Daily Laravel Tips Archive | Mastering Laravel

No one likes a passing test when the actual logic is wrong. Here's how to make sure your view assertions are actually testing what you think they are.

2023-09-14

Local history in PHPStorm

If you already have git, why would you use the local history feature in PHPStorm?

2023-09-13

Be careful when using assertViewHas with null

Laravel's assertViewHas method doesn't work for null values. Here's how to test for them.

2023-09-12

When to pull in top-level dependencies

If Laravel already requires a package, is there ever a reason to install it into your project directly?

2023-09-11

Use GitHub issue templates to save time

Having a template not only makes issue creation easier, but also more consistent.

2023-09-08

What if every Composer package had a fee?

An interesting thought experiment that might influence how many packages you pull into your project.

2023-09-07

How to override PHPStorm file types

PHPStorm allows you to override the file type, giving you different syntax highlighting and auto-complete prompts.

2023-09-06

When might you render a Blade template inline?

This isn't a feature I reach for frequently, but it's good to know it exists. Here is one use case where we found it quite handy.

2023-09-05

How to make a bug fix way more valuable

Fixing bugs is important, but by taking just a little more time you can make your app much more resilient

2023-09-04

Don't explicitly install dependencies if you don't need to

Pay attention to the dependencies Laravel or other packages are already bringing in. You may be pinning them to an older version without realizing it.

2023-09-01

Take time to make things better

Look for opportunities to make things just a little bit nicer than you found them.

2023-08-31

Tools should work for you, not boss you around

Ever have a day where you're "fixing the squiggles" in your editor and feel like the code got worse? Let's talk about how to avoid that.

2023-08-30

Try not to make things worse

You know those parts of a codebase that feel "not great"? Be mindful to not further entrench those bad decisions.

2023-08-29

Are fast queries always good?

I mean, yeah! Right? Well, there's more to the story...

2023-08-28

Clean up dead git branch references automatically

When you merge a branch in GitHub, the reference to it is still in your local repo. How can you clean those up automatically?

2023-08-25

A scenario using events and observers together

Sometimes it's useful to pair events and observers together. Let's look at one real-world example.

2023-08-24

When should you use events and observers?

Laravel events and observers seem to do very similar things. So when would you use one over the other?

2023-08-23

How do you know if something is slow in production?

The tools we used for finding slow code in development are not suitable for production. So how can we find slow code there?

2023-08-22

Something slow? It's probably the database.

The absolute number one cause of slow code is the database. Laravel makes fixing some of the common issues very easy.

2023-08-21

How do you know something is slow?

The first step in making your app faster is knowing what is slow. How do you figure that out?

2023-08-18

What if you need a value that's random AND unique?

Sometimes we need random data that is ALSO unique. How can you generate that in Laravel?

2023-08-17

Harness that post-conference excitement

New features! New packages! New techniques! How can we harness that excitement when we get back to work a conference?

2023-08-16

Learn to love code review

Code review feedback might make us feel defensive, but if you approach it with the right attitude it can become something you value.

2023-08-15

Find out what's slow BEFORE you deploy to prod

The earlier you find an issue, the better! How can we improve our chances of finding slow code before it reaches production?

2023-08-14

Sometimes Eloquent can make a query slower

Eloquent improves developer efficiency, but in some cases it can make a query less efficient. Let's look at one example and how to fix it.

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Daily Tips Archive

How can we make error messages more useful to the user?

One reason to create a factory for a model you don't own

Use PHPStan type aliases to clean up long type signatures

Fine-tuning Rector dead code detection

June, 2025

Balancing test coverage without chasing 100 percent

A clean way to test Laravel middleware

Why does Alpine ignore binding to the same attribute multiple times?

How to get Minio working with Orbstack over HTTPS

How to retain backups longer than 35 days in AWS RDS

How to use policies that return specific responses

When should you use Eloquent's sole() method?

Show users time in their timezone

What value should I use for MAIL_SCHEME?

How to ignore a specific PHPStan error

Exploratory coding when requirements are fuzzy

How to force download with S3 temporary URLs

Why would you ever sleep in a test?

How to run php-cs-fixer on PHP 8.4

A few key Laravel features that rely on session data

Does flushing the session log you out?

Be precise when clearing session values

Don't import the whole AWS SDK for just one service

A gotcha when using multiple instances of the same global scope

Understanding how Stringable works inside Blade views

Why doesn't schema dump work with Microsoft SQL Server?

May, 2025

How to use Google Cloud Platform with Laravel Forge

How to setup Xdebug in VS Code

Can anything unexpectedly change your application key?

Stop pushing random buttons when someone offers help

Don't forget to specify an empty value for your "Select one" option

Improve user experience while keeping an eye on performance

Simple rules for where to put business logic

Where should you put your business logic?

Expose Redis locally for easier debugging

Avoid overlapping date ranges with a familiar API

Finishing up our discussion on not having time

Make forms less frustrating for your users

Use Faker methods instead of properties

Clean up routes that reference enum values

How disks work in Laravel Cloud

Skillful use of comments

What would you want to know about this code?

Your brand new server is already getting attacked

Why test setup data doesn't always need to be perfect

Why "no time" really means "no priority"

You can figure it out

Using Xdebug to figure out how Laravel validation works

April, 2025

Wrapping up our discussion on custom validation rules

How Laravel validation resolves rules

How to register custom validation rules as strings

Better mock assertions with Eloquent models

An interesting idea for PR comments

Make a code review more fun

Be nice when reviewing code

When validation can protect your app's performance

You will never get everything done

Something to know before reordering columns in a migration

A newer method to clean up resourceful routes

Make it easy for others to help you

Some thoughts on test helpers for manipulating time

What happened to pre-hashed passwords in the user factory?

How to deal with the pain of slow CI pipelines

Why is this job value empty?

How does Laravel validation handle multibyte characters with the max rule?

Stick with conventions and avoid overengineering your Laravel app

Don't be afraid to alter vendor code while debugging

Watch out for mixed type comparisons in Laravel view data

Why does Laravel set Bcrypt rounds to 4 in testing?

Why I would not use a factory in application code

March, 2025

We review our code, so why not our goals?

Why PhpStorm Local History is useful even if you use Git

Quick PHP REPL

Naming things is suddenly easier

Using Eloquent's when method cleans up code