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Fingerprint Refactoring

In this video, we tighten up our survey flow by performing several important refactors across models, routes, and controllers. These changes lay the groundwork for securely capturing survey responses and preventing duplicates.

Topics Covered
- Adding model relationships: Survey → responses, SurveyQuestion → answers
- Introducing a fingerprint-based protection to avoid duplicate survey submissions
- Updating database migrations to support hashed response identifiers
- Creating a clean, structured route layout for:
✔️ Viewing a survey
✔️ Submitting a fingerprint
✔️ Viewing the survey questions
✔️ Submitting survey answers
- Refactoring TakeSurveyController to support the new workflow

💥 About the Series:
Pragmatic Laravel focuses on building real applications with Laravel — emphasizing clarity, maintainability, and thoughtful design decisions instead of shortcuts or magic.

#Laravel #PHP #WebDevelopment #FullStack #LaravelTutorial #Programming #SurveyApp #TechEducation #LaravelDevelopers #BuildInPublic #TekCasts

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. 💡

Flash Messages

Your app just got a voice 💬✨

It’s time to give your users clear feedback with flash messages — those friendly pop-ups that say things like “User created” or “Access denied.”

In this episode, we’ll bring interactivity and state together to create a polished, professional experience.

👉 In this episode, you’ll learn how to:

🚀 Implement flash messages using your existing session system
⚙️ Build alert helpers (req.alert.success, req.alert.error, req.alert.warn)
🧩 Pass flash data into your EJS views for dynamic display
💡 Automatically clear messages after they’re shown
🎨 Create a reusable _flash.ejs component for consistent UX

By the end, your Node.js app will communicate like a pro — giving users instant, elegant feedback ⚡️

💡 Relevant Links

Previous TekCasts series:
- JavaScript for Beginners: https://tekcasts.com/play/javascript-for-beginners-what-is-javascript
- JavaScript in the Browser: https://tekcasts.com/play/javascript-in-the-browser-browser-runtime-environment

Official Docs & Resources:
- Node.js Documentation: https://nodejs.org/en/docs/
- EJS Docs: https://ejs.co/
- MDN Web Docs – JavaScript Guide: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript

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.

Form Data & HTTP Post Handlers

In this episode, we begin capturing and storing survey data!

We’ll design the database schema for responses and answers, build out models, and wire up the controller logic to handle incoming survey submissions.

This continues our journey of transforming a static survey page into a dynamic Laravel application — step by step, the pragmatic way.

🧠 What You’ll Learn
- Designing survey_responses and survey_response_answers tables
- Creating migrations and Eloquent models
- Defining relationships between surveys, responses, and answers
- Updating POST routes to save incoming data
- Setting up a foundation for validation and fingerprinting

🧩 Commands Used
- php artisan make:migration create_survey_responses_table
- php artisan make:model SurveyResponse

🧱 Database Schema
survey_responses
- id (PK)
- survey_id (FK: surveys)
- user_fingerprint
- completed_at (nullable)
- created_at / updated_at

survey_response_answers
- id (PK)
- survey_response_id (FK: survey_responses)
- survey_question_id (FK: survey_questions)
- answer (json)
- created_at / updated_at

🔗 Resources
- Migrations Docs: https://laravel.com/docs/12.x/migrations
- Eloquent Docs: https://laravel.com/docs/12.x/eloquent
- Routing Docs: https://laravel.com/docs/12.x/routing

💥 About the Series:
Pragmatic Laravel focuses on building real applications with Laravel — emphasizing clarity, maintainability, and thoughtful design decisions instead of shortcuts or magic.

#Laravel #PHP #WebDevelopment #Eloquent #DatabaseDesign #Migrations #TekCasts #LearnLaravel #FullStackDevelopment #Controllers

Form Validation Requests

In this episode, we refactor our validation logic by introducing Form Request Validation, a powerful Laravel feature that helps keep controllers clean, reusable, and scalable.

This step builds on our existing Validation Rules Engine and moves the logic into a dedicated request class—perfect for more complex validation and authorization scenarios.

✨ What You’ll Learn
- How Form Request Validation works in Laravel
- Why moving validation into request classes improves maintainability
- Creating a custom request with php artisan make:request
- Transferring validation and authorization logic from controllers
- Updating the survey flow to use the new request

🧠 Form Request Benefits:
- Cleaner and smaller controllers
- Reusable validation logic
- Built-in support for authorization
- Consistent structure across larger apps

🔗 Resources
- Laravel Form Request Validation Docs: https://laravel.com/docs/12.x/validation#form-request-validation

💥 About the Series:
Pragmatic Laravel focuses on building real applications with Laravel — emphasizing clarity, maintainability, and thoughtful design decisions instead of shortcuts or magic.

#Laravel #PHP #WebDevelopment #Programming #CleanCode #FullStack #Validation #LaravelTips #TekCasts

Forms & Validation

Your web app just got personal 💬

Until now, your MVC app could display and fetch data — but it couldn’t accept new information from users. That changes today.

