Short Bio:
Bob Cravens is a seasoned technology leader, software architect, and educator with a passion for empowering others through practical, real-world knowledge. As the founder of TekFoundry, Bob has dedicated his career to designing and delivering innovative software solutions that combine cutting-edge technology with elegant simplicity.
At TekCasts, Bob leverages over two decades of experience in software engineering, application architecture, and team leadership to create engaging, high-impact courses for developers and technology professionals. His instructional style is rooted in practical application, offering insights drawn from his extensive background in industries like medical devices and global technology consulting.
Bob’s expertise spans a variety of technologies and methodologies, including PHP/Laravel, FastAPI, and DevOps, as well as architecture best practices and team dynamics. Whether teaching foundational concepts or advanced strategies, he’s passionate about helping others turn complex challenges into streamlined solutions.
When not crafting elegant code or inspiring the next generation of tech innovators, Bob enjoys exploring the intersection of technology, business strategy, and creative problem-solving.
At TekCasts, Bob leverages over two decades of experience in software engineering, application architecture, and team leadership to create engaging, high-impact courses for developers and technology professionals. His instructional style is rooted in practical application, offering insights drawn from his extensive background in industries like medical devices and global technology consulting.
Bob’s expertise spans a variety of technologies and methodologies, including PHP/Laravel, FastAPI, and DevOps, as well as architecture best practices and team dynamics. Whether teaching foundational concepts or advanced strategies, he’s passionate about helping others turn complex challenges into streamlined solutions.
When not crafting elegant code or inspiring the next generation of tech innovators, Bob enjoys exploring the intersection of technology, business strategy, and creative problem-solving.
Videos
Checkout Videos By This Instructor
encapsulation,oop,php
9m:39s
Mar 22, 2025
Encapsulation: Public & Private
Ready to lock down your PHP skills? 🚀 In this video, we crack open Encapsulation—a core OOP concept that keeps your code secure, organized, and powerful! 🔐I’ll break down what encapsulation is and why it matters, then dive into real-world examples. You’ll see how getters and setters help you access private properties safely, while letting you enforce business logic behind the scenes 🕵️♂️.
By the end, you’ll be writing cleaner, safer, and smarter PHP code like a pro! ⚡💻
javascript
16m:58s
Aug 28, 2025
Error Handling
Even the best-written code can run into unexpected situations — and that’s where error handling comes in. In this episode, you’ll learn how to make your programs more reliable by anticipating problems and handling them gracefully.� What you’ll learn:
- Why handle errors? The importance of defensive programming.
- try, catch, finally — how to catch problems without crashing your program.
- Throwing custom errors when you detect something invalid.
- Practical example with input validation (like stopping someone from dividing by zero).
� Why it matters:
Professional developers don’t just write code that works — they write code that fails gracefully. Error handling is what separates quick scripts from robust applications.
By the end of this episode, you’ll know how to protect your code against the unexpected — and keep your users from seeing cryptic crashes. �
Coming Soon
javascript
4m:6s
Sep 18, 2025
ES6 Classes
JavaScript leveled up with ES6, giving us a much cleaner, more intuitive way to write object-oriented code: the class keyword. ✨ In this episode, we’ll modernize our approach and see how classes make our code easier to read and maintain—while still being built on prototypes behind the scenes.Here’s what we’ll cover:
🆕 Introducing the class keyword and why it’s a game-changer.
🏗 Defining constructors, properties, and methods with sleek new syntax.
🐾 Creating instances and bringing our objects to life.
🔎 A peek under the hood—how classes are really just a friendlier way to work with prototypes.
By the end, you’ll be comfortable building your own classes and ready to wield this modern syntax like a pro. 🚀
php
9m:52s
Mar 19, 2025
Exceptions
Errors happen, but how you handle them makes all the difference! In this video we dive into PHP exceptions and how they improve error handling.We start by manually guarding against invalid data using if statements, then take it to the next level by introducing exceptions, covering:
✅ Throwing exceptions – How to signal when something goes wrong.
