Writing

Articles

A list of articles I've written.

Experiment: Using Pest 4 as a Standalone Browser Testing Suite for Legacy Applications.

Here's a scenario we encounter regularly at Jump24: a client has a legacy application - perhaps built in CakePHP, CodeIgniter, or even a custom framework - and they want to add automated browser testing. The catch? They don't want to pollute the existing codebase with test dependencies, and frankly, the application wasn't built with testing in mind.

Fatherhood, First Talks, and Finally Trusting Myself: 2025 in Review

If you'd asked me at the start of 2025 what the year would look like, I don't think I could have predicted just how much would change. Some years are about big career moves or business milestones. This year was about something far more important.

Inertia.js Once Props: Stop Sending the Same Data Over and Over Again

We've been long time fans of Inertia.js here at Jump24 and honestly, it's become our go-to for building modern Laravel applications without the faff of maintaining a separate API layer. Between deferred props, prefetching, and partial reloads, the Inertia team has been absolutely smashing it with performance features lately.

Laravel's New Factory insert() Method

Laravel 12.37 quietly shipped with a new factory method that might seem minor when you first look at it - Factory::insert(). You might actually be thinking wait a minute the insert method has been around for a while and you've already been using it in your code already, I mean I know we have.

Speed Up Your Laravel Test Suite: The Cache Testing Traits You've Been Waiting For

Right, let's have a chat about test suite performance. You know that feeling when you push your code, then go make a brew while waiting for the CI pipeline to finish? Yeah, we've been there too. Laravel 12.38 just dropped two new testing traits that might just save you enough time to actually drink that tea while it's still hot.

PHP 8.5's #[NoDiscard] Attribute: Stop Silently Ignoring Those Important Return Values

Right, let's talk about a bug pattern we've all created at least once, it's not a pattern that breaks anything as such is more a pattern of we've forgotten to do something.

Laravel's HTTP::batch(): Parallel Requests Done Right (Finally!)

You know that feeling when you need to fetch data from multiple APIs, and you're sitting there watching your application make request... after request... after request... while your users are staring at a loading spinner that's been going for so long it's practically become a screensaver?

RectorPHP and Laravel: The Automated Refactoring Tool We Should Have Been Using Years Ago

Hands up — how many of you have a Laravel 9 or 10 application that should be upgraded but the idea of refactoring thousands of lines makes you want to switch careers? We’ve been there. More than once.

PHP 8.5's URI Extension: Because parse_url() Has Been Lying to Us for 20 Years

PHP 8.5's new URI extension finally fixes 20 years of parse_url() problems.

Never Lose a Queue Job Again: Laravel 12.34's New Failover Driver

Laravel 12.34 dropped earlier this week with a feature that made me actually say "oh thank god" out loud: automatic queue failover.

PHP 8.5's array_first and array_last: Finally, Native Array Helpers We Can Use

Right, let's talk about something that's been bugging us for years. If you've been writing PHP for any length of time, you've probably written some variation of "get the first item from this array" more times than you'd care to admit. And if you're a Laravel developer like us, you've probably been spoilt by the Arr::first() and Arr::last() helpers that make this dead simple.

PHP 8.5's Pipe Operator: Finally, Readable Function Chains That Make Sense

Right, I'm going to be honest with you - when I first heard about PHP 8.5's pipe operator, my initial reaction was "oh great, another operator to remember." and I can't see me needing to use this. But after spending some time playing with it I've completely changed my tune. This little |> operator might just be the best quality-of-life improvement PHP has seen since constructor property promotion.

Laravel Pipelines The hidden Class We've been sleeping on

I'll be honest with you - we've been using Laravel for over a decade, and it's only the last year or so that we've properly discovered the Pipeline Class. I know, I know, it's been sitting there in the documentation this whole time, but somehow we just never gave it the attention it deserved.

The Laravel Community: Why Getting Involved Changed Everything for Us

I've been thinking a lot lately about what makes Laravel special. Sure, the framework is brilliant. But if I'm being completely honest, it's not the code that keeps us coming back year after year.

Statamic: The Missing CMS We Never Knew We Needed

As a Laravel development team thats been running for 11 years , we've always had a bit of a love-hate relationship with content management systems. For the longest time, WordPress was our go-to solution whenever a project required CMS functionality. It was quick, familiar, and with plugins like Advanced Custom Fields, we could get clients up and running with a content management system that met their needs. But deep down, something never felt quite right about this approach.

Eleven Years of Jump24: Reflections on Building a Laravel Development Team

This week marks 11 years since we started Jump24, and if I'm being completely honest, I never thought we'd still be here. Not because I didn't believe in what we were doing, but because I genuinely had no idea what "here" would look like after more than a decade.

PHPUK 2025

I headed to my first Ever PHPUK earlier this week, We were there as an event sponsor. I just thought I would get down some thoughts on the event

Top Ten Laravel-and PHP-things-7/2/2025

Its the third week of my top ten things I have found this week in the Laravel and PHP world series.

Laracon EU 2025

So it’s over that’s it for Laracon EU 2025, it was a great event! The location itself was really nice it’s the first time I’d been to that venue so it was great to experience it for the first time.

Top Ten Laravel and PHP Things - 31/1/2025

The second week of top ten things I have found this week in the Laravel and PHP world.

Cactus Rebrand Party

Yesterday I was lucky enough to be invited down to London for the day to celebrate the Cactus Rebrand Party.

Top Ten Laravel and PHP Things - 24/1/2025

Every Week im going to be putting together a top ten of the best laravel and PHP things I find that week. I've been doing this for a while now on LInkedin but I thought it would be worth documenting things on my own blog

The importance of coding standard

Over the years there has been plenty of debates around coding standards. People have argued over things like tabs vs spaces, line lengths and other aspects when it comes to writing code.

The power of Static Analysis

As PHP developers, we all want to write clean, maintainable code that doesn’t break in production. But with larger projects, keeping track of potential issues and bugs can become increasingly difficult.

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