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The prepareForValidation() method is really useful in Laravel requests: it helps modify the incoming data so that validation might be easier. But you need to be careful that you implement it correctly and don’t mess up your data. Let me explain.

You’ve got a great idea, there’s a free API, and you’ve got free hosting on Netlify. You’re ready to begin. You request your first bit of data and you hit that infamous CORS error: Cross-Origin Request Blocked: The Same Origin Policy disallows reading the remote resource at https://some-url-here.

I was watching Bar Rescue (please don’t tell anyone) and a bartender said exactly the same thing about his job as a programmer I was just talking to… turns out they had a surprising thing in common.

“Do you even lift, bro?!” What a way to ask if you work out while simultaneously insulting you. Well, maybe I shouldn’t have named this “do you even sprintf” but it really surprises me how many PHP devs forget about (or don’t even know about) this useful tool - and instead do some pretty icky looking string concatenation. Let’s take a look at what sprintf() can do for us.

I love using Policies in Laravel. A particularly useful feature is the interception of checks. But what if only some of our policies need that? That’s where we can judiciously use traits.

What’s the difference between unit test, integration test, and a feature test? Which should you use for what type of test? Is it just preference or does performance factor in when using Laravel? Let me give you my take from over a decade of unit testing experience.

There seems to be an endless debate: clearly written code doesn’t need comments vs comments are needed to explain code and give context. I can see both sides of this debate, but there is a middle ground. Let me show you one way.

Please indulge me on a bit of an open-ended question and discussion. Recently I saw some “state of the XYZ” surveys where those were specific languages. The surveys were only answered by about 3,000 people each. And then people spoke about them as authoritative references. But are these surveys actually accurate?

The question is this: When creating a helper method in PHP, should you use a named function in the global scope, or an anonymous function assigned to a variable?

One of the most painful things for programmers - whether you’re in a startup or an established business - is leaving code alone that you know could be better. That should be better. There are reasons for this - but what about when it comes to deleting code?