Performance optimization is a challenge for all web applications. With demands for quicker response times and enhanced user experiences increasing , developers are constantly looking for innovative ways to improve their applications’ efficiency. One such promising solution is Swoole, a high-performance networking framework thathelps PHP applications handle server-side tasks more effectively.  Is switching to unconventional servers such as Swoole the ultimate key to success? In this post, we’ll delve into what Swoole is, how it works, and how it compares to PHP-FPM. We’ll also discuss the ..read more

Uwe Kleinmann is the Head of Technology at Kellerkinder GmbH, a German remote-first Shopware backend agency. Working with PHP since 2007, on ecommerce projects since 2011, he has a proven track record in the industry. As a maker and an explorer, Uwe loves building apps, exploring new code bases and technologies, and talking about code with fellow developers. He has built a long, steady companionship with open-source software (OSS) development since the launch of GitHub in 2008, which played a pivotal role in Uwe’s professional journey, as it did for many of us in the tech industry.  A mak ..read more

You can’t improve what you can’t measure, right? This really could’ve been the Blackfire mantra as it’s the very definition of Observability: giving our users the possibility to observe their applications behaviour. Then, with the data, make educated decisions on how to improve their application performance and efficiency. Blackfire empowers our users by being the cornerstone of their observability strategy. Blackfire Monitoring provides a convenient birds-eye view of an application’s real-time behavior from which they can zoom in on the impactful transactions seemingly degrading the end-users ..read more

Attention all customers and active users!  We’re excited to announce an exclusive opportunity for you to help us build the best continuous observability solution on the market. We are looking for dedicated users like you to join our Beta User Panel, an expert group tasked with beta testing new features, sharing their experience, providing valuable insights (as well as their expectations), and, in general, shaping the future of Blackfire. Read on to learn more about this exciting opportunity and how to apply. Why join our User Panel? As an active user, you have demonstrated a commitment to ..read more

Performance monitoring is a critical aspect in the upkeep of any application. Like the name suggests, it allows developers and administrators to keep a watchful eye on the health and efficiency of their apps. Basing your observability strategy on Blackfire’s capabilities empowers you by letting you effortlessly drill down into the tiniest details that may affect performance. Blackfire Monitoring, in particular, offers a bird’s-eye view of your application, providing valuable insights into its performance and resource consumption. It can even assist you in identifying the most impactful updates ..read more

Asynchronous programming has become increasingly important for building high-performance applications. While the cornerstone of other languages, this is newly-charted territory for PHP.  In this article, we’ll explore PHP coroutines, how they work, and how to use Blackfire in this context. What are Coroutines? A coroutine is a generalization of a subroutine, allowing a function to have multiple entry points for suspending and resuming execution. This powerful programming technique makes it easier to reason about complex logic flows. Coroutines are particularly useful for writing non-block ..read more

As the  global ecommerce market grows larger, the expectations on applications and platforms are increasing higher.  As the Akamai Online Retail Performance Report shows, their performance is one of the key success factors: “A 100-millisecond delay in website load time can hurt conversion rates by 7 percent”. That seemingly insignificant slowdown can make all the difference.  Therefore, the stakes are clear: it’s a battle over critical milliseconds! Every ms gained, and maintained in the long run, will drastically improve conversion rates and help businesses reach their objectiv ..read more

That’s right—it’s time for the fifth and final part of our Blackfire test suite series.  Throughout this journey in performance testing, we went from writing our first test, then our first metrics, to defining the scenarios of the critical user journeys and evaluating them with Blackfire Builds. That’s quite an achievement! In the third part, I mentioned writing custom metrics and using automation as the Jedi way of using Blackfire. Does this mean we are Jedi yet? Well, not just yet.  There is one more thing to master: integrating performance tests with your CI/CD pipelines.  Pe ..read more

Maintaining the performance and flexibility of our applications can become increasingly challenging as they grow in complexity and scale.  This is largely due to the concept of monolithic architecture, where the entire application is built as a single, large, and unwieldy codebase, which can become a significant barrier to innovation and scalability. But there’s a way to get around monolithic applications. By adopting a microservices architecture you can break down monoliths into smaller, more manageable components, each with a specific function.  And you can improve scalability, fle ..read more

It’s time for the 4th installment of our Blackfire test suite where we’ll get stuck into application crawling. In part 3, we dived into Performance Testing and Blackfire Player and Scenarios and had us running our first scenario. In part 4, it’s time to explore those scenarios a little further so fasten your seatbelts – we’re going to crawl and profile!  Crawling HTTP applications First up, let’s define what exactly a scenario means in this context. A scenario is a sequence of steps, with each step within that sequence being an HTTP call sharing the HTTP session and cookies. The state is ..read more