Symfony Station Communiqué - 21 July 2023. A look at Symfony, Drupal, PHP, Cybersec, and Fediverse news!
Tags: symfony, drupal, php, fediverse
Published: 2023-07-22 01:15:32

This communiqué [originally appeared on Symfony Station](https://www.symfonystation.com/Symfony-Station-Communique-21-July-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 items most relevant and valuable to you. 

Or jump straight to your favorite section via our website. 

- [Symfony](https://www.symfonystation.com/Symfony-Station-Communique-21-July-2023#symfony)
- [PHP](https://www.symfonystation.com/Symfony-Station-Communique-21-July-2023#php)
- [Other](https://www.symfonystation.com/Symfony-Station-Communique-21-July-2023#other)
- [Cybersecurity](https://www.symfonystation.com/Symfony-Station-Communique-21-July-2023#cybersecurity)
- [More programming](https://www.symfonystation.com/Symfony-Station-Communique-21-July-2023#more)
- [Fediverse](https://www.symfonystation.com/Symfony-Station-Communique-21-July-2023#fediverse)

Once again, thanks go out to Javier Eguiluz and Symfony for sharing [our latest communiqué](https://www.symfonystation.com/Symfony-Station-Communique-14-July-2023) in their [Week of Symfony](https://symfony.com/blog/a-week-of-symfony-863-10-16-july-2023).

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

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![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 development activity focused on tweaking and fixing bugs on stable versions. Meanwhile, we improved performance of service auto-discovery in the upcoming Symfony 6.4 version. Finally, we announced the last days to submit your proposal for the Call for Papers of the SymfonyCon Brussels 2023 conference.”

[A Week of Symfony #863 (10-16 July 2023)](https://symfony.com/blog/a-week-of-symfony-863-10-16-july-2023)

Symfony announces:

[Prepare for Symfony 6.4 and Symfony 7.0](https://symfony.com/blog/prepare-yourself-for-symfony-6-4-and-symfony-7-0)

**This is a detailed explanation of Symfony updates. And those it affects like Drupal, Sulu, etc.** 

[SymfonyLive Berlin 2023 - Anatomy of Request Handling](https://symfony.com/blog/symfonylive-berlin-2023-anatomy-of-request-handling)

Blackfire shares:

[Navigating your first days with Blackfire: a comprehensive guide to optimizing web application performance](https://blog.blackfire.io/navigating-your-first-days-with-blackfire-a-comprehensive-guide-to-optimizing-web-application-performance.html)

SymfonyCasts continues its AssetMapper course:

[This week on SymfonyCasts](https://5hy9x.r.a.d.sendibm1.com/mk/mr/sh/1t6AVsd2XFnIGBrRERGJumwddAsNT1/bAj31l3cO2sK)

---

## Featured Item

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

Unlike last week nothing stood out this week to be featured. So, I’m going with this informative rather than entertaining article.

PHP remains a relevant and robust choice for building microservices and API-driven architectures. It is a valuable tool in the contemporary software development landscape due to its simplicity, extensive ecosystem, and developer-friendly frameworks. Developers can use PHP's capabilities to build scalable, reliable, and flexible systems that satisfy the requirements of the era of microservices and API-driven architectures by embracing the language's strengths and best practices.

### [Building with PHP in the Era of Microservices and API-Driven Architectures](https://dev.to/blessingadekunle/building-with-php-in-the-era-of-microservices-and-api-driven-architectures-39am)

---

### This Week

Anastasio Nico shows us how to:

[Master Symfony Route Patterns with this 5 minutes definitive guide](https://anastasionico.uk/blog/master-symfony-route-patterns-with-this-5-minutes-definitive-guide)

Sd404 is:

[Exploring Symfony Mailer and Load Balancing with Round-Robin Algorithm](https://medium.com/@404sd/exploring-symfony-mailer-and-load-balancing-with-round-robin-algorithm-b4702af1a85b)

Jose Clemente García Rodríguez examines:

[Interoperability between Angular models and Symfony entities for data management](https://medium.com/@joseclementegarciarodriguez/interoperability-between-angular-models-and-symfony-entities-for-data-management-83441851c9e0)

