Freek.dev

Laravel / PHP / AI

Refactoring Vue: cleaning up a list of posts with better component splitting and more ES6

Matt Stauffer shares some interesting refactors suggested by his co-workers on a Vue component he wrote.

I've written some Vue since 2015, but I've also learned some React, written a lot of Laravel, run a company, and spent much of my free time writing a book about Laravel. It's time for me to get back into Vue.js and really spend some time to get good at it. Thankfully, some of the best Vue developers out there work at Tighten, so I'm putting them to work to level me up. So, I'm going to be writing new Vue code and also cleaning up some of my Vue from 2015, and I wanted to share the process with you, my lovely readers.

https://mattstauffer.com/blog/refactoring-vue-cleaning-up-a-list-of-posts-with-better-component-splitting-and-more-es6/

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A newsletter about programming, design, and other related topics

My colleague Sebastian started a new side project: a newsletter about programming, design, and other related topics.

Growing the Stack is a biweekly—as in, once every two weeks—newsletter about programming, design, and other related topics. The newsletter isn't tied to any programming language or ecosystem, and it's not meant keep you up to date with all the new & shiny tools out there. It tries to bundle content that inspires. Content that triggers you to consider and try out new ideas.

Subscribe here: https://sebastiandedeyne.com/newsletter

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Join 9,500+ smart developers

Get my monthly newsletter with what I learn from running Spatie, building Oh Dear, and maintaining 300+ open source packages. Practical takes on Laravel, PHP, and AI that you can actually use.

No spam. Unsubscribe anytime. You can also follow me on X.

Practicing symmetry

In a new video Jason McCreary, the creator of the wonderful Laravel Shift, demonstrates a few good tips to clean up code. In the video below Jason uses a code snippet taken from my side project Oh Dear!

If you're interested in more tips from Jason be sure to check out his upcoming BaseCode field guide.

Meanwhile I've cleaned up (and deployed) the code in the actual app. This is what I ended up with:

class Check
{
    public function needsToRun(): bool
    {
      if (!$this->belongsToTeamOnActiveSubscriptionOrOnGenericTrial()) {
          return false;
      }
			
      if ($this->disabled()) {
          return false;
      }
			
      if ($this->alreadyRunningOrScheduled()) {
          return false;
      }
			
      if ($this->didNotRunBefore()) {
          return true;
      }
			
      if ($this->checkType()->is(CheckType::UPTIME) && $this->latestRun()->failed()) {
          return true;
      }
			
      if ($this->previousRunCrashed()) {
          return true;
      }
      return $this->latestRun()->endedMoreThanMinutesAgo($this->checkType()->minutesBetweenRuns());
    }
		
    protected function checkType(): CheckType
    {
        return new CheckType($this->type);
    }  
}

use MyCLabs\Enum\Enum;

class CheckType extends Enum
{
    const UPTIME = 'uptime';
    const BROKEN_LINKS = 'broken_links';
    const MIXED_CONTENT = 'mixed_content';
    const CERTIFICATE_HEALTH = 'certificate_health';
    const CERTIFICATE_TRANSPARENCY = 'certificate_transparency';
    public function minutesBetweenRuns(): int
    {
        if ($this->getValue() === static::MIXED_CONTENT) {
            return 60 * 12;
        }
				
        if ($this->getValue() === static::BROKEN_LINKS) {
            return 60 * 12;
        }
				
        if ($this->getValue() === static::CERTIFICATE_HEALTH) {
            return 5;
        }
				
        if ($this->getValue() === static::UPTIME) {
            return 3;
        }
				
        throw new Exception("Minutes between runs not specified for type `{$this->getValue()}`");
    }
    public function is(string $type): bool
    {
        return $type === $this->getValue();
    }
}

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Event sourcing made simple

The team at Kickstarter made a simple, synchronous event sourcing library implemented in Ruby.

We’ll go over a high level introduction to Event Sourcing where we will highlight the four components that make a (minimal) Event Sourcing system: Events, Calculators, Aggregates and Reactors. We will then talk about how we implemented a (minimal) Event Sourcing Framework at Kickstarter for d.rip. And finally we’ll reflect a bit on the ah-ha moments and the challenges that we’re going through with this approach — 9 months after having started to work on d.rip and 4 months after launch.

https://kickstarter.engineering/event-sourcing-made-simple-4a2625113224

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Tidy up your tests with class-based model factories

John Bonaccorsi, a developer from Tighten, wrote some good ways of structuring model factories in a Laravel app.

