Php Pro

PHP Pro is an AI skill that provides modern PHP development guidance using current language features and framework best practices. It covers PHP 8.x features, Laravel and Symfony patterns, type safety, Composer dependency management, testing strategies, and performance optimization that produce maintainable, secure PHP applications.

What Is This?

Overview

PHP Pro delivers contemporary PHP development practices that leverage the language's significant evolution in recent versions. It addresses PHP 8.x features including enums, named arguments, fibers, and match expressions, framework patterns for Laravel and Symfony covering service containers, middleware, and Eloquent/Doctrine, type safety using union types, intersection types, and strict mode, Composer-based dependency management and autoloading configuration, testing with PHPUnit and Pest including mocking and database testing, and performance optimization through OPcache configuration and query optimization.

Who Should Use This

This skill serves PHP developers building web applications with modern frameworks, backend engineers maintaining and modernizing existing PHP codebases, teams migrating from older PHP versions to PHP 8.x, and developers building APIs and microservices with PHP frameworks.

Why Use It?

Problems It Solves

PHP projects often use outdated patterns from earlier versions when modern alternatives are safer and more expressive. Without strict typing, type-related bugs surface only at runtime. Legacy codebases mix presentation and business logic without clear boundaries. Performance suffers when OPcache, query optimization, and caching strategies are not properly configured.

Core Highlights

The skill leverages PHP 8.x type system improvements to catch errors at development time. Modern framework patterns enforce clean architecture with clear separation of concerns. Testing strategies cover unit, feature, and browser testing for comprehensive coverage. Performance tuning addresses the most impactful PHP-specific optimizations.

How to Use It?

Basic Usage

<?php
declare(strict_types=1);

// Modern PHP 8.x patterns
enum OrderStatus: string {
    case Pending = 'pending';
    case Processing = 'processing';
    case Completed = 'completed';
    case Cancelled = 'cancelled';

    public function canTransitionTo(self $next): bool {
        return match($this) {
            self::Pending => in_array($next, [self::Processing, self::Cancelled]),
            self::Processing => in_array($next, [self::Completed, self::Cancelled]),
            self::Completed, self::Cancelled => false,
        };
    }
}

readonly class OrderDTO {
    public function __construct(
        public int $id,
        public string $customerEmail,
        public OrderStatus $status,
        public float $total,
        public DateTimeImmutable $createdAt,
    ) {}
}

Real-World Examples

<?php
// Laravel service with repository pattern and type safety
final class OrderService {
    public function __construct(
        private readonly OrderRepository $orders,
        private readonly PaymentGateway $payments,
        private readonly EventDispatcher $events,
    ) {}

    public function placeOrder(CreateOrderRequest $request): OrderDTO {
        $order = DB::transaction(function () use ($request) {
            $order = $this->orders->create(
                customerId: $request->customerId,
                items: $request->items,
                status: OrderStatus::Pending,
            );

            $payment = $this->payments->charge(
                amount: $order->total,
                method: $request->paymentMethod,
            );

            $order->update(['status' => OrderStatus::Processing,
                            'payment_id' => $payment->id]);
            return $order;
        });

        $this->events->dispatch(new OrderPlaced($order));
        return OrderDTO::fromModel($order);
    }
}

Advanced Tips

Use PHP 8.3 typed class constants and the json_validate() function for cleaner validation. Implement Laravel Queues for background processing to keep web request response times fast. Configure OPcache with opcache.jit=1255 on PHP 8.x for significant performance improvements on CPU-bound operations.

When to Use It?

Use Cases

Use PHP Pro when building web applications with Laravel or Symfony, when modernizing legacy PHP codebases to use current language features, when optimizing PHP application performance for production workloads, or when establishing coding standards for a PHP development team.

Related Topics

Laravel and Symfony frameworks, Composer package management, PHPStan for static analysis, Docker-based PHP development environments, and PHP-FPM configuration all complement modern PHP development.

Important Notes

Requirements

PHP 8.2 or later for access to modern language features including readonly classes and enums. Composer for dependency management. A framework like Laravel 11 or Symfony 7 for structured application development.

Usage Recommendations

Do: enable strict_types in every PHP file to catch type errors early. Use readonly properties and classes for data transfer objects that should not be modified after creation. Run PHPStan at the highest practical level in CI to catch bugs statically.

Don't: suppress errors with the @ operator, as it hides real issues. Use global functions or static methods for business logic, as they make testing difficult. Store sensitive configuration values in source code rather than environment variables.

Limitations

PHP's request-per-process model means application state must be stored externally. Some PHP 8.x features require all dependencies to support the same PHP version. Performance-critical paths may still need optimization beyond what language-level improvements provide.