✅ Catching exceptions – Gracefully handling errors without breaking your code.
✅ Why exceptions are better than manual checks in many cases.
By the end of this tutorial, you’ll understand how to handle errors cleanly and professionally in PHP.
oop,php
33m:55s
Mar 27, 2025
Exceptions & Errors
When things go wrong in your PHP application, how do you handle it? 🤔 In this video, we dive into the art of exception handling and smart error management! 🎯🔹 Throwing & catching exceptions—what, when, and why? 🎭
🔹 Best practices for handling errors (logging, notifications, feature toggles) 📝
🔹 When to use try/catch blocks (external APIs, limited resources) 🔄
🔹 The role of a global exception handler 🛑
🔹 Throwing custom exceptions to make your code more meaningful 🏗️
🔹 Why exceptions can be expensive 💰 and how to use error objects instead ⚡
By the end, you’ll know exactly how to keep your application resilient, stable, and user-friendly! 💪 Let’s dive in! 🎬
oop,php
9m:48s
Apr 17, 2025
Extracting Layout Components
In this video, we take a major step toward cleaner, more maintainable code by refactoring our static HTML into reusable layout components. ✂️➡️🧩We’ll extract repeated sections of HTML into their own PHP partial view files:
• layout/_nav.view.php 🧭
• layout/_page_head.view.php 🧠
• layout/_header.view.php 🏷️
• layout/_page_foot.view.php 👣
This makes our pages easier to manage and sets the stage for a powerful layout system in future steps. 💡
By the end of this video, our project will be refactored and tagged as v3-layout-files—modular, organized, and ready to grow. 🚀
linux
10m:48s
Feb 3, 2025
File System - Create, Copy, Move, Link
This video is part of the Linux Crash Course series. This video will continue introducing the Linux File System. In this video you will learn how to create / remove directories, copy / move files, and everything you need to know about links.Github Repo: https://github.com/rcravens/linux-crash-course
linux
16m:41s
Feb 3, 2025
File System - Permission
This video is part of the Linux Crash Course series. This video will continue exploring the Linux File System. In this video you will learn about permissions and how to secure access to files.Github Repo: https://github.com/rcravens/linux-crash-course
linux
13m:51s
Feb 3, 2025
File System - Wildcards, Find, Search
This video is part of the Linux Crash Course series. This video will continue exploring the Linux File System. In this video you will learn how to search the file system for files or content inside those files.Github Repo: https://github.com/rcravens/linux-crash-course
linux
23m:8s
Feb 3, 2025
File System Basics - Navigation
This video is part of the Linux Crash Course series. This video will introduce the Linux File System. In this video you will learn how to navigate the file system.Github Repo: https://github.com/rcravens/linux-crash-course
oop,php
12m:54s
Jul 17, 2025
Final Review & Refactor
This video is all about the last layer of polish — a final walkthrough to tidy up code, views, and structure across the project. Here’s what we touched:🖼️ Views
- index.view.php: added wider screen support with max-w-7xl.
- Removed a duplicate header to clean up the layout.
🧱 Framework Cleanup
- Database.php: fixed IDE issues and added helpful annotations.
- globals.php: minor tweaks to smooth dev experience.
- Model.php: highlighted PHPDoc comments, reviewed skip(), take(), and orderBy() methods.
- Session.php and View.php: both got the “FII” treatment (Fix IDE Issues).
📦 Http Layer
- Policies:
- UserPolicy: FII.
- Controllers:
- AuthenticationController, PhotoController, RegisterController, ReviewController, and UploadController: all reviewed and cleaned up.
🌐 Public Entry Point
- index.php: adjusted try/catch block for better error handling and clarity.
