Aaron Saray

Is your test just copying your code?

Mon, 12 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

I found this when writing tests for a project, sitting right in the routes/web.php file:

New Typesetter Release and How AI Helped and Hurt

Mon, 12 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

I just released an updated, brand new 1.0 release of my Typesetter library. It’s a library with some helpful wrappers for creating PDFs from markdown. It comes with a CLI and is a Laravel app.

I started to question the work, though. Was this still my hobby? A useful project? Did I understand what I was ‘writing’ anymore? Did I need to do this?

Your Next CTO Doesn't Need to be so Fancy

Fri, 09 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

In 2022, I was rebelling against the really clever CTO sites and personal branding.

You don’t want your CTO to be so fancy - you just want the facts. So I created a quick landing page “resume” if you will.

A match in disguise

Mon, 05 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Let’s say we’re adding a Slack notification channel, and we go to update the method that labels each channel:

React to .NET Was Always a Joke

Sun, 04 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Back in 2020, I built a free online tool that would convert your React component into a .NET component. No install required.

Now with AI, I don’t think we really need it. You’ll find it here for posterity.

Trimming Filament Strings Globally

Fri, 02 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

When I first started using Laravel, I really didn’t like the global middleware that trimmed strings. But after a while, it became an irreplaceable part of my tool belt, and I am a convert.

I became so used to this that the first time a user used my Filament input and I saw a space after some text, I was really confused. Why did this happen?

Let me tell you how to fix this on the form itself, how to do it globally, and what that might cause a problem with.

When to use Blade's loop variable, and when not to

Thu, 01 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Laravel is always giving us little helpers. One of which is Blade’s @foreach that gives you a $loop variable. Inside the loop you get things like $loop->index and $loop->iteration, plus the two I want to talk about today: $loop->first and $loop->last.

first and last are boolean values that tell you if this is the first iteration or the last iteration of the loop. Pretty self-explanatory.

But far too many times I see people abusing these for style - when they should be for flow control.

End to End Testing is Now Even More Important

Sun, 27 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT

I’ve been a huge fan of automated software testing for years. I tend to reach for unit tests over end-to-end (e2e) tests. This is probably because of two reasons: a focus on back-end work (primarily) and e2e testing was slow compared to my targeted unit tests.

With automated AI tooling now, though, I think the tide is changing. I still value my unit tests, but e2e is becoming my champion.

I’ll explain how and why my mind changed:

Write code the way you say it

Thu, 17 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT

When I see something like this, I immediately want to “fix” it.

The right place to inject a service into a queued job

Tue, 15 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Let’s take a look at this job: