Let us change that by using a few good editor tools and packages.

PHP Intelephense extension

I use VSCode and there is no better auto completion than PHP Intelephense. It is fast, reasonably accurate and provides more than few options for playing around the code.

Laravel Extra Intellisense extension

Install Laravel Extra Intellisense extension for -

• Route names and parameters
• Suggestions in middlewares
• Views

Laravel Snippets extension

Install Laravel Snippets extension for Laravel snippets.

Laravel Blade Snippets extension

Install Laravel Blade Snippets extension for Laravel Blade snippets.

Laravel IDE Helper package

Install [Laravel IDE Helper] https://github.com/barryvdh/laravel-ide-helper for better auto completion in Laravel.

composer require --dev barryvdh/laravel-ide-helper

Address Auto Complete Annoyances for Laravel and PHP in VSCode

When you open Laravel code, you will see autocomplete suggestions, but you will see a lot more than desired. The suggestions -

• lacks context
• has generic suggestions

There are a few things you can do -

• Ctrl + Shift + p > Go to Preferences > Open Settings (UI). Search for editor.snippetSuggestions and set it to bottom
• Next, search for php.suggest.basic and set it to false

Set Alias for php artisan

You will be typing php artisan at least a hundred times a day - better to save all the calories by setting an alias or a shortcut.

In Powershell, open your default profile -

notepad $Profile

Enter the below to set alias to pa-.

function pa { php artisan $args }

If you use wsl, you would be using bash or zsh. Just edit your .bashrc or .zshrc file to add an alias.

vim ~/.bashrc
# .. or
# vim ~/.zshrc

Add the below line -

alias pa='php artisan'

Now you can type pa instead of php artisan with how many ever arguments and it should work seamlessly.

Use Laravel debugbar.

Install the debugbar in your Laravel project.

composer require barryvdh/laravel-debugbar --dev

Ensure your .env file has APP_DEBUG=true and APP_ENV=local.

Start your Laravel server and you should see the debugbar at the bottom of the page. See the documentation for more options.

tldr;

• Use Digital Ocean*
• Use Hetzner Cloud

Problem

I build applications that need a backend. I need that backend to be inexpensive but reliable.

Solutions

Typically, I have deployed server-side solutions on Node and Laravel, and using MySQL and Postgres. But the work spans to static sites, Wordpress, and ASP.NET.

The initial part of starting up a business and establishing credentials through fast and reliable applications was difficult. But, what made it more difficult than the bugs I introduced on my own, was the server infrastructure.

I have been partial to NodeJS, and my natural tendency is to use Virtual Private Servers (VPS). I do not quite need dedicated hardware since I hardly run applications that deserve that kind of hardware, but I was not able to sustain applications on shared hosting.

The good thing - it has never been as good as it is today.

I continue to be amazed at free (GitHub, Netlify, GitLab - thank you), or inexpensive infrastructure solutions. Those solutions have made possible for me to run a highly nimble shop that focuses on client-specific solutions at highly reasonable costs.

But, I have been seriously frustrated by my initial decisions. I have paid for products and services that have gone south, crippling my sense of self-worth and that of humanity in general.

So, a summary of what to do follows.

Digital Ocean

Choose Digital Ocean* for your VPS.

Digital Ocean provides the max leverage when it comes to providing reliable, inexpensive infrastructure. Starting at $5, Digital Ocean has enabled me to stand up servers within no time - be it development, production or for dedicated demos.

More over, Digital Ocean has been a big boon since they have excellent connectivity and servers available in multiple regions.

The availability of templates have made it much easier to setup servers with pre-installed software. This is particularly useful for development and initial testing, and also because I suck at Docker, Ansible, Terraform et. al. - I am lazy enough to learn them thoroughly and stop wasting time setting up environments.

Pros -

• Excellent infrastructure
• Minimal ping times at multiple locations
• Reasonable price
• Templates!

Cons -

• DIY. Databases can go down, Web servers can get messed up, external attacks can be a big problem
• “Cost conscious” customers may still find that expensive for smaller solutions (when you cannot share servers with others)

Use Hetzner Cloud

I did not quite know Hetzner Cloud for a long, long time. I had favoured cheap-ass VPS solutions to burn fingers and a bit of my brain more than once - and came to know about them by chance.

But now, every other of my application goes to Hetzner Cloud. Starting at ~$3, Hetzner Cloud is a great VPS solution that is cheap, and reliable.

See multiple tools on Hetzner platform that can make your life easier.

Pros -

• Reliable
• Inexpensive
• Support for Terraform & Ansible (not an active user)

Cons -

• Extremely limited data centre locations - not a problem if you are targeting Europe
• Be aware that very cheap costs = cheaper hardware. Hetzner Cloud is good, but there is no dark magic involved to make anything cheaper than what it is

I understand that Contabo is a comparable solution to Hetzner Cloud, but I have not used that as much to comment.

Alternatives

I had seriously considered switching back to Laravel just for the ease of deployment and the ability to use cheaper hardware.

I am still going back and forth on that in darker corners of my mind, but Node (and frameworks like NestJS, AdonisJS, PostGraphile etc.) has this ability to ensnare you and not allowing you to go anywhere else.

Laravel

If you are using Laravel and trying to bring up gently-used applications, consider shared hosting. They are easier to manage (see VPS considerations above) and someone else does all the work required to maintain servers. You can access your infrastructure through CPANEL, create databases and setup your application with few clicks, and in general, do as less work as possible.

But, in return, you also lose flexibility and power. You may not get as much RAM / CPU that you need, your hardware may fail you since someone else on the same infrastructure decides to establish a new record in expanding known fraction numbers of Pi.

Shared hosting has been a hit or miss for me. From my own experience and that of other kind souls sharing valuable information on Internet, I believe one of the following can be a good choice.

• A2 hosting*
• Site Ground
• Crocweb

Wordpress

If you are using Wordpress (in whole[really?], or as back-end), I still think shared hosting is a better option unless you have a decent sized application.

Static sites

Choose GitHub or Netlify for hosting static sites. Move up the tiers as you build traffic or size of your application - it does not make sense for anything else.

This blog is a static site and is hosted on Netlify.

Conclusion

Use Node on Digital Ocean

:)

* Affiliate links that earn me a few bucks if you choose to buy by clicking on the links. That has in no way altered what how I have written / discussed about the said products or services.

Earlier days were simple enough - just use XAMPP to host the site locally and be done with it. Yes, there were other tools but none had the same charm. XAMPP was simple and got out of the way of the development lifecycle.

Come 2018, I am spoilt for choice in the Javascript world. The editors, transpilers, packagers bring in a sophistication to the development process while making the overall development easier. Until the time modern Javascript happened - I couldn’t even make the words ‘sophistication’ and ’ease’ coexist in a sentence.

So, it was with some trepidation that I ventured into the Laravel. There was no need to be afraid though.

laravel new my-amazing-project was good to create projects on the go followed up by the amazing, omnipresent scaffolding. I quickly embraced the php artisan ** world with gusto.

Local Development Platform

Despite Laravel’s default toolset there was a nagging sensation that I should be automating at least some part of the process or change the way I develop stuff.

XAMPP did not cut it anymore. I could now poke holes even at ‘once in a century’ events of changing PHP versions through XAMPP, or how it could not keep up with the ‘AMP’ stack quickly enough. (Believe me - that is more than sufficient). I also tried WAMP Server, and AMPPs (by Softaculous). They were different flavours of the same, with a few enhancements thrown in.

I was looking back to adapt to php artisan with some command line magic. Until I met fell in love with Laragon.

Laragon is the sophisticated development platform that everyone was waiting for.

As the developer puts it -

1. Laragon is modern & powerful
2. Fast & efficient
3. Makes you more productive

‘Too many adjectives’, you say? Just download Laragon and try it out.

• You can do quite a bit with the control panel
• Portable. All the upgrade took was to replace the older EXE with the newer version
• Create virtual servers on the fly. All my projects have their own home and do not quarrel anymore
• Shortcuts to go everywhere using Explorer and edit the dozen files that we typically tinker with
• Comes with batteries included - HeidiSQL for DB access, Notepad++ as a bundled editor
• Download common frameworks like Wordpress, Laravel etc. and get started with a single click (Laragon even creates the DB - but does not make config file changes :))

Laragon is not limited to Laravel or PHP. Laragon is and will be my platform of choice for some time to come.

Editor

May I need to mention once more that I have doubled down on VS Code?

There have been times that I have been annoyed at Code’s performance, but none of the editors accomplish so much - paid or free. I use Notepad++ when I have to open up multiple projects for “reference”.

I use three extensions in VS Code for Laravel-

• Laravel 5 Snippets
• Laravel Blade Snippets
• PHP Intelephense

If you use Vue with Laravel, “Vue 2 Snippets” will help. I quite did not use snippet extensions for Bootstrap or Bulma - I am not that proficient with CSS yet and I have to manually check the UI and copy/paste code from the respective sites.

Browser

I have been a long time Chrome user, but started using Firefox Developer Edition. It just looks cool out of the box - but both are equally good. (Although you have to install more than a few extensions in Chrome).

One of the browser helpers I liked was Laravel Debug bar. It provides nice dashboard of everything that you need to know while debugging Laravel.

Vue.js Devtools really help debugging the Vue components.

Other

Following tools are great -

• HeidiSQL - access DB server, created/edit DBs, run queries against tables. This is bundled with Laragon.
• PuTTy - SSH to remote servers

The Future

Docker is on my list of to-dos to make deployments easier, but I am afraid it will take some more time for me to get there! I am more than happy using shared / cheap hosting for now to host Laravel projects :)

• Laravel is easy to learn, implement and ship products
• Many features like auth, ORM are built in and I don’t really need to make my own stupid decisions
• There is a vast community that seems to know all answers (including the ‘answer to everything’)

Of course I don’t know a lot about how to stitch everything together in Laravel, but hopefully my previous PHP experience will help (or not).

Here are the learning resources that helped me immensely through my learning journey -

• Laracasts A lot of good materials for free. You can’t really make out which ones are paid content easily enough, but you will get the gist. By the time you complete the beginner courses, you should be wandering off to do things anyway.

• A 45 min introduction to Laravel essentials

• Eloquent by example

• Get practical experience running through creation of projects: Social network, Create eCommerce Store

Completed all of them? Good! Now, go do more projects.

I consider myself as an absolute beginner in the web development world, but I am truly amazed at the things I can do today with free / minimal cost infrastructure. The system automates everything except me - I am that stupid man in the middle.

Despite stupidity, I can and want to build truly great stuff for my human brothers and sisters (and then some for the animals in you, for Alexa, Cortana, the robots and so forth).

Unfortunately for me, the desire to build something and going where none has gone before in web-development does not push me to greatness, but brings me to a standstill in the middle of an Indian National Highway. There are vehicles, people, animals, insects all over the place. I keep looking around casually rather than moving forward. Those interesting ’things’ distracting me can be structurally organized as below.

Javascript

JS and the million frameworks are like Deepavali (“not Diwali” - I am from South of India). They keep burstin’ and cracklin’ - I keep lookin'.

I had exposure to JQuery, and can code some of React, but I am too lazy to put everything together to result in a cohesive application.

So, I kept jumping from Meteor, AllCountJS (yes, it exists - lookup), Adonis, Feather and through Vue, React, Preact, and the like.

Rest of World - Languages and Platforms

The problem or however you want to call it is - once you start exploring, you don’t stop at Javascript frameworks. A brave explorer goes forward and explores everything else - ReasonML (‘hello world’), Flutter, Elixir, Django and even Go (’take performance seriously’, someone said).

The exploration takes time, and the frustration of not “shipping” something makes your heart heavy.

Low/No Code

The frustration can lead one to low-code / no-code platforms - not many are within reach of an individual. But things like Radzen, or platforms like Bubble sure excited me once. The lack of flexibility to do magic put me back to doing my own thing after a couple of months - no offense to the said platforms. I am sure they are wonderful, but my perceived restrictions grew stronger by the day.

Hello, PHP

After all this, and after many years of not “coding” PHP, I go back to PHP. (Wordpress development alone does not count towards being active in the PHP).

Laravel is my latest interest in PHP.

• Laravel can be deployed on cheap hosts without me worrying about nodemon, Docker, monitoring threads and so forth. To a large extent, it keeps alive and does its thing (when it doesn’t - I am keeping down frustrations here)
• Keep following tutorials on Laracasts, YouTube, and the manual - you will get it eventually
• Convention just takes the mind off “how best to organize things” and instead put things on “what other things I need to build”
• I am aware that Adonis and Meteor represent this world in Javascript. But my quest to take ready made components, get help quickly, and get things working faster did not quite make as much progress

So, have I found nirvana?

Nope.

I see Laravel as helping me to get the first ten web applications out in the next six months (I will have updates here!). I will in the meantime keep a close watch on the Javascript world and the no/low-code world.

PS: But again, who knows? I see a shiny thing in React Hooks, Vue or Svelte, I will jump there for a quick exploration that may easily take the next two months. Just saying.