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Introduction & Overview

Welcome to PHP: The Pragmatic Way! In this video, we set the stage for an exciting journey into dynamic web development. 🌐

We’ll start by touring the project’s goals, showing you where we’re landing and what’s ahead. The rule is simple: all the PHP code is ours! We begin with static HTML pages and gradually convert them into dynamic applications. 💻

Along the way, we’ll cover:
• Extracting a layout to avoid repetition 🔄
• Refactoring into an MVC architecture 🏗️
• Building a “mini-framework” to streamline development ⚙️

You’ll also learn how this framework introduces powerful features like routing, sessions, databases, models, views, and controllers. 🛠️

We’ll stick to best practices throughout—focusing on clean, secure, and maintainable code that’s easy to use. By the end of this series, you’ll be ready to implement these principles in your own projects!

Prerequisites: Basic PHP and OOP knowledge are recommended to get the most out of this series. Ready to dive in? Let’s go! 🚀

Introduction to Async Functions

Async programming doesn’t have to feel like juggling chainsaws. In this episode, we’ll unravel the magic of async and await—two keywords that make working with asynchronous code in JavaScript cleaner, easier, and far more readable. 🚀

We’ll start by exploring why async matters: JavaScript is single-threaded but non-blocking, so operations like network requests need special handling. You’ll see how we moved from callbacks ➝ Promises ➝ async/await, and why this evolution makes your code shine. ✨

Next, you’ll learn:

🔑 What makes an async function special (spoiler: it always returns a Promise).
⏸ How await pauses execution until a Promise settles—without freezing your app.
💻 Real-world examples, including a simulated network request written both with .then() and the async/await style.
🛡 How to handle errors gracefully with try/catch.


By the end, you’ll feel confident writing asynchronous JavaScript that’s elegant, predictable, and easy to read. ⚡

Introduction to Middleware

Your Node.js server just got superpowers 💥

We’re taking your app beyond the basics by introducing one of the most powerful architectural patterns in modern web development — middleware ⚙️

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

🚀 Implement your own middleware system from scratch in Node.js
🔒 Add authentication checks with custom middleware classes
🧠 Use router groups to apply middleware cleanly and efficiently
🪄 Chain multiple middleware functions to handle complex logic
🧩 Understand how frameworks like Express build on this same concept

By the end, your Node.js app will have a clean, modular flow that scales effortlessly 💪

💡 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

Previous episodes in this series:
- Sessions: https://tekcasts.com/play/javascript-on-the-server-sessions
- Validation Improvements: https://tekcasts.com/play/javascript-on-the-server-validation-improvements
- Flash Messages: https://tekcasts.com/play/javascript-on-the-server-flash-messages
- Authentication Basics: https://tekcasts.com/play/javascript-on-the-server-authentication-basics

Libraries / Docs mentioned:
- Node.js http: https://nodejs.org/api/http.html
- Node.js URL: https://nodejs.org/api/url.html

Introduction to Recursion

In this episode, we unlock the power of recursion — functions that call themselves! 🔄 You’ll see why recursion needs a clear exit point (the base case), and how this elegant approach can simplify tricky problems. Together, we’ll walk through three hands-on examples:


⏱ A countdown timer that rockets to blast off!
✖️ Factorial computation (the classic recursion demo)
🔀 A recursive bubble sort that organizes chaos step by step


By the end, recursion will go from intimidating to intuitive — a tool you’ll actually want in your problem-solving toolkit. 🚀

Invalid Form Submissions

In this video, we tackle the next critical part of the form experience—handling invalid submissions with grace. When a user submits a form with missing or incorrect data, we want to redirect them back, repopulate the form, and show helpful error messages. 💡

Here’s what we build in version v19-redirect-with-errors:


- Define the ideal usage:
- session()->invalid($errors)->redirect_back();
- Then… we make it real! 💥
- Introduce invalid() and redirect_back() methods in the Session class
- Store transient $old and $errors values to survive the redirect and improve UX ✨
- Refactor Session::old() into a more flexible Session::flash() and flash_message() pattern 🔁
- Improve the old($key, $default) helper to escape HTML using htmlspecialchars() for security 🛡️
- Add a validation_message() helper to display specific errors next to form fields
- Update the review form:
- Loosen validation so comment is optional
- Add hidden rating input with default of 0
- Test with extreme values (e.g., rating=10, long name) to confirm validation is triggered
- Clean up temporary debug outputs (like var_dump()) and finalize the flow ✅


This update makes your app smarter, friendlier, and much more user-friendly when things go wrong. A polished user experience, even on failure? Now that’s pragmatic. 🚀

jQuery - History & Syntax Sugar

Before React, Vue, and modern frameworks, jQuery ruled the web. 🌐✨

Back in the early days, browsers didn’t always agree on how JavaScript should work. Every developer fought with quirks between Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, and Chrome. 😩 Enter jQuery — a library that smoothed over the chaos by providing a standardized abstraction. With $(), developers could write code once and trust it to work everywhere.

In this video, we’ll explore why jQuery was such a big deal, from DOM selection and chained syntax to event handling and AJAX requests. You’ll see how it simplified cross-browser headaches, why it became the backbone of web dev for a decade, and where it’s still used today (👋 WordPress plugins & legacy apps).

Finally, we’ll look at its modern replacements: native JS APIs and frameworks that now handle what jQuery once did.

Laravel Pulse: Install & Deploy to Production (Step-by-Step Tutorial)

🚀 Learn how to install and deploy Laravel Pulse in a production environment using Laravel Forge and Envoyer!

In this tutorial, I’ll walk you through:
✅ Installing Laravel Pulse in your Laravel project
✅ Configuring it for real-time performance monitoring
✅ Deploying Laravel Pulse to production with Forge & Envoyer
✅ Best practices to keep Pulse running smoothly in production

🔧 Tools Used: Laravel Forge, Laravel Envoyer, Laravel Pulse

If you found this video helpful, don’t forget to like, comment, and subscribe for more Laravel content! 🔥

📌 Links & Resources:
👉 Laravel Pulse Docs: [https://pulse.laravel.com/]
👉 Laravel Forge: [https://forge.laravel.com/]
👉 Laravel Envoyer: [https://envoyer.io/]

#tekfoundry #tekcasts

Laravel Starter Kits & Fortify

In this video, we take our survey app to the next level by introducing Authentication, discussing installation options, and laying the groundwork for protected views and user-based access.
Along the way, we also apply several refactorizations to keep the codebase clean, flexible, and scalable.

🛠️ Refactorizations Completed
Before diving into authentication, we improved core structures:

📱 Added a mobile menu using npm install flowbite + import "flowbite"
🎨 Updated mobile menu styling
🧩 Created navigation, table, and form components for DRY code
🗂️ Moved layouts into Blade components (@extends('xxx') ➜ )
👥 Added new layout shells: empty and guest


🔐 Authentication vs. Authorization

Authentication = Who are you?
Authorization = What are you allowed to do?

📘 Laravel Docs:
👉 Authentication — https://laravel.com/docs/12.x/authentication
👉 Authorization — https://laravel.com/docs/12.x/authorization

⚙️ Installation Options
Depending on your project setup, Laravel gives you multiple ways to integrate auth:
For New Apps

🚀 Laravel Starter Kits (React, Vue, Livewire)

For Existing Apps

🌬️ Laravel Breeze
🛡️ Laravel Fortify

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

🛡️ Laravel Fortify Setup (Summary)
Installation
1️⃣ composer require laravel/fortify
2️⃣ php artisan fortify:install
3️⃣ php artisan migrate
Configuration

Review settings in config/fortify

Example: Registration View Binding

// App/Providers/FortifyServiceProvider.php (partial)
public function boot(): void
{
Fortify::registerView(function () {
return view('auth.register');
});
}


If you're enjoying the series, don't forget to Like, Comment, and Subscribe — it helps TekCasts grow! 🙌

#Laravel #PHP #LaravelFortify #LaravelBreeze #WebDevelopment #FullStack #CleanCode #BladeComponents #Authentication #Authorization #TekCasts

Larvel Installation

Let’s get Laravel up and running! 🚀
In this video, we’ll install Laravel, set up our development environment, and bring in the static HTML mockup we created earlier. You’ll see how to quickly spin up a new Laravel app, configure your routes, and render your first Blade view — laying the foundation for everything that follows in our Laravel Survey App series.

🔍 In this video, we’ll cover:

- Installing Laravel via the command line
- Setting up the Laravel installer and Composer
- Creating a /survey route and Blade view
- Copying our static survey design into Laravel


🧠 What You’ll Learn
You’ll learn how to create a clean Laravel setup from scratch — understanding the directory structure, the power of Blade templates, and how routing connects everything together.

🛠️ Resources
📘 Laravel Install Guide → https://laravel.com/docs/12.x/installation
💻 GitHub Repo → https://github.com/rcravens/laravel_survey_app

📺 Up Next
Next episode: Blade Templates — we’ll refactor our HTML into reusable layouts, partials, and components to make our app cleaner and easier to maintain.

Logic, Conditionals & Branching

In this video from the PHP for Beginners series, we explore logic, conditionals, and branching—key concepts that control the flow of your PHP programs. You’ll learn how to use if, else, and switch statements to make decisions in your code, allowing your programs to respond dynamically to different conditions.

By the end of this lesson, you’ll have a strong understanding of conditional statements and how to apply them effectively in real-world scenarios.

🔹 Beginner-friendly explanations
🔹 Hands-on coding examples

🚀 Master PHP conditionals and take control of your code today!

Looping Through Arrays

Ready to do something with all those array items? In this episode, you’ll learn how to loop through arrays and apply logic to each value — one of the most common tasks in JavaScript!

🎯 What you’ll learn:
• The classic for loop — great for full control
• The cleaner, modern for…of loop
• The elegant and expressive .forEach() method
• A fun mini-challenge: Loop through numbers and log which are even 🔍

🎥 What you’ll see:
• Step-by-step demos of each loop type
• Code that transforms and filters array data
• A clear comparison so you know when and why to use each loop

By the end, you’ll be confidently cycling through arrays and writing logic that reacts to each item. 🧠✨

Loops

Loops are a fundamental part of programming, allowing you to execute code multiple times efficiently. In this video, part of the “PHP for Beginners” series, we break down the four main types of loops in PHP:

✅ foreach – Perfect for looping through arrays effortlessly.
✅ for – Ideal when you know exactly how many times you need to iterate.
✅ while – Runs as long as a condition is true, great for dynamic scenarios.
✅ do…while – Similar to while, but always runs at least once.

By the end of this tutorial, you’ll understand when and how to use each loop, with clear explanations and examples. Whether you’re new to PHP or need a refresher, this video will help you master loops in no time!

Mixing Markup & Code

It’s time to take our PHP calculator from hardcoded values to real user input! In this video we introduce an HTML frontend to drive our calculator, making it interactive.

Here’s what we cover:

✅ Creating an HTML form – Allow users to input expressions dynamically.
✅ PHP Superglobals – Understanding $_POST and how to handle form data.
✅ Mixing PHP & HTML – Embedding PHP inside markup to render values and conditionally show elements.

By the end of this tutorial, you’ll know how to build dynamic web pages that process user input using PHP—an essential skill for web development!

Model Factories

We simplify the process of generating test data by introducing Model Factories. Model factories allow you to create models and their relationships using expressive, reusable definitions — perfect for seeding your database with realistic sample data.

You’ll learn how to:
✅ Create and use model factories (php artisan make:factory)
✅ Generate models with fake data using make() and create()
✅ Build relationships with nested factories (has())
✅ Replace manual seeder logic with elegant factory-based seeding

By the end of this video, your database setup will be cleaner, faster, and ready for scalable testing and development.

Resources
- Laravel Factories Docs: https://laravel.com/docs/12.x/eloquent-factories

#Laravel #PHP #Eloquent #WebDevelopment #DatabaseSeeding #ModelFactories #LaravelTips #FullStack #TekCasts #LearnToCode

Modules & Imports

Time to break up the band 🎸—but in the best way possible! In this episode, we’ll see how ES Modules help you split your code into neat, reusable files and then pull them back together with ease.

Here’s what we’ll cover:


📦 What modules are and why they make your code cleaner and more maintainable.
🔀 The difference between named and default exports.
📥 How to import modules into your project like a pro.
🌐 Setting up modules in the browser with type="module" (plus a sneak peek at Node.js).


We’ll walk through a math utility example, exporting functions and constants, then importing them back into main.js for instant reusability.

By the end, you’ll be ready to organize your projects like a seasoned developer, keeping your codebase modular, scalable, and stress-free. 🚀