Hi everyone,
Recently The PHP Foundation announced the appointment of Elizabeth Barron as its new Executive Director, and she has posted an open letter to the community to reach out to its members for feedback on the future of PHP. Have a look at our News section and chime in as all ideas are welcome. This week we have a lot of interesting content, including blog posts from Brent Roose and Cristoph Rumpel's his takes on AI. We also have an insight from someone who was around before PHP existed. They're all in our Reading section this week. In Tutorials we have guides on Four Ways to Trigger Delete Row from a Table, Simplified Native PHP Relations Example, and Building an Order System with Multiple Products in PHP. Finally on Podcasts we have new episodes from North Meets South on Worktree structures, workflow events, and enum metadata. Developer Tea discusses How Work is Changing in A New Software Development Paradigm, and Eric and John dove deep into the ongoing development of OpenClaw and the Archie Discord bot on the PHP Architect podcast.
We have all that and more, so we do hope you enjoy this week's newsletter. If you have an article, tutorial or podcast that you would like to be featured in our newsletter, feel free to reach out to us at [email protected].
All the best,
Adrian
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Articles
The Ultimate Laravel + Inertia Localization Showdown: Why laravel-lang-sync-inertia Beats the Giants
For years, developers have defaulted to the "industry standard" packages. But as Inertia.js has evolved, these legacy giants are starting to show their age. They are often bloated, framework-locked, or require frustrating build-step configurations.
Navigating the Web with a Smile: A Jovial Guide to Simple PHP Routing
Ahoy, fellow web explorers! Have you ever wondered how websites find their way around the vast internet, guiding you seamlessly from one page to another? It’s all thanks to a trusty navigator called “routing.” But fret not, because in this cheerful journey, we’re going to unravel the magic of simple PHP routing, why it’s essential, and how you can steer your web ship with joy.
Introduction to Eloquent ORM in Laravel
When developers start learning Laravel, one of the first things they hear about is Eloquent ORM. And for good reason. Eloquent is one of the features that makes Laravel extremely developer-friendly. Instead of writing complex SQL queries, you can interact with your database using simple and expressive PHP code.
Write Faster PHP Code: Retracing Brent's Steps
In this Tideways video, Brent's blog post on writing faster PHP is put to the test with real profiling data.
8 Code Quality Tools To Use In Your Long-Term PHP Applications
Over the years, I've noticed that there are a lot of not-so-known code quality tools and ways that can help me improve my own code and keep it maintainable, which is very hard, especially when the project grows in terms of business complexity after years of it being developed. Here's a list of code quality tools and ways that I would recommend to people to use in order for them to become better software engineers as well as keep their code maintainable, and write less buggy code.
Speed up your Livewire tests
I'd been having very slow Livewire tests in my application but hadn't put much stock into it until I started work on the app again and was running the suite often.
static $variable in PHP: a silent trap with Laravel Octane
When working with Laravel without Octane, some coding habits seem harmless. But as soon as you switch to Octane, they can cause bugs that are hard to reproduce and even harder to debug in production.
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Tutorials and Talks
Add Filters to Your Symfony API in 3 Minutes Flat
Stop writing the same filter for every endpoint. There’s a better way.
Building an Order System with Multiple Products in PHP
This is the second part of my "From Procedural to OO" series. In the first article, I refactored procedural PHP into OO using Strategy, Factory, and Repository patterns. Now I'm taking the next step: building an Order system that handles multiple products.
I Built 6 Authentication Methods for My Laravel SaaS - Here's the Full Architecture
Every SaaS project starts with authentication. And every time, developers face the same choice: use a starter kit and outgrow it in a month, or build from scratch and spend weeks on something that isn't your core product.
Detecting and Replacing Stale Video Content Automatically
Videos disappear from the internet constantly. They get deleted, marked private, or copyright-struck. If you run a video curation platform, stale content is your enemy. Here's the automated detection and replacement system I built for ViralVidVault.
Building a Scalable File Storage System Using S3
Recently, I implemented a file storage solution using an S3-compatible service as the backend for a web application's file server. The main goal was to replace local file storage with a scalable and distributed storage solution, improving availability, security, and file management.