🎯 And that wraps things up at v28-review-refactor — setting the stage for a maintainable, scalable app with a solid foundation.
oop,php
18m:18s
Jun 3, 2025
First Review & Refactor
It’s time to pause and sharpen the tools. In this video, we take a step back to review our progress and clean up our codebase, because maintainability is key to sustainable development. 🛠️Here’s what we tackle in version v16-framework-refactor:
Emphasize the value of regular review and refactor sessions 🧠
Review our entry point (public/index.php) and extract logic into a new App class 📦
Create Framework/App as a singleton with a start() method to centralize bootstrapping 🚀
Address messy relative paths like '../../' by creating a dedicated Path helper class 🧭
Build Framework/Path as a singleton and introduce helpers like app(), root(), require_app(), and require_root()
Refactor all path-related code to use these clean, expressive helpers 📁
Move globals.php into the Framework directory to keep framework-related code encapsulated
Clean up and clarify all require/import statements 🔄
This refactor sets us up for a cleaner, more organized foundation—making our mini-framework easier to navigate, extend, and love. 💡
oop,php
17m:11s
Jun 19, 2025
Fluent Validation
In this step, we introduced a flexible and expressive validation system.🧱 Created the Framework/Validation class and added a validate() helper to globals.php.
✍️ The goal was to write intuitive validation logic like:
validate('rating')->integer()->min(0)->max(5)->required();
validate('name')->string()->max(100);
validate('comment')->string()->max(1000);
🧪 This fluent API allowed chaining validation rules for each input field, improving both readability and maintainability.
🔧 We fixed the num_stars constraint in the migration SQL to properly enforce the rating range.
🧹 Ran the migration and reseeded the database to apply the changes.
🕵️ Also refined the reviews logic to default the name to “Anonymous” when one isn’t provided.
This new validation infrastructure enhances data safety and gives us a consistent, clean way to validate user input throughout the application.
php
28m:36s
Mar 19, 2025
Functions
Functions are the building blocks of reusable and efficient code in PHP! In this video we break down everything you need to know to get started with functions, including:✅ Function keyword & syntax – How to define and call functions in PHP.
✅ Naming functions – Best practices for readability and maintainability.
✅ Parameters & return values – Passing data and getting results.
✅ Type hinting – Writing safer, more predictable functions.
To make learning fun and practical, we’ll incrementally build a simple calculator that supports addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division! By the end of this tutorial, you’ll have a solid understanding of PHP functions and how to use them effectively in your projects.
javascript
6m:1s
May 15, 2025
Functions as Values & Callbacks
Time to level up! In this episode, you’ll learn that functions are more than just reusable code blocks — they’re first-class citizens in JavaScript. That means you can treat them just like any other value — assign them to variables, pass them as arguments, and return them from other functions. 🧠➡️📦🎯 Here’s what we’ll cover:
• Assigning functions to variables — because yes, functions are values!
• Passing functions into other functions (aka callbacks) to build dynamic, flexible behavior.
• A clear, simple example where you control how a message is spoken: shouted, whispered, or anything in between.
🎥 Visual Walkthroughs:
• See how callback functions work step by step.
• Build intuition around treating functions like any other data.
• Reinforce learning with a clean, beginner-friendly real-time example.
By the end, you’ll start to see the true power of JavaScript’s flexibility — and you’ll be ready for more dynamic programming patterns ahead! ⚙️🚀
oop,php
6m:26s
May 1, 2025
Handling "Bad" Routes
Not all roads lead somewhere… and that’s okay—as long as we handle it gracefully! In this video, we improve the robustness of our app by dealing with invalid routes and unexpected errors the pragmatic way. 🛡️Here’s what we’ll do:
• Make the header element optional in layout/_header.view.php using isset() 🧩
• Create clean, user-friendly error views:
• views/errors/404.view.php 🔍
• views/errors/500.view.php 💥
• Add a global try-catch block in index.php to handle exceptions gracefully 🧯
With this in place, our app won’t crash or confuse users when something goes wrong. Instead, it responds with clarity and professionalism.
By the end of this video, we’ll be on version v7-handle-bad-routes—stable, polished, and production-ready. 🚀