Thanks to class-based model factories, our test setup went from being a bloated mess to simple and succinct. The optional fluent methods give us flexibility and make it obvious when we are intentionally changing our world. Should you read this blog post and immediately go and update all of your model factories to be class-based instead? Of course not! But if you begin to notice your tests feeling top heavy, class-based model factories may be the tool to reach for.

https://tighten.co/blog/tidy-up-your-tests-with-class-based-model-factories

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A good issue

Sebastian De Deyne, package creator and JavaScript wizard at Spatie, gives some good tips on how to report an issue well.

Maintaining a number of open source projects comes with a number of issues. Reporting a good issue will result in a more engaged approach from project maintainers. Don't forget: there's a human behind every project.

https://sebastiandedeyne.com/posts/2018/a-good-issue

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Improving the performance of spatie/laravel-permission

Barry van Veen recently fixed an interesting performance issue at our permissions package.

Recently I was investigating the performance of an application we have built at SWIS. To my surprise, one of the most excellent costly methods was part of the spatie/laravel-permission package. After reading some more it was clearly a performance issue that could be improved upon. Since the solution was already clearly outlined it was quite easy to code it and submit a pull request.

https://barryvanveen.nl/blog/46-improving-the-performance-of-spatie-laravel-permission

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Automatically close stale issues and pull requests original

by Freek Van der Herten – 5 minute read

At Spatie we have over 180 public repositories. Some of our packages have become quite popular. We're very grateful that many of our users open up issues and PRs to ask questions, notify us of problems and try to solve those problems, ... Most of these issues and PRs are handled by our team. But…

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Registering macro's in Laravel using a mixin

Rachid Laasri explains how to easily register multiple macros at once using the mixin function present on the Macroable trait.

Laravel Macros are a clean way to add pieces of functionality to classes you don’t own (core Laravel components) and re-use them in your projects. It was first introduced in the 4.2 version but it was only recently that I discovered the ability to define class-based macros. So, this is what this article is going to be about.

http://rachidlaasri.com/php/laravel/macro/2018/04/28/class-based-macros.html

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The Future of Programming

Here's an amazing talk by "Uncle" Bob Martin where he gives an amazing overview of the history of programming and where he thinks it's headed.

How did our industry start, what paths did it take to get to where we are, and where is it going. What big problems did programmers encounter in the past? How were they solved? And how do those solutions impact our future? What mistakes have we made as a profession; and how are we going to correct them. In this talk, Uncle Bob describes the history of software, from it’s beginnings in 1948 up through the current day; and then beyond. By looking at our past trajectory, we try to plot out where our profession is headed, and what challenges we’ll face along the way.

Can't wait for his talk at this year's Laracon US.

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Array destructuring in PHP

Frank de Jonge, author of the great EventSauce and Flysytem packages, wrote a blopost on how to use array destructuring in PHP.

In PHP 7.1 the array type has become even more powerful! An RFC was accepted (and implemented) to provide square bracket syntax for array destructuring assignment. This change to the language made it possible to extract values from array more easily.

https://blog.frankdejonge.nl/array-destructuring-in-php/

Not mentioned in Frank's excellent post is PHP's ability to destructure arrays in foreach loops.

$members = [
	[1, 'Seb'],
	[2, 'Alex'],
	[3, 'Brent'],
];

foreach ($members as [$id, $name]) {
   // do stuff with $id and $name
}

You can even specify in which variable a value of a specific key should go:

	$members = [
	['id' => 1, 'name'=> 'Seb', 'twitter' => '@sebdedeyne' ],
	['id' => 2, 'name'=> 'Alex', 'twitter' => '@alexvanderbist'],
	['id' => 3, 'name'=> 'Brent', 'twitter' => '@brendt_gd'],
];

foreach ($members as ['twitter' => $twitterHandle, 'name' => $firstName]) {
	// do stuff with $twitterHandle and $firstName
}

Very neat!

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Make a clear distinction between different layers of validation

In an older, but still very interesting article, Mattias Verraes has some interesting thoughts on form, command and model validation.

Many of the frameworks I’ve worked with, promise to separate responsibilities with MVC. In practice, they end up coupling everything to everything. The forms are coupled to the models, and there’s a grand unified validation layer. This may be convenient at first, but it breaks down for larger systems, and creates headaches when having to support multiple clients. My approach is to clearly separate the validation for the form itself, from the Command validation and the model validation.

http://verraes.net/2015/02/form-command-model-validation/

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