Symfony Station Communiqué — 5 May 2023. A look at Symfony, Drupal, PHP, Cybersecurity, and Fediverse news!
Tags: symfony, drupal, php, fediverse
Published: 2023-05-07 14:41:29

This communique [originally appeared on Symfony Station](https://www.symfonystation.com/Symfony-Station-Communique-5-May-2023). 

Welcome to this week's Symfony Station Communiqué. It's your review of the essential news in the Symfony and PHP development communities focusing on protecting democracy. We also cover the cybersecurity world and the Fediverse. 

There is plenty of good content in each category this week, so please take your time and enjoy the ones most relevant and valuable to you. After a slow week for PHP goodness, you people have picked it up with some great articles this week.

Or jump straight to your favorite section via our website.

 

- [Symfony](https://www.symfonystation.com/Symfony-Station-Communique-5-May-2023#symfony)
- [PHP](https://www.symfonystation.com/Symfony-Station-Communique-5-May-2023#php)
- [Other](https://www.symfonystation.com/Symfony-Station-Communique-5-May-2023#other)
- [Cybersecurity](https://www.symfonystation.com/Symfony-Station-Communique-5-May-2023#cybersecurity)
- [More programming](https://www.symfonystation.com/Symfony-Station-Communique-5-May-2023#more)
- [Fediverse](https://www.symfonystation.com/Symfony-Station-Communique-5-May-2023#fediverse)

Once again, thanks to Javier Eguiluz and Symfony for sharing [our latest communiqué](https://www.symfonystation.com/Symfony-Station-Communique-28-April-2023) in their [Week of Symfony](https://symfony.com/blog/a-week-of-symfony-852-24-30-april-2023).

**My opinions will be in bold. And will often involve profanity.**

---

A significant proportion of the content we curate is on Medium. I highly recommend investing in a membership to access all the articles you want to read. It's a small investment that can boost your career. As you may have noticed, non-members can only access a limited number of articles per month.

**[Become a member here](https://medium.com/@mobileatom/membership)**! The compensation we receive from your use of this link helps pay for our weekly communiqué.

---

![Symfony logo](https://www.symfonystation.com/sites/default/files/inline-images/Symfony-2.png)

## Symfony

As always, we will start with the official news from Symfony. 

Highlight -> “This week, Symfony 5.4.23 and 6.2.10 maintenance versions were released. Meanwhile, we continued polishing the new features of the upcoming Symfony 6.3 release, including the 
addition of return types to the entire codebase. Finally, we published more information about how to become a Symfony partner to gain visibility among tech experts in conferences.“

[A Week of Symfony #852 (24-30 April 2023)](https://symfony.com/blog/a-week-of-symfony-852-24-30-april-2023)

Symfony announced:

[New in Symfony 6.3: Enum Improvements](https://symfony.com/blog/new-in-symfony-6-3-enum-improvements)

[New in Symfony 6.3: Login and Logout Improvements](https://symfony.com/blog/new-in-symfony-6-3-login-and-logout-improvements)

[New in Symfony 6.3: Query Parameters Mapper](https://symfony.com/blog/new-in-symfony-6-3-query-parameters-mapper)

[New in Symfony 6.3: Performance Improvements](https://symfony.com/blog/new-in-symfony-6-3-performance-improvements)

[SymfonyOnline June 2023 - Modern UIs with UX, a little JS & Zero Node](https://symfony.com/blog/symfonyonline-june-2023-modern-uis-with-ux-a-little-js-and-zero-node)

**I am looking forward to this one.**

[SymfonyOnline June 2023 - Enhance your skills by participating in workshops!](https://symfony.com/blog/symfonyonline-june-2023-enhance-your-skills-by-participating-in-workshops)

Via GitHub, they announced these very exciting updates to Symfony UX:

[Release 2 new components, Twig HTML Syntax + Big Live Updates · symfony/ux](https://github.com/symfony/ux/releases/tag/v2.8.0)

SymfonyCasts continues its API Platform course:

[This week on SymfonyCasts](https://5hy9x.r.a.d.sendibm1.com/mk/mr/3ItpvMl8o-jISmYOGhArWIzD2h94s9FhN8WwS9AIk142219azn5r-V61VqjzfeslCLrqKG0GTuqioQyZ2_qUgyVECVYFShzHzzZBxAaN5hfh43a7kCew4qLaIfiHCI5iHTUOeliJUg)

---

## Featured Item

![Featured item graphic](https://symfonystation.com/sites/default/files/inline-images/Featured-Item_1_0.png)

The Markup says:

Blacklight was created with one guiding premise: that it would be more robust to show people, in real-time, how they were being tracked online than to tell them such tracking was happening. Led by former Markup senior data engineer Surya Mattu, a team of programmers and journalists spent 18 months building Blacklight and released it in conjunction with a Markup story. 

Surya and investigative reporter Aaron Sankin scanned 80,000 popular websites with Blacklight and found that nearly 90 percent of them had some sort of third-party tracker. Aaron also published a guide for readers on what to do if, after using Blacklight to scan a website, you find the results to be horrifying.

### [10 Million Blacklight Scans Later, Here’s What You Found](https://themarkup.org/blacklight/2023/05/03/10-million-blacklight-scans-later-heres-what-you-found)

**Keep tracking to a bare minimum, peeps, if you use it at all.**

---

### This Week

Zairig Imad explores:

[Offline support for Symfony applications](https://medium.com/@imadzairig/offline-support-for-symfony-applications-2f70e4f6015d)

Nicolas Nénon examines:

[Symfony UUID, Doctrine and type-hinting : everything you should know](https://medium.com/ekino-france/symfony-uuid-doctrine-and-type-hinting-everything-you-should-know-b846519a9927)

Doeke Norg looks at:

[Reading bundle configuration inside Symfony Compiler Passes](https://dev.to/doekenorg/reading-bundle-configuration-inside-symfony-compiler-passes-27nn)

Ihechikara Vincent Abba explores:

[YAML Commenting – How to Add a Multiline Comment in YAML](https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/how-to-add-a-multiline-comment-in-yaml/)

Kinsta shows us:

[How and Why To Run Redis in Docker](https://kinsta.com/blog/redis-docker/)

**There is a plethora of Redis content this week.**

### eCommerce

Shopware announced:

[Shopware 6.5 – all about the major release](https://www.shopware.com/en/news/shopware-6-5/)

Platform SH shows us how to:

[Optimize your Shopware 6.x applications with new specific metrics](https://blog.blackfire.io/optimize-your-shopware-6-x-applications-with-new-specific-metrics.html)

### CMSs

bitExpert looks at:

[Adding custom form field to Sulu Forms](https://blog.bitexpert.de/blog/sulu_forms_adding_formfield_type)

**Yay, Sulu.**

There is good news for stubborn rich people who refuse to upgrade from Drupal 7:

[Acquia Extends Commercial Support for Drupal 7 Until 2025](https://www.acquia.com/blog/acquia-extends-commercial-support-drupal-7-until-2025)

**Take a look at Backdrop CMS, lazybones.**

Matt Glaman explores:

[Drupal module semantic versioning for Drupal core support](https://mglaman.dev/blog/drupal-module-semantic-versioning-drupal-core-support)

Manclu examines:

[A Major Step Forward for Smart Date](https://www.mandclu.com/blog/major-step-forward-smart-date)

Drupal NYC has:

[Questions for Pantheon](https://www.drupalnyc.org/news/questions-pantheon)

### Previous Weeks

Laravel has this from our periodic client Inspector:

[Laravel Vapor application observability with Inspector](https://laravel-news.com/laravel-vapor-application-observability-with-inspector)

Nicolas Perussel asks:

[Ça Twig ou bien?](https://medium.com/ekino-france/%C3%A7a-twig-ou-bien-611d4c5d1c60)

![PHP logo](https://symfonystation.com/sites/default/files/inline-images/php-logo_4.png)

## PHP

### This Week

The new issue of [php]architect is out:

[April 2023 - Getting TEKnical](https://mailchi.mp/phparch/may-2020-mag-release-126275?e=6f209633b4)

Aphinya Dechalert asks:

