Recently I added a feature to the speaking page on this site: a list of the most popular episodes of The Laravel Podcast for this week. However, this site is powered by a static generator, so the data on that page will go out of date pretty soon after each deploy. I considered setting up a local cron job on my server to run the deploy script once a day, which is certainly my easiest option. But I didn't want to duplicate my deploy script in cron that I had already configured in my host, Laravel Forge. Thankfully, Forge gives you an easy webhook to trigger your existing deploy script, so I figu ..read more

I normally use Laravel Breeze to build my projects, but recently I started a new project that needed team support, so I figured I'd finally use Jetstream on a real project, instead of just for fun. There's a lot I really like about Jetstream, but one thing that bothers me—I know, it's not super reasonable, but whatever—is that it publishes so many tests out of the box. I want them to run in CI, so I can be confident the things they're testing are still covered, but I'd rather skip them locally. But... how? PHPUnit Testsuites PHPUnit allows you to define one or more testsuites, each of which p ..read more

Recently Twitter started promoting their v2 API, which includes requiring all developers to re-apply to get developer credentials. Long story short, my application was rejected, so I'm left trying to build personal apps that tweet without API access. I'm pretty sure their goal here is to get each individual project to apply for its own sake, so I'm sure this won't impact my client work, but it's an annoyance for me. I asked around for ideas, and Eric Barnes mentioned that he uses an RSS feed to post to various social networks using Zapier. Perfect! Note: Zapier is required by Twitter to scrub ..read more

Today Taylor Otwell, the creator of Laravel, released Laravel Sail, a tool that makes it incredibly easy to spin up development environments with Docker for your Laravel applications. Out of the box, Sail comes with MySQL, Redis, and MailHog. But what if you want to add PostgreSQL? ElasticSearch? Memcached? MsSQL? Or what if you have four Sail environments running, each using 300-400MB of RAM for their MySQL instances? Never fear: Sail works great with Tighten's tool Takeout, a simple CLI tool for managing one-off Docker services. How to use Sail As always, the Sail docs are your best option ..read more

If you've never built a PHP package before, it might seem a bit daunting to figure out how to start. Where does the package actually go? Your other packages are in your vendor/ directory, but that folder is Git ignored, so that's not it... Your options three There are three primary ways you can work on your package: Create a new git repo for it, push it up to GitHub and add it to Packagist, and consume it via Composer as you develop. Complex, and puts a very-incomplete package on Packagist Create a new folder for it that's parallel to your project's folder, and then update your Composer to po ..read more

I recently wrote a huge post about how to set up your office or home office with lights, webcams, and audio for a variety of groups: remote workers, podcasters, live streamers, and more. The most common request I received after sharing that post was: "How do I get started live streaming?" I've been streaming on Twitch (twitch.tv/mattstauffer) for a few years and recently I've started streaming to YouTube (youtube.com/mattstauffer). I'm still definitely no professional streamer, but I'd love to share what I've learned with you so far. Here's what we're going to cover: TL;DR: How to start stre ..read more

When I wrote my post about getting started live streaming, I wanted to share my Stream Deck setup as well, but I figured it was a bit more appropriate in its own post. So, let's take a look at this little device that powers so much of my streaming. What is the Stream Deck? The Stream Deck is a class of hardware device created by Elgato. There are three sizes, and each is essentially a mini keyboard where each key can be customized to show any icon you want and take any of a series of actions when pressed. The actions you can take are primarily targeted at streamers, so many integrations work ..read more

I recently wrote a blog post about perfecting your remote work setup with lights, mics, and cameras. I took a deep dive into a very small segment of the remote work puzzle: getting your audio, video, and lighting good. Today, worrying about those things feels pretty luxurious. In light of the number of companies moving (temporarily?) to work-from-home due to COVID-19, I sent out this tweet this weekend: So, @dsheetz & I have been running a fully remote development shop (@tightenco) since 2011. If you’re suddenly remote and you have any questions for us, hit me up! I’ll probably be tweet ..read more

I've started live streaming and publishing videos on my YouTube Channel again recently and it made me realize just how much work I've put into getting a good hardware setup—not just for the streams, but also just as someone who works remote and sits on video calls every day. I've spent quite a bit of time obsessing over lights and camera, and I wanted to help you—new streamer, podcaster, new remote worker, or someone trying to level up their setup—see a few different types of option for your remote work or streaming setup. Note: I'm on a Mac, so most things will be biased in that direction. O ..read more

My friend Justin Jackson recently wrote a blog post entitled "The Haters", a wonderful dive into the psychology of people who are mean online. In it, he concludes that his first response to toxic people is going to be to ignore them. After all... (Above quote screen-capped from Justin's article) I share a lot of strong opinions online, so I meet my fair share of trolls. I've often received, and shared, the same advice Justin ends his article with: Ignore the trolls. There's wisdom behind this thinking. Most people, when made aware that they're making you feel bad, will stop. Trolls, on the oth ..read more