PHP Skill

We all start somewhere. When it comes to web development with PHP, well, your first stop is this series. Designed specifically and exclusively for beginners, here, you'll learn the fundamentals of PHP - all the way down to defining variables and arrays. If you feel somewhat unprepared for the conte...

As wonderful as Laravel is, it does assume that you have a basic understanding of object-oriented programming. If you don't, that's okay, we all were there at one point; however, you need to buckle down and learn this stuff before continuing on to the various lessons on this site. Let me help!

Slated for release in December, 2015, PHP 7 brings a wealth of new features, bug fixes, and performance improvements. If you're curious, come with me, as I demonstrate what's new!

Though not as flashy as the long-in-development 7.0 release, PHP 7.1 nonetheless brings with it a number of useful features, ranging from short array destructuring, to negative string offsets, to improved return types. Come along, as we review what's new in PHP!

In this series, we'll learn how how to build command-line apps from scratch, using Symfony's excellent console component. In no time, you'll be whipping up executables to perform all sorts of tasks.

If you've ever heard a developer use the term, "object calisthenics," you might have assumed that they were referring to some hugely complex topic. Luckily, though, that's not the case. It simply refers to a series of coding exercises to promote better software.

While it's sometimes fun to imagine Laravel and Symfony locked in battle, the reality is that Laravel leverages a number of excellent Symfony components. In this series, one by one, we'll review a variety of these very components.

You did your best, but somehow that User object, over time, morphed into a monstrous God object. And your controllers started out nice and clean, but now... not so much. We've all been there. In this series, we'll review a number of ideas for whipping convoluted code into shape.

A design pattern is a common solution to a common problem. Nothing more, nothing less. And, while some of these approaches might seem foreign or overwhelming to you, the important thing to remember is that, as a developer, you are in charge. That means you decide when a pattern is appropriate, and w...

SOLID represents a series of guidelines that developers can use to, if done well, simplify and clarify their code. While certainly not laws, understanding these concepts will make you a better developer.

Reflecting upon the code you've written is an important step for any developer. It's not enough to simply extract, refactor, and call it a day. No. Once complete, you must evaluate what you've done. Is the code now better? Is it more clear? Don't underestimate how difficult a question this can be. O...