Jumping Ship: A Holistic Approach to Changing Jobs—Part Two

You are ready to jump ship and quit your job, but where will you go next? The job market can be dangerous waters and the first ship to throw you a rope might not be the right one to grab. A careful evaluation of job postings, asking the right questions, and looking deeper into a compensation offer will give you the confidence you have picked the right company and team for your next position. by Andrew Koebbe

How I Git Along

I love Git. It empowers me as a developer. It gives me the confidence to make sweeping changes across a codebase. It allows me to see past changes. It makes it easy for others to collaborate on a codebase. Unfortunately, not all developers are as comfortable with Git as they might like to be. by Jason McCreary

True Tales of Building PHP Microservices

Microservices have generated a lot of buzz lately. Large companies like Amazon are using them to help segment their code bases and manage software at scale, while smaller startups are using microservices to add new features faster. PHP is a great language for building them; we have several lightweight frameworks available, building and deploying a PHP application is really fast, and it’s a language widely known across the world. In this piece, I will focus on two real-world applications and how teams I’ve led have used PHP microservices to improve the software products we built incrementally. by Karl Hughes

I got published in @phparch this month. Check it out and let me know if you have any feedback! https://t.co/eyYYGbnWzK

— Karl L Hughes (@KarlLHughes) September 1, 2017

Learning Machine Learning, Part One: Begin with What You Know

I expect machine learning (ML) to take on ever-greater importance over the next three to five years. With more tools and computing power available, more people will be able to embrace the technology. We see companies from Silicon Valley to Wall Street using ML. Once you learn the ML workflow, you can get started regardless of your area of interest. This series develops the ML workflow using data from a handheld GPS unit. In Part One we’ll learn the workflow, the types of ML models, and accomplish the first step of our workflow: data preparation. by Edward Barnard

Great paper on Machine Learning by @ewbarnard in @phparch Sept. issue!

— Gabriel (@zzgab) September 3, 2017

Education Station: An Introduction to Doctrine

So, you want to work with databases in PHP, but you don’t want to deal with too much overhead. That’s a fair expectation. While you’re familiar with overly complicated solutions, especially common in software development circles, this is something you’re keen to avoid. As such, you’re looking for as simple a solution for integrating a database with your application as possible. What about Doctrine? In this series, I’m going to not only show you that it’s not only not that complex, intense, or hard to use. Rather, it’s much simpler than you may have heard, when approached the right way. by Matthew Setter

The Dev Lead Trenches: Dealing With People

A large part of being a team lead is communication, and being the first line of communication for your team to outside parties. These parties could be internal, like a C-level executive, or a representative for a larger team in which your team is but a section of. The parties can also be external to the company such as vendors, clients, or service providers. You will more than likely have to deal with a combination of these groups, as most of them are vying for your team’s time and resources. by Chris Tankersley

Artisinal: Uploading Files

Handling file uploads is often a painful process. Whether we’re handling image avatar uploads to use as our user’s profile image or allowing users to upload a PDF of their resume it can be tedious, error-prone, and time-consuming to build this functionality. This month we’ll cover how to process file uploads with Laravel to add a new feature: uploading and displaying a user’s profile image. by Joe Ferguson

Security Corner: A Cautionary Tale of a Rushed Release

In July, the Budapest Transport Authority (known as BKK locally) worked hard to ship a new online payment system for their customers. It was a joint effort between their agency and developers at T-System Hungary, a subsidiary of Deutsche Telecom. The launch meant customers could buy tickets and manage their accounts entirely online, even storing tickets on their mobile phone rather than dealing with easy-to-lose paper receipts. But the code was not secure. In this article, let’s look at why its important to bake security into your application from the beginning. by Eric Mann

Community Corner: PHP TestFest Returns!

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There is a new movement in the PHP community! Well, it isn’t exactly new, but an event called PHP TestFest is back. PHP TestFest is a global event organised by the PHP community at large, where an effort is made each time to increase the test coverage of the PHP engine itself. Around eight or nine years ago, user groups around the world coordinated to organize events spanning a few months each year, with some groups continuing events annually for several years after. by James Titcumb

finally{}: On Change

It seemed appropriate that I talk on the subject of change in my closing column. But perhaps of a different kind of change. I want to speak about changes in technology itself. As an avid reader of this column, you know that I’ve often espoused the benefits of sticking with existing tried and true solutions. Don’t hop onto the newest train of technology only to find yourself whisked off into a land of half-working solutions. However, there does come a time when change is needed. by Eli White