[Who are the people still using PHP?](https://medium.com/@PurpleGreenLemon/who-are-the-people-still-using-php-36a720ef50f0)

**A very through overview of PHP’s history and reputation.**

jmau111 looks at:

[PHP 8.2: deprecated](https://dev.to/jmau111/php-82-deprecated-4jm6)

Miladev95 explores:

[Builder design pattern with PHP](https://medium.com/@miladev95/builder-design-pattern-with-php-3cb8b459369e)

shadowtje1990 examines:

[Creating a DTO with Traits in PHP](https://dev.to/shadowtje1990/creating-a-dto-with-traits-in-php-4fjn)

Khalid Zeiter looks at:

[PHP Security: Protecting Your Code with Best Practices and Proven Techniques](https://medium.com/@khalidzeiter/php-security-protecting-your-code-with-best-practices-and-proven-techniques-b51a2af959c9)

Jolicode shows us how to:

[Create your own shiny Open Graph images with Imagine PHP](https://jolicode.com/blog/create-your-own-shiny-open-graph-images-with-imagine-php)

London Lingo explores:

[Optimizing PHP Performance: Advanced Techniques for Speed and Efficiency](https://medium.com/@london.lingo.01/optimizing-php-performance-advanced-techniques-for-speed-and-efficiency-3a5a13454c55)

Andrew Pogulailo examines:

[Unused code detector — How to make your PHP code cleaner](https://medium.com/@pogulailo/unused-code-detector-how-to-make-your-php-code-cleaner-50e6f5cb4109)

Aizaz Aziz looks at:

[Adapter pattern using real world example in PHP](https://medium.com/@aizaz2117/adapter-pattern-using-real-world-example-in-php-84f29846737d)

Zubair Idris Aweda shows us:

[How to Use Redis in Your PHP Apps](https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/how-to-use-redis-with-php/)

Sergiu Pogor explores:

[PHP Anonymous Functions](https://medium.com/@256cub/php-anonymous-functions-e45dc5d20019)

[PHP OPcache](https://medium.com/@256cub/php-opcache-9205effa1077)

Laravel News examines:

[Using attributes to add value](https://laravel-news.com/using-attributes-to-add-value)

And:

[Small but powerful CLI apps with Minicli](https://laravel-news.com/small-but-powerful-cli-apps-with-minicli)

Markus Staab looks at:

[Diff Speeding](https://staabm.github.io/2023/05/01/diff-speeding.html)

Ramy Hakam is:

[Unleashing the Power of Xdebug for PHP Debugging](https://medium.com/@pencilsoft1/unleashing-the-power-of-xdebug-for-php-debugging-43e80b69a82f)

### Previous Weeks

Ashley Allen has:

[A Beginner's Guide to Closures and Arrow Functions in PHP](https://ashallendesign.co.uk/blog/a-beginner-s-guide-to-closures-and-arrow-functions-in-php)

[Using `declare(strict_types=1)` for More Robust PHP Code](https://ashallendesign.co.uk/blog/using-declare-strict_types-1-for-more-robust-php-code)

Infinity Paul is:

[Unleashing the Power of Pipelines: A Custom PHP Implementation](https://infinitypaul.medium.com/unleashing-the-power-of-pipelines-a-custom-php-implementation-5684fabd6528)

**It must be unleashing week.**

![Code logo](https://symfonystation.com/sites/default/files/inline-images/code-logo_3.jpeg)

## Other

[Please visit our Support Ukraine page](https://www.symfonystation.com/Support-Ukraine) to learn how you can help kick Russia out of Ukraine (eventually).

