How to check which version of PHP you are running
When working on open source code, I like using the latest version of PHP. When developers that are not on the latest version use the package, they might see syntax errors.
You might ask why Composer doesn't protect against this? When composer.json requires the latest version, how do devs, not on the latest version, can even install the package?
Well, there seemingly are a lot of people that only upgrade the PHP version on the command line. For handling web requests, they are unknowingly using an older version of PHP. Here's how to make sure you are on the latest version of PHP on both the CLI and for handling web requests.
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Expect quick tips & tricks, interesting tutorials, opinions and packages. Because I work with Laravel every day there is an emphasis on that framework.
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Mailcoach v2 has been released with support for custom HTML editors and multiple mailers
A couple of months ago, my team released Mailcoach, a self-hosted solution to send out newsletters. It sends out mail via services like Amazon SES, Mailgun, Sendgrid, and Postmark. It can optionally track opens and clicks. When your email list grows, this is a much more cost-effective solution when compared to a service like Mailchimp.
Mailcoach can be used as a premium Laravel package or as a stand-alone app. When installed into a Laravel app, it can be greatly customized. The Mailcoach stand alone app can be used without knowing how to program.
Today we're releasing v2 of Mailcoach. It offers support for Laravel 7, html editors, and multiple mailers, together with a bunch of quality of life improvements. In this blog post, I'd like to walk you through these features and show some technical details.
On using arrow functions in PHP 7.4
In PHP 7.4 a widely requested feature landed: arrow function. In this blogpost I'd like to show you how I like to use them.
Writing readable PHP: decrease indentation by returning early
In this short post, I'd like to give you a tip on writing readable PHP.
How to use a MySQL database on GitHub Actions
Recently we started using GitHub Actions to test all our packages. You can read more about our general setup in this blog post.
For most of the packages, this works great. However, some of our packages, such as Laravel Tags, use JSON functions that are not available in SQLite. Luckily it's straightforward to use a database like MySQL in GitHub Actions.
Behind the scenes of Flare (or How to structure big Laravel applications)
How to write exceptionally good exceptions in PHP
In this video, which is part of the mailcoach video course, I show how I like to write my exceptions.
At the time of writing this post, we're running a contest where you can win a free mailcoach license.
How to refactor complex if statements
Have you every come across confusing if statements with complex conditionals such as this? I bet you did!
// please kill me 🤯
if (!(($this->shipping_country == "GB" || (strcmp($this-status, "Valid") !== 0)) {
To me, this is completely unreadable.
In the video below I show how I deal with this situation. Spoiler: add some tests around it and break the conditionals apart.
This video is part of the Mailcoach video course. It contains many more videos on how to write clear code. You can use this coupon code to get a nice discount of $10.
YES-I-WANT-TO-WRITE-READABLE-CODE
Laravel Tail can now tail remote logs
laravel-tail is one of my favourite packages. When installed in a Laravel app it can be used to tail the log file. To tail a log file locally, you just have to issue this command: php artisan tail and it'll start tailing the latest log file (so it works for both daily and single log files). Any line…
Using BetterTouchTool as a window manager
In this short post, I'd like to share how I use BetterTouchTool in my daily work.
laravel-event-sourcing v3 has been released
Our spatie/laravel-event-sourcing package is probably the best starting point for event sourcing in Laravel. It has excellent docs, that explain event sourcing from scratch, support for aggregates, projectors, and much more! It's all beautifully integrated in Laravel.
Recently we released v3 of the package. In this blogpost I'd like to walk you through the changes.
A PHP package to execute commands via SSH
Our team released a new package called spatie/ssh. This package allows you to execute commands via an SSH connection.
Manage Docker containers using PHP
Last week, my colleague Ruben and I released a package called spatie/docker, that makes it easy to spin up docker containers and execute commands on them. In this blog post, I'd like to introduce what you can do with it and why we built this.
Pragmatically testing multi-guard authentication in Laravel
Last week our team launched Mailcoach, a self-hosted solution to send out email campaigns and newsletters. Rather than being the end, laughing something is the beginning of a journey. Users start encountering bugs and ask for features that weren't considered before.
One of those features requests we got, is the ability the set the guard to be used when checking if somebody is allowed to access the Mailcoach UI.
In this blog post, I'd like to show you how we implemented and tested this.
Building Mailcoach
Today, our team released Mailcoach, a beautiful, self-hosted mailing list manager. It integrates with services like Amazon SES, Mailgun, or Sendgrid to send out mailings affordably. It’s packaged as a stand-alone app, or can be integrated into a Laravel project, it's perfect for bloggers, artisans, and entrepreneurs.
Even if you're not in the market for an email solution, Mailcoach includes a video course on how it’s built. I'm sure you'll see some valuable techniques that you can bring to your own project.
In this blogpost, I'd like to share why and how we've built this.
Remove all history from a GitHub repository
From time to time I need to remove all history from a GitHub repository, for instance right before releasing a package I've worked on in private. Sometimes I don't want people to see all mistakes I've made along the way :-).
Using GitHub actions to run the tests of Laravel projects and packages
For many years we've relied on Travis to run the tests of our packages. For projects we used Circle CI. Recently we moved this responsibility from Travis and Circle CI to GitHub actions. In this blogpost I'd like to explain why and how we did this.
📺 How to avoid large function signatures by using pending objects
In this video I demonstrate how to you can create a fluent API by using pending objects. We'll take a look at how subscribers can be created in Mailcoach. As a bonus I explain how jobs are dispatched using a pending object in Laravel.
My favourite albums released in 2019
These are my 10 favourite albums which were released in 2019, alphabetically sorted.