👉 In this episode, you’ll learn how to:
🧠 Handle HTML forms and capture user input
⚙️ Parse incoming POST data in Node.js
✅ Add server-side validation for required fields, length, and patterns
🧹 Understand the difference between validation (checking data) and sanitization (cleaning data)
📄 Build your own simple validation rules and validator utility

By the end, your app will safely handle real user input — a huge step toward full interactivity ⚡️

💡 Relevant Links

Previous TekCasts series:
• JavaScript for Beginners: https://tekcasts.com/play/javascript-for-beginners-what-is-javascript
• JavaScript in the Browser: https://tekcasts.com/play/javascript-in-the-browser-browser-runtime-environment

Official Docs & Resources:
• MDN HTML Forms Guide: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Learn/Forms
• MDN Client-Side Form Validation: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Learn/Forms/Form_validation
• Node.js Streams: https://nodejs.org/api/stream.html
• Node.js HTTP Module: https://nodejs.org/api/http.html
• EJS Documentation: https://ejs.co/

Fortify Features & Breeze Views

In this video, we build out the authentication views for our Laravel survey application. We continue integrating Laravel Fortify, but now focus on the Blade side of things — customizing the registration and login screens and wiring them to Fortify’s backend actions.

You’ll learn:
✨ How Fortify expects your views to be structured
✨ How to adapt the Breeze templates to your app
✨ How to customize labels, errors, and layout
✨ How to create a cohesive guest layout for all auth screens

🔗 Resources
- Laravel Starter Kits: https://laravel.com/docs/12.x/starter-kits
- Laravel Breeze: https://github.com/laravel/breeze
- Laravel Fortify: https://laravel.com/docs/12.x/fortify

💥 About the Series:
Pragmatic Laravel focuses on building real applications with Laravel — emphasizing clarity, maintainability, and thoughtful design decisions instead of shortcuts or magic.

#Laravel #LaravelFortify #PHP #WebDevelopment #FullStack #BackendDevelopment #Blade #Authentication #TekCasts #LaravelThePragmaticWay #CodingTutorials #LearnLaravel #CleanCode

Framework & Library Overview

In this final video of the JavaScript in the Browser series, we take a step back and look at the broader ecosystem of libraries and frameworks that have shaped modern frontend development.

From lightweight utilities to full-scale frameworks, these tools have enabled developers to build interactive, dynamic, and maintainable web applications.

We’ll cover:

📊 Charts & Data Visualization – Chart.js, D3.js, Highcharts, ApexCharts
🗺️ Maps & Geolocation – Google Maps, OpenStreetMap, Leaflet
⚡ DOM Reactivity & State – Alpine.js, React, Vue, Angular, Backbone, jQuery
📝 Form Validation – Parsley, Validate.js, React
🎬 Animations – Anime.js, Typed.js
🏗️ Frameworks – React, Next.js, Vue, Angular, Svelte, Ember, Backbone


This episode provides the big-picture context of where JavaScript has taken us—from direct DOM manipulation to entire ecosystems of specialized libraries and powerful frameworks.

👉 Wrap up the series with us and see how these tools fit into the modern developer’s toolkit!

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.

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! ⚙️🚀

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. 🚀

Handling JSON APIs

APIs are at the heart of modern web applications — they move data between the browser, mobile apps, and backend services. In this video, we’ll explore how to serve and consume JSON using Node’s built-in HTTP module — no frameworks, just fundamentals.


🧠 You’ll Learn

- What JSON is and how APIs use it
- How to serve structured JSON responses
- How to parse incoming JSON request bodies
- Why Content-Type headers are critical
- How Node streams data efficiently


💡 Relevant Links

MDN – JSON Basics:
- https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Learn/JavaScript/Objects/JSON

Previous TekCasts series:
- JavaScript for Beginners: https://tekcasts.com/play/javascript-for-beginners-what-is-javascript
- JavaScript in the Browser: https://tekcasts.com/play/javascript-in-the-browser-browser-runtime-environment

Hardware & Schematics

Time to dig into the guts of the project! 💥 In this video, we break down the hardware behind the Smart Garage Door system and show how everything connects.

We kick things off with a high-level circuit diagram featuring the ESP32 and four key sub-circuits:

🔹 Garage Door Sensor – tracks door position
🔹 Garage Door Button – mimics your wall-mounted opener
🔹 Device Status – provides visual feedback using a "blink code"
🔹 Device Control Button – allows manual toggling of the device into various modes

Then we zoom in 🔍 and walk through detailed schematics for each sub-circuit — showing exactly how they hook up to the ESP32 pins.

To bring it all home, I share real photos and video of the development board so you can see how the schematics translate into actual hardware on the bench 🛠️📸.

Whether you’re following along or designing your own spin on the project, this episode helps you build with confidence. Let’s wire it up! ⚡️

Hello World!

Every programming journey begins with a simple “Hello, World!”, and PHP is no different! In this video, we’ll walk you through writing your first PHP script, embedding PHP within HTML, and running it on a local server. You’ll see the difference between static .html files and dynamic .php files and understand how PHP generates content on the fly. Whether you’re brand new to coding or just getting started with PHP, this is the perfect first step into the world of backend development! 💻✨