### The cyber response to Russia’s War Crimes and other douchebaggery

The Verge reports:

[Nobody wants to be another Oppenheimer](https://www.theverge.com/2023/5/1/23706311/hinton-godfather-of-ai-threats-fears-warnings)

**Too fucking late, but unfortunately, it was inevitable.**

The Hacker News reports:

[ChatGPT is Back in Italy After Addressing Data Privacy Concerns](https://thehackernews.com/2023/04/chatgpt-is-back-in-italy-after.html)

Fast Company reports:

[Can existing laws regulate AI? The federal government and experts say yes](https://www.fastcompany.com/90889000/can-existing-laws-regulate-ai-the-federal-government-and-experts-say-yes)

Reuters reports:

[Finnish daily uses shooter videogame to dodge Russia's press restrictions](https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/finnish-daily-uses-shooter-videogame-dodge-russias-press-restrictions-2023-05-03/)

Bloomberg reports:

[Binance Faces US Probe of Possible Russian Sanctions Violations](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-05-05/binance-faces-us-probe-of-possible-russian-sanctions-violations)

### The Evil Empire Strikes Back

Cyber Careers reports:

[NSA: Russian hackers targeting US, European supply chain for Ukraine](https://www.cybercareers.blog/2023/04/nsa-russian-hackers-targeting-us-european-supply-chain-for-ukraine/)

The Hacker News reports:

[APT28 Targets Ukrainian Government Entities with Fake "Windows Update" Emails](https://thehackernews.com/2023/05/apt28-targets-ukrainian-government.html)

[North Korea's ScarCruft Deploys RokRAT Malware via LNK File Infection Chains](https://thehackernews.com/2023/05/north-koreas-scarcruft-deploys-rokrat.html)

[Chinese Hacker Group Earth Longzhi Resurfaces with Advanced Malware Tactics](https://thehackernews.com/2023/05/chinese-hacker-group-earth-longzhi.html?m=1)

Cristina Criddle reports:

[TikTok spied on me. Why?](https://www.ft.com/content/0c0f9670-2e3a-4af8-bcd5-85e314f6ac5e)

### Cybersecurity/Privacy

Bleeping Computer reports:

[Researcher hijacks popular Packagist PHP packages to get a job](https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/researcher-hijacks-popular-packagist-php-packages-to-get-a-job/)

More Hacker News:

[Vietnamese Threat Actor Infects 500,000 Devices Using 'Malverposting' Tactics](https://thehackernews.com/2023/05/vietnamese-threat-actor-infects-500000.html)

Wired reports:

[Google Is Rolling Out Password-Killing Tech to All Accounts](https://www.wired.com/story/google-passkey-password-replacement/)

EuroNews reports:

[AI has been dubbed a 'nuclear' threat to cybersecurity. But it can be used also for defence.](https://www.euronews.com/2023/05/04/ai-has-been-dubbed-a-nuclear-threat-to-cybersecurity-but-it-can-also-be-used-for-defence)

Dark Reading reports on:

[How Public-Private Information Sharing Can Level the Cybersecurity Playing Field](https://www.darkreading.com/threat-intelligence/how-public-private-information-sharing-can-level-the-cybersecurity-playing-field-)

### More

TechCrunch reports:

[Hugging Face and ServiceNow release a free code-generating model](https://techcrunch.com/2023/05/04/hugging-face-and-servicenow-release-a-free-code-generating-model/)

Edward Loveall opines:

[Let's Make Sure GitHub Doesn't Become the only Option](https://blog.edwardloveall.com/lets-make-sure-github-doesnt-become-the-only-option)

**Let’s also make sure it’s not the first option.**

Xieur Old shares:

[24 Powerful HTML Attributes Every Senior Web Engineer Should Master!](https://javascript.plainenglish.io/24-powerful-html-attributes-every-senior-web-engineer-should-master-ad8a4df0776e)

Mads Stoumann explores:

[Dark Mode in 3 Lines of CSS and Other Adventures](https://dev.to/madsstoumann/dark-mode-in-3-lines-of-css-and-other-adventures-1ljj)

Speaking of colors, CSS demi-god Josh Comeau examines:

[Color Formats in CSS](https://www.joshwcomeau.com/css/color-formats/)

Stephanie Eckles has:

[An Introduction to the :has() Selector in CSS](https://www.sitepoint.com/has-selector-in-css/)

SmashingMag examines:

[Learning JavaScript With Imagination](https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2023/05/learning-javascript-with-imagination/)

Kinsta compares:

[Redis vs MongoDB: Which One Should You Choose?](https://kinsta.com/blog/redis-vs-mongodb/)

Go Make Things shares:

[A few developer console tricks](https://gomakethings.com/a-few-developer-console-tricks/)

Bluesky time.

