Insights and Highlights from Day 2 of Laracon IN – Jithin T C

I had the chance to attend the Laracon IN conference, which took place in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, last month, along with six of my colleagues. You may have already seen some write-ups and blogs about our time in Laracon IN. If not, you can read about my friend Nandul Das’s Laracon IN experience here, and Vishal Vijayan wrote a detailed article about the Day 1 sessions at Laracon IN as well as his thoughts, which you can find here.  

What’s left is Day 2 of Laracon, so in this blog, I’ll try to put it in context, give an overview of the key sessions from Day 2, and share my thoughts on what this means for the Laravel community and Laravel development. I hope that the Laravel community members who couldn’t make it to Laracon IN this year will find this useful.

Before we begin, let me introduce myself. My name is Jithin TC, and I work as a Laravel Technology Lead at Cubet. Laravel is a daily driver for me, just like it is for many of you, and I’m a big fan of the framework and the community. Cubet being a Laravel partner company, I had the opportunity to work with and interact with the Laravel core team and contribute to the community.

Now, let’s get started on our Day 2 journey at Laracon IN!

The future of PEST

Taken by: Nuno Maduro

Nuno Maduro is a core team member at Laravel and is popularly known for his expertise in open-source project development. As the creator of PEST, he took us through the journey of this remarkable testing framework and what the future holds for it. PEST is a testing framework that aims to simplify testing in PHP. It’s not tied to any specific PHP framework, so it can be used in any project. The best part? It’s incredibly easy to use and requires minimal setup.

During his talk, Nuno highlighted some of the new features in PEST v2. One of the most exciting additions is the new optional plugin that allows you to test the architecture of your application. This is a game-changer as it helps you to maintain a high level of code quality, ensuring that your application follows good architectural practices.

As someone who has been using PEST for a while now, I was thrilled to see the new additions. If you haven’t tried PEST yet, I highly recommend giving it a go. It’s incredibly easy to get started, and the benefits are significant. Overall, the session was an excellent reminder of the importance of testing and the impact it can have on the quality of our code.

Getting started with TDD (Test Driven Development)

Taken By: Christoph Rumpel

Christoph Rumpel is a name that rings a bell in the PHP community. He’s a software engineer, consultant, and educator in the Laravel community. who loves to share his knowledge and insights with others. During his talk, he emphasized the several benefits of TDD, including a better focus on results, better refactoring, and the fact that we end up with tests at the end of the day. He also explained that completing tests before development can save time and lead to better code quality in the long run.

What I found insightful was Christoph’s recommendation to learn TDD, which starts with learning about testing, its parameters, understanding your tools, and taking small steps toward building tests. And I believe following this can solve many of our problems while coding and delivering robust web applications. Christoph’s talk was incredibly valuable. His advice to start small with tests and to go step by step is especially relevant for beginners.

These 2 sessions from Nuno Maduro and Christoph Rumpel were the most attractive and beneficial ones. As we at Cubet already promote the TDD practice and are already planning on using the PEST framework, it was fascinating for me to hear directly from the creator about the benefits of the framework and the new Arch plugin. This plugin is a game-changer for testing application architecture and is sure to be a valuable addition to any large project.

Batchable Jobs

Taken by: Bobby Bouwmann

Bobby Bouwmann is a prominent figure in the Laravel community, known for his expertise in PHP and Laravel. During his session at Laracon IN, Bouwmann talked about Batchable Jobs, a powerful feature in Laravel that allows developers to execute a group of jobs in batches. He highlighted some useful scenarios where batchable jobs could come in handy, such as large file uploads, sending newsletters, processing a lot of records, and keeping track of groups of jobs.

What I found particularly useful were the practical examples that Bobby gave to demonstrate how to use job batching in Laravel. It was great to see how batchable jobs could be used to optimize code and save time when dealing with large amounts of data.

Overall, the session was a valuable reminder of the importance of staying up to date with the latest features and best practices in Laravel development. Bobby’s talk on batchable jobs was a great example of how developers can continuously improve their code and processes to deliver more efficient and effective solutions.

Behind the Scenes of Oh Dear

Taken by: Freek Van Der Herten

As we already know him from his great talk on Day 1, Freek Van Der Herten returned to share his insights on the development of OhDear, an all-in-one monitoring tool for websites. He brought us a beautiful presentation titled “Behind the scenes of Oh Dear,” and Freek showcased the application and demonstrated its features, including multiple location monitoring, broken link detection, mixed content detection, and advanced SSL certificate reporting.

The demonstration was impressive, and it was clear that the Spatie team had put a lot of effort into creating an intuitive and efficient tool for website monitoring. I found Freek’s insights into the PHP functions on Day 1, used to create the application, particularly helpful. However, his “Oh Dear” application will bring great help to developers who work on multiple websites and struggle to monitor them. Overall, his talk was informative and inspiring, and I’m excited to see what other innovative tools Spatie will develop in the future.

Laravel Updates 

Taken by: Taylor Otwell

One of the most highly anticipated moments of the event was when Taylor Otwell, the creator of Laravel, took to the stage to announce two upcoming official packages: Laravel Folio and Laravel Volt. The audience was thrilled to see what the packages had to offer, and Taylor did not disappoint.

During the demo, Taylor showcased both packages, but Laravel Volt stood out. It looked like React in Laravel. It looked like a game changer, with the ability to write livewire components right in our livewire template. This means that you can write the template inside the Volt component without having to write any controller or route. This feature can be used to build a live reactive user interface.

I’m excited to see what else is in store for Laravel and can’t wait to try out these new packages when they’re released. It’s safe to say that Laracon has once again delivered some amazing updates and insights for the Laravel community.

Wrap Up

The second day of Laracon IN was an absolute thrill! As someone who lives and breathes technology, I was amazed by the array of talks that took place at this year’s conference. With each session, I felt like I was learning something new and exciting that would allow me to elevate my skills and knowledge as a developer. It was refreshing to be surrounded by like-minded individuals, all eager to soak up information and stay at the forefront of industry trends. I can confidently say that Laracon IN 2023 was a great success, and I cannot wait to see what the future holds for Laravel and the community.

Well, that wraps up my experience of Laracon IN. I hope you found my insights valuable, and I can’t wait to share more such experiences with you in the future. Let’s stay tuned for the next event and keep learning and growing together.