Four Ways to Trigger Delete Row from a Table
Every delete must: Open confirmation modal, Wait for user confirmation, Then trigger DELETE request. We are only discussing how the front end triggers the route.
Basic Load Balancing for a Web System on DigitalOcean
In this article we’ll build a simple and inexpensive load-balanced web setup on DigitalOcean.
How I Structure Every Laravel REST API Project
Every time I start a new Laravel API project, I used to spend half a day on the same setup.
Make your server-rendered website feel like an SPA — with 5KB of JavaScript
You've built a server-rendered website. PHP, Python, Ruby, Go — doesn't matter. It works. It's fast. It's SEO-friendly. But every link click triggers a full page reload. The browser flashes white. The scroll position resets. Users notice. The usual answer is: "rewrite everything in React." That's overkill. There's a lighter path.
Stop Catching Exceptions Everywhere in PHP — Use These Patterns Instead
Many developers learn to use exceptions in PHP and immediately start wrapping every method in try–catch blocks.
The End of “Fat Controllers”: How and Why You Should Implement a Service Layer in PHP
A practical guide from hard-to-maintain “spaghetti code” to clean and testable architecture. See how one simple change can make your life easier.
Simplified Native PHP Relations Example
In the last article, we discussed why Native PHP is still relevant in 2026 and how it gives developers complete control. Today, let’s take it a step further: how to implement database relationships in Native PHP, without the magic of frameworks. |
News and Announcements
Working Together on the Future of PHP
I’m incredibly excited to be joining the PHP Foundation as the Executive Director and continuing the work that has been done under the leadership of Roman Pronskiy and the Board. For those who don’t know me, I look forward to meeting you!
The Laravel Community Mobile App Helps You Discover Events and Connect With Developers
Laravel continues to grow with meetups, conferences, and community events happening all around the world. Keeping track of everything can be difficult as more local groups and regional events appear each year.
The Inertia v3 Beta is Here
Inertia v3 beta is a major pre-release milestone that ships a built-in XHR HTTP client, a new useHttp hook for standalone HTTP requests, optimistic updates across the router and form APIs, instant visits, and more.
Polyscope Is an Ai-First Dev Environment for Orchestrating Agents
The team at Beyond Code has announced Polyscope, a free agent orchestration tool designed to run multiple AI agents at the same time.
Symfony 8.0.7, 7.4.7 & 6.4.35 Released
Symfony 8.0.7, 7.4.7 & 6.4.35 has just been released. Read the Symfony upgrade guide to learn more about upgrading Symfony and use the SymfonyInsight upgrade reports to detect the code you will need to change in your project.
March 2–8, 2026 - A Week of Symfony #1001
This week, Symfony 6.4.35, 7.4.7, and 8.0.7 maintenance versions were released. In addition, we introduced featured listings for Symfony job postings. Lastly, we published AI skills for Symfony UX.
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Podcasts and Vlogs
The Stack Overflow: Building brains for bulldozers
Ryan chats with Kevin Peterson, CTO of Bedrock Robotics, about the evolution of self-driving technology and why robotics is now advancing; how real data is still relevant but simulation becomes essential for scale; and the future of robotics in addressing labor shortages and enhancing productivity.
North Meets South Podcast: Worktree structures, workflow events, and enum metadata
In this episode, we discuss using `claude --worktree` to spin up parallel feature work, and the unexpected friction that can arise when your editor doesn’t play nicely with nested worktrees.
Software Engineering Radio: SE Radio 710: Marc Brooker on Spec-Driven AI Dev
Marc Brooker, VP and Distinguished Engineer at AWS, joins host Kanchan Shringi to explore specification-driven development as a scalable alternative to prompt-by-prompt “vibe coding” in AI-assisted software engineering.
Developer Tea: From Software Engineer to Agent Manager - How Work is Changing in A New Software Development Paradigm
If you're a software engineer right now, you likely feel like your world is changing overnight. We are writing half or less the amount of code that we wrote even a year ago, which represents a seismic, groundbreaking shift in our industry.