**Bluesky is the latest federated competitor to Shitter, although it is not part of the Fediverse. It is brought to you by the douchebag who created Shitter though.**

The Verge asks:

[What’s it like on Bluesky right now, anyways?](https://www.theverge.com/2023/5/2/23708385/bluesky-weather-report-moderation-app-store)

Mashable asks:

[What to know before signing up for Bluesky](https://mashable.com/article/bluesky-twitter-terms-of-service)

**Fucking read this and the next link.**

[Bluesky terms of service](https://staging.bsky.app/support/tos).

**Scroll down to:**

**Rights in User Content Granted by You to Us.**

**Name, Likeness, Other Personal Rights.**

![Fediverse_logo.png](050523%20Communique%20e1fab25625c5412c9908a889ec328221/Fediverse_logo.png)

### Fediverse

There are two nuanced articles recently about Bluesky and Mastodon. Which is rare when it comes to social media.

Erin Kissane looks at:

[Blue skies over Mastodon](https://erinkissane.com/blue-skies-over-mastodon)

Mike Masnick has:

[Six Months In: Thoughts On The Current Post-Twitter Diaspora Options](https://www.techdirt.com/2023/04/28/six-months-in-thoughts-on-the-current-post-twitter-diaspora-options/)

**As long as you leave Shitter I am good. Personally, I would never use anything from the person responsible for subjecting the world to Twitter. But if you are OK with eventually getting @$$reamed by Bluesky when it reaches its enshittification stage, knock yourself out.**

Interested in Activity Pub development? Check out:

[fep](https://codeberg.org/fediverse/fep/src/branch/main/feps/fep-fffd.md)

The Fediverse shares:

[Fediverse 201: Owncast](https://fediversereport.com/fediverse-201-owncast/)

Mia Quagliarello shows us:

[How the Fediverse Can Benefit Creators - Flipboard](https://about.flipboard.com/inside-flipboard/how-the-fediverse-can-benefit-creators/)

There is a:

[A new onboarding experience on Mastodon](https://blog.joinmastodon.org/2023/05/a-new-onboarding-experience-on-mastodon/)

**This is for people who aren’t intelligent enough to pick their own instance.**

Mozilla announces:

[Mozilla Social Private Beta Launch](https://blog.mozilla.org/en/mozilla/mozilla-social-mastodon-private-beta-announcement/)

**Joining Mozilla or Medium’s instances are also easy.**

This is a better option. Mozilla asks:

[Ready to try Mastodon? Here’s how to get started](https://blog.mozilla.org/en/internet-culture/how-to-get-started-on-mastodon/)

## CTAs (aka show us some free love)

- That’s it for this week. Please share this communiqué.
- Also, be sure to [join our newsletter list at the bottom of our site’s pages](https://www.symfonystation.com/contact). Joining gets you each week's communiqué in your inbox (a day early).
- Follow us [on Flipboard](https://flipboard.com/@mobileatom/symfony-for-the-devil-allupr6jz) or at [@symfonystation@phpc.social](https://phpc.social/web/@symfonystation) on Mastodon for daily coverage. Consider joining the [@phpc.social](https://phpc.social/web/home) instance. If this communique is a little overwhelming, you can get a condensed weekly news highlight post on [Friendica](https://friendica.me/profile/friendofsymfony).

Do you own or work for an organization that would be interested in our promotion opportunities? Or supporting our journalistic efforts? If so, please get in touch with us. We’re in our infancy, so it’s extra economical. 😉

More importantly, if you are a Ukrainian company with coding-related products, we can offer free promotion on [our Support Ukraine page](https://www.symfonystation.com/Support-Ukraine). Or, if you know of one, get in touch.

Keep coding Symfonistas!

**[Visit our Communiqué Library](https://www.symfonystation.com/Communiqu%C3%A9s)**

You can find a vast array of curated evergreen content.

##Author

![Reuben Walker headshot](https://miro.medium.com/max/1200/1*B3RcgIbAiytfjynP-oiOMg.jpeg)

###Reuben Walker

Founder
Symfony Station