Les Tilleuls Coop published:

[Déployer API Platform sur Kubernetes - partie 2](https://les-tilleuls.coop/blog/deployer-api-platform-sur-kubernetes-partie-2)

### eCommerce

dlmbr explains:

[Navigating Magento 2 Architecture: Discovering Plugin Architecture for Newcomers](https://dev.to/dlmbr/navigating-magento-2-architecture-discovering-plugin-architecture-for-newcomers-312i)

### CMSs

The Joomla Community Magazine published its [July Edition](https://magazine.joomla.org/). Here are some of the highlights:

[Joomla 5 Alpha - First experiences](https://magazine.joomla.org/all-issues/july-2023/joomla-5-alpha-first-experiences)

[Style your Joomla website: Bring color to your menu](https://magazine.joomla.org/all-issues/july-2023/style-your-joomla-website-bring-color-to-your-menu)

[Extended Security Support for Joomla 3.x - giving an old friend another chance](https://magazine.joomla.org/all-issues/july-2023/extended-security-support-for-joomla-3x)

**The Drupal Association should do this paid ESS with Drupal 7.**

Drupal announces:

[Roadmap for Drupal 10.2, 10.3, and beyond](https://www.drupal.org/about/core/blog/roadmap-for-drupal-102-103-and-beyond)

**They better fucking get Automatic Updates finished, or I’m not going to buy Dries un bier at DrupalCon Lille.** 😉

Speaking of Dries, he shares this case study:

[KitKat gets a break with Drupal and Acquia](https://dri.es/kitkat-gets-a-break-with-drupal-and-acquia)

[DrupalCon Pitch-burgh Updates (07.2023)](https://www.drupal.org/association/blog/drupalcon-pitchburgh-updates-07-23)

**The Gutenberg and Layout Builder projects are aligning. This is great because I use them together in my Drupal sites.** 

Drupal GovCon announces its dates:

[Drupal GovCon](https://www.drupalgovcon.org/)

Matt Glaman shares:

[Retrofit's next milestone: Drupal 7 theme support](https://mglaman.dev/blog/retrofits-next-milestone-drupal-7-theme-support)

Chromatic has:

[Modules That Will Make Your Drupal 7 Upgrade Easier](https://chromatichq.com/insights/modules-to-make-migrations-easier/)

[Introducing the Orange Logic Digital Asset Management PHP Library and Drupal Module](https://chromatichq.com/insights/introducing-orange-dam-php-library-drupal-module/)

Palantir announces:

[Open To All: Bringing Collaborative Editing to the Drupal Node](https://www.palantir.net/blog/open-all-bringing-collaborative-editing-drupal-node)

Jacob Rocko is:

[Defining the Architecture Decisions Behind the Schema.org Blueprints Module for Drupal](https://www.jrockowitz.com/blog/schemadotorg-decisions)

Golems explores:

[Building a Decentralized Application with Drupal and IPFS](https://gole.ms/guidance/building-decentralized-application-drupal-and-ipfs)

ZYXware examines:

[No Code Tools in Drupal Web Development](https://www.zyxware.com/article/6587/no-code-tools-in-drupal-web-development)

[How to Enforce Selection of Published Contents in Entity Reference Fields](https://www.zyxware.com/article/6597/how-to-enforce-selection-of-published-contents-in-entity-reference-fields)

InWebWorks looks at:

[Drupal SEO: Everything You Need to Know](https://www.lnwebworks.com/Insight/drupal-seo-everything-you-need-know)

DrupalEasy explores:

[Smart Trim module - past, present, and future](https://www.drupaleasy.com/blogs/ultimike/2023/07/smart-trim-module-past-present-and-future) 

And demonstrates:

[Solving a local "502 Bad Gateway" Drupal issue](https://www.drupaleasy.com/blogs/ultimike/2023/07/solving-local-502-bad-gateway-drupal-issue)

Specbee examines:

[Component-Based Theming with Drupal’s Single Directory Component](https://www.specbee.com/blogs/component-based-theming-with-drupal-single-directory-component)

**This is fantastic stuff as is SDC.**

### Previous Weeks

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

## PHP

### This Week

Abdellah Aarab has:

[NativePHP: Empowering Developers to Build Attractive Native Desktop Apps with PHP](https://aarababdellah.medium.com/nativephp-empowering-developers-to-build-attractive-native-desktop-apps-with-php-6a2092bc24)

**This was all the rage at LaraconUS this week.**

Backend Developer looks at:

[PHP 8.2: A Glimpse into the Future of Web Development](https://kvnc-inc.medium.com/php-8-2-a-glimpse-into-the-future-of-web-development-321c40d70e30)

Zhukmax explores:

[Design Patterns in PHP 8: Builder](https://dev.to/zhukmax/design-patterns-in-php-8-builder-2ike)

Tom Smykowski shares:

[5 Awesome PHP Projects: Simplified PHP Development and Time Tracking Tools EP 2](https://tomaszs2.medium.com/5-awesome-php-projects-simplified-php-development-and-time-tracking-tools-ep-2-4316c71d9eeb)

Tomas Votruba examines:

[Two Kinds of Legacy Code Upgrade](https://tomasvotruba.com/blog/two-kinds-of-legacy-code-upgrade)

PhpStorm announces:

[PhpStorm 2023.1.4 is released](https://blog.jetbrains.com/phpstorm/2023/07/phpstorm-2023-1-4-is-released/)

Mariia Vain looks at:

[Unit Testing Best Practices in PHP — Writing High-Quality Tests](https://medium.com/@lycsona/unit-testing-best-practices-in-php-writing-high-quality-tests-860ed08a0d2)

Felix Alexander shows us how to avoid:

[The Buffer Curse](https://infosecwriteups.com/the-buffer-curse-3591efb4a724)

Exakat has:

[The Clean Code Solution for Your DevOps Workflow in PHP](https://www.exakat.io/en/the-clean-code-solution-for-your-devops-workflow-in-php/)

Capital Numbers shares:

[Caching Strategies in PHP: Boosting Performance with Memcached and Redis](https://capitalnumbers.medium.com/caching-strategies-in-php-boosting-performance-with-memcached-and-redis-5da6e9d08ccf)

Doğan Uçar points us to:

[Towards Powerful PHP Applications: WeakMaps and Their Practical Usage](https://doganoo.medium.com/towards-powerful-php-applications-weakmaps-and-their-practical-usage-d1997f93cdc)

**This is an interesting article.**

![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

BleepingComputer reports:
[Ukraine takes down massive bot farm, seizes 150,000 SIM cards](https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/ukraine-takes-down-massive-bot-farm-seizes-150-000-sim-cards/)

[CISA orders govt agencies to mitigate Windows and Office zero-days](https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/cisa-orders-govt-agencies-to-mitigate-windows-and-office-zero-days/)

The AP reports:

[Britain’s MI6 chief says his spies are using AI to disrupt flow of weapons to Russia](https://apnews.com/article/mi6-spy-chief-moore-prague-russia-iran-cfb837ebdfa3db8043dc655cbf3573d5)

The Anti-Defamation League reports:

[Six Things ADL is Watching Following Meta's Threads Launch](https://www.adl.org/resources/blog/six-things-adl-watching-following-metas-threads-launch)

The Guardian reports:

[Extremist-friendly tech company closes after fine for securities fraud](https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/jul/16/lbry-closes-odysee-cryptocurrency-tech-sec-fraud-extremist)

The Register reports:

[US govt adds European spyware vendors to banned Entity List](https://www.theregister.com/2023/07/18/us_sanctions_commercial_spyware/)

Politico reports:

[Facebook, Instagram face Norwegian ban from tracking users for ads](https://www.politico.eu/article/facebook-instagram-norway-ban-track-users-ads/)

The Next Web reports:

[Spain fines Apple and Amazon €194M for colluding to restrict competition](https://thenextweb.com/news/spain-apple-amazon-fine)

Windows Central reports:

[Microsoft faces antitrust scrutiny from the European Union over Teams, Office 365 | Windows Central](https://www.windowscentral.com/microsoft/microsoft-faces-antitrust-scrutiny-from-the-european