PHP Unicorn Conference (Online)
4 May 2017 at Online

Hello World! (well the Eastern Half anyway)

3

Thanks to all the excellent resources on server management many developers are now setting up and administrating their own servers. If you are one of them you can’t count on anybody else but yourself to backup the data of your clients. We’ll cover the backup issues presented when using modern hosting such as Linode and DigitalOcean. Then we’ll review some enterprise grade solutions. Finally we’ll dive deep into implementing a backup system using Laravel 5’s filesystem abstraction.

In this presentation I will explain how to scale MongoDB. Besides it’s schema free functionality, a modern database like MongoDB is also a lot easier to scale up than traditional relational databases. I will cover replication, for failover capabilities and increased read performance and “sharding” for dealing with larger sets of data and increased write performance. Each section will consist of theory, followed by instructions on how to set it up and deploy. At the end of the presentation you will have a firm understanding about how and why scaling with MongoDB is so straightforward.

In an increasingly connected world, APIs are key to great tools and effective workflows. What is better than an API? A webhook of course! Webhooks are a key building block of a modern application, allowing systems to exchange data in response to events. This session gives examples of webhooks currently in use “in the wild”, and examines both when a webhook is useful and the internal design and structuring of webhook payloads. We’ll discuss how to work with webhooks in a scalable way regardless of technology stack; how to recieve and process incoming webhooks from an external system and how to design and publish your own for use by partners or consumers. Recommended for anyone wanting to teach their applications to play nicely with others.

Trying to understand a complex function full of nested loops and conditionals is like trying to read a "choose your own adventure" book from front to back. In this whirlwind tour of programming with collection pipelines, you'll learn how to use functional programming ideas to break down complex code and abstract hidden duplication behind expressive higher order functions. By leveraging the power of Laravel's Collection class, we'll refactor ugly, complicated spaghetti into a series of simple, elegant transformations, free of loops, complex conditionals, and temporary variables. Never write another loop again.

Hello World! (for real this time)

Reviewing code can feel like a secondary task. Discussing code can be easy though, if you leave out syntax details. Following a couple of guidelines for pull requests can make code reviewing much easier. Some code style rules can drastically reduce the mental overhead needed to understand code changes. Furthermore this talk will give some general guidelines on how to give feedback on PRs as a peer developer or coworker. These rules are not to keep for yourself, share them with your peers and your life will get easier.

3

Thinking about quitting that desk job and enjoying the freedom of contract development? Already have? A contract developer for 10 years, I’ll share my philosophy on contracting, some tips on how be successful, and a look at some of the clients you’ll run into. While my style of contracting may not work for you, this talk will at least challenge you to consider not just how you’re marketing your product, but what your product really is, how you charge for it, and what that means long term. Already a contract developer? I’ll give some tips on avoiding the painful parts of the job, setting and negotiating your rate, and one simple way to get great clients and keep them happy. Considering contracting? Meet some of the clients you’ll certainly come across, a few warning signs and things to watch out for, and what needs to happen in each case before you can have a successful relationship.

With PHP frameworks being more decoupled than ever, and with the help of package and dependency managers, large and heavy PHP frameworks are a thing of the past. Modern PHP developers now have a wealth of libraries available specializing at certain tasks, and microservices are fast becoming a preferred way to architect applications. But many don’t know how to start, and get thrown in the deep end. This talk will briefly introduce what microservices are, and how to create them using middleware. Then show how to build using the Zend Expressive microframework leveraging components of Zend Framework, and other libraries, to quickly create awesome things without requiring a full stack framework. Resources for reference and continued learning will also be shared.

Back when I was learning about how to test PHP code, I had to walk both ways uphill in the snow to get the information I needed. Over the past 10 years (has it really been that long?!?) I’ve learned a lot about not just testing but about code and people. In this talk I want to share what I wished I knew 10 years ago so you don’t have to suffer like I did.

Mental disorders are the largest contributor to disease burden in North America, but the developer community and those who employ us are afraid to face the problem head-on. In this talk, we'll examine the state of mental health awareness in the developer workplace, why most developers feel it isn't safe to talk about mental health, and what we can do to change the culture and save lives. Attendees will leave with 5 things they can do to make their workplace safer for those dealing with mental health disorders.

1

Over the last few years, I’ve built all sorts of useful robots (Internet of Things machines); to connect to virtual environments, automate my surroundings, or generally make my life easier. And I found all of these could be built using little more than the familiar PHP code I was using in my 9-to-5. Join me as I show you some of the cool things you can do, with an Arduino, some useful PHP libraries, and a lot of imagination.