Issue #5 - Taking Stock & Technical Debt

July 2024

Author

Chris Shennan
July 22, 2024

Hello!

I'm Chris Shennan, and you’re getting this email because you signed up for Chris Shennan's Newsletter, a monthly update that covers web development, side projects, and bootstrapping. Thank you for subscribing! If you enjoy the content, please share it with a friend. If this email was forwarded to you, sign up now to receive your own copy.

Recent Highlights

It’s been a couple of months since my last issue (a vast improvement on last time) and I’ve managed to get a lot done since last time. I’ve completed a server upgrade I was putting off for years - apparently, Ubuntu 16.04 is a bit dated now and my API integration for beehiiv wasn’t working due to expired SSL root certificates. So, while the kids were away on their summer holidays with gran, I bit the bullet and migrated to a new server, ditched my hybrid Digitial Ocean & AWS setup and I’m now running exclusively on AWS.

As part of the server migration, I’ve also upgraded my main projects (chrisshennan.com, passwordangel.co and redr.it) to rid myself of some additional technical debt and to bring them in line with development practices and procedures I use daily in my 9-5 job. This means I’m now using the same tools and patterns in both work and personal projects streamlining my flow and saving my cognitive capacity for the project detail rather than remembering what processes I’m following for each project.

The migration also allowed me to take stock of what projects I have, and I have the following active projects

And a few others in the backlog (disclaimer - I’ve not added the product summary to most of these yet)

I want to start making more use of my own products because if I’m not using them, how can I expect anyone else to? I’m using Password Angel frequently and I’m using a pre-MVP for getstatisfy to produce the statistics screenshot I post to X.

I plan to make more use of getstatisfy so I can share statistics for all of my projects and there is a central place for you to see my progress.

I’m also starting to make use of redr.it for affiliate marketing and in my brief usage of it I’m already seeing some pain points that I need to smooth over, and some new features that will make life easier, so I’ll be releasing updates to it over the next wee while. Watch this space.

What I’ve been writing

Ask Chris Shennan: Why would you want to let your hosting platform dictate your URL structure?

Changing providers may not be viable due to complexity, red tape and convenience

chrisshennan.com/blog/ask-chris-shennan-why-would-you-want-to-let-you-hosting-platform-dictate-your-url-structure

Creating New Symfony Applications with Docker and the Symfony CLI

Use a docker image to create new Symfony applications without installing PHP, composer & Symfony packages on the host.

chrisshennan.com/blog/creating-symfony-applications-with-symfony-cli-and-docker

Decorate the Symfony router to add a trailing slash to all URLs

I publish a Symfony application as a static site and need the URLs to include a trailing slash

chrisshennan.com/blog/decorate-the-symfony-router-to-add-a-trailing-slash-to-all-urls

Using PHP Attributes to Create and Use a Custom Validator in Symfony

Using PHP attributes to define custom validators in Symfony can enhance code readability and leverage modern PHP features.

chrisshennan.com/blog/using-php-attributes-to-create-and-use-a-custom-validator-in-symfony

What I've been reading

I burned out chasing money and hustle culture's standards. Now, I'm taking a 'no shame' approach to my business.

Deya Aliaga tried to get her business to a seven-figure yearly revenue and burned out. By rejecting hustle culture, she found work-life balance.

www.businessinsider.com/burnout-business-owner-cozy-entrepreneur-2024-6

Your API Shouldn't Redirect HTTP to HTTPS

Instead of redirecting API calls from HTTP to HTTPS, make the failure visible. Unfortunately, many well-known API providers don't currently do so.

jviide.iki.fi/http-redirects

Lesser-Known Tips and Tricks of php

PHP has several hidden gems that can make your code cleaner, easier to write, and more efficient. In this post, we’ll explore some of these…

medium.com/@darshitabaldha2001/lesser-known-tips-and-tricks-of-php-a09a6379ec88

Past Issue

Issue #4: Sorry it's been a while!

May 2024

newsletter.chrisshennan.com/p/chris-shennans-newsletter-issue-4-may-2024

Thanks

Congratulations! You’ve made it this far so hopefully I’m doing something right.  If you have any comments, questions, feedback, ideas, or suggestions or want to say "Hi 👋"  I would love to hear from you.

You can reach me via Twitter, LinkedIn or by replying to this newsletter.