Shoptalk Show: CodePen Public Beta, Anchor Positioning, and Build Awesome
Chris talks through going public with CodePen v2's beta, the magic words and AI skills needed today, Chris has a beef with anchor positioning, thoughts on classless CSS libraries, Eleventy growing up into Build Awesome, and how would you pass an hour by quickly? (Hopefully by listening to this podcast.)
WP Builds: 459 – Ben Pines on building a sustainable WordPress business with authentic marketing
In this episode, Nathan Wrigley talks with Ben Pines about founder-led marketing, particularly in the WordPress and SaaS spaces. Ben explains how traditional marketing tactics like SEO and paid ads are less effective due to AI-generated content, and advocates for a personal, trust-building approach where founders consistently share authentic insights.
PHP Architect: The PHP Podcast 2026.03.05
Eric and John dove deep into the ongoing development of OpenClaw and the Archie Discord bot. They discussed AI-powered standups, automation challenges, and how Archie is learning to interact with the community.
Mostly Technical: 122: I Just YOLO'd It
Ian and Aaron discuss their trip to Laracon EU, the all-new Solo, using the AI SDK for Outro, "poker propaganda", Gen-Z Abby's 2004 camera, and so much more.
Syntax: Stop putting secrets in .env
Scott and Wes are joined by Phil Miller and Theo Ephraim to talk about Varlock, a new approach to environment variables that adds schemas, validation, and security to the humble .env file.
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NativePHP vs Native PHP: Clearing the Confusion
Here’s a well-structured article you can use about the common confusion between NativePHP (the framework) and “native PHP”,
A" for "Artificial
I sometimes get weird looks when I tell programmers my main language is PHP. They wonder why I would choose PHP over other languages. The answer is simple: I think of PHP as a tool, just like any other language, framework, or technology; and it's a tool I know well. I know what it's good at; I know its limitations; I know when to and when not to use it.
Vibe Coding Will Make You Feel Like a God. Then It Won’t.
I’m a PHP backend developer. For years I had this quiet frustration: I could build anything on the web, but I’d never built software. A real app. Something you install, something that runs on your phone, something that isn’t just a response to an HTTP request.
Enhancing Security Audits: Avoiding False Positives in File Path Detection
In the devlog-ist/landing project, we're continually working to improve our security posture. A recent focus has been on refining our security auditing tools to reduce false positives, particularly around the detection of potentially sensitive file paths.
The Agentic Artisan
Times are changing. Developers are changing. Artisans are changing. But the core of what makes a great artisan? That stays the same, it just got amplified.
What If SSR, Hydration, and Remote Caching Are Just Workarounds?
This article documents 16 specific examples — with links to source code, GitHub issues, official documentation, and real error messages — where the Node.js/JS ecosystem creates problems that don’t exist in PHP, Go, Elixir, Python, Ruby, Java, or .NET, and then sells you the workaround.
Before PHP existed
I come from a time before PHP existed. Some of you do as well. It’s likely why I opposed the notion of a CMS. Because I felt like I didn’t need one. People like me eventually conceded to the idea of easy image uploads with thumbnail previews and all the niceties brought on by “Ajax”, etc.
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Interesting Projects, Tools and Libraries
internal/promise
A lightweight implementation of CommonJS Promises/A for PHP.
squirrelphp/twig-php-syntax
Adds common PHP syntax to twig templates, like ===, foreach and continue/break.
colinmollenhour/cache-backend-redis
Zend_Cache backend using Redis with full support for tags.
yiisoft/yii2-debug
The debugger extension for the Yii framework.
prestashop/decimal
Object-oriented wrapper/shim for BC Math PHP extension. Allows for arbitrary-precision math operations.
clue/socket-raw
Simple and lightweight OOP wrapper for PHP's low-level sockets extension (ext-sockets).
shipmonk/dead-code-detector
Dead code detector to find unused PHP code via PHPStan extension. Can automatically remove dead PHP code.
league/factory-muffin
The goal of this package is to enable the rapid creation of objects for the purpose of testing.
laminas/laminas-inputfilter
Normalize and validate input sets from the web, APIs, the CLI, and more, including files.
overtrue/phplint
`phplint` is a tool that can speed up linting of php files by running several lint processes at once.
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