I refer to as "visual debt." Shortly after, the critical tweets began to roll in. "How dare you propose that all of these keywords and types and interfaces add noise," they declared. Well, let's talk about it... |
Try Our Course on PHP Design Patterns With a Free Trial
No matter what your level of skill, studying design patterns can make your code better. They are solutions to problems that every developer faces with just about every application that they write. In our comprehensive course, PHP Design Patterns, Envato Tuts+ instructor Jeremy McPeak will walk you through some of the most fundamental design patterns and show you how to implement them in PHP. You can take this course straight away with a free 10-day trial of our monthly subscription. If you decide to continue, it costs just $15 a month, and you’ll also get unlimited access to our full library of hundreds of courses, with new ones added every week.
What Is WeCamp All About?
Recently I got an email from someone who was interested in coming to WeCamp, but needed some more information to help convince their manager. I wrote a big email trying to describe WeCamp and our ideas of what WeCamp is (or should be). Since this may actually be useful to more people that want to come to WeCamp but need to convince their manager, I'm posting that email here as well.
Vitaly Dudin And Alexander Martinkevich Talk About MageWorx And Magento Extensions Development
Today, I am honoured to have CEO and CTO of MageWorx, a well-known Magento extension development agency. Vitaly Dudin is the CEO, and Alexander Martinkevich is the CTO of MageWorx. In this interview, they talk about their career, Magento 1 & Magento 2, and the latest trends and developments in the ecommerce industry.
Magento 2 - Build World-Class Online Stores (by Fernando J. Miguel, Ray Bogman, Vladimir Kerkhoff, Bret Williams and Jonathan Bownds, published 31st March 2017)
Create rich and compelling solutions for Magento 2 by developing and implementing solutions, themes, and extensions.
Android Development with Java: Step By Step Guide to Build Applications (by Learn To Earn, published 6th April 2017)
In this guide series, you’ll become familiar with Java, the programming language used to develop Android applications. Our goal is to prepare those already familiar with one programming language, such as PHP or Objective-C, to become comfortable working with the Java programming language and dive into Android app development. In this tutorial, you’ll get a brief introduction to Java fundamentals, including object oriented programming, inheritance and more. If you’re new to Java, or just looking to brush up on the details, then this is for you! |
Jobs
Do you have a position that you would like to fill? PHP Weekly is ideal for targeting developers and the cost is only $50/week for an advert. Please let me know if you are interested by emailing me at [email protected] |
Interesting Projects, Tools and Libraries
jsconnectPHP
Contains client files for Vanilla's jsConnect with a PHP project.
privatebin
A minimalist, open source online pastebin where the server has zero knowledge of pasted data.
phan
A static analyser for PHP, phan prefers to avoid false-positives and attempts to prove incorrectness rather than correctness.
statsd-php
A PHP client library for the statistics daemon (statsd) intended to send metrics from PHP applications.
rhubarb
An application development framework for PHP. Its focus is on allowing developers to build enterprise ready applications that are fast, scale well, allow for architectural rethinks late in the project and that maximise the potential for code reuse.
timegrid
Free, open-source, online appointments platform based on Laravel PHP Framework.
aimeos-slim
Slim PHP framework integration for high performance online shops.
domjudge
DOMjudge is a system for running a programming contest, like the ACM ICPC regional and world championship programming contests.
latitude
A SQL query builder for PHP with zero dependencies.
whip
A PHP class for retrieving accurate IP address information for the client.
panel
Pterodactyl Panel is the free, open-source, game agnostic, self-hosted control panel for users, networks, and game service providers.
liipimaginebundle
Symfony Bundle to assist in imagine manipulation using the imagine library. |
Please help us by clicking to our sponsor:
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Why not try SourceGuardian 11. Click here to download a 14 Day Trial copy. Protect your code using Windows, Linux or Mac and run everywhere with our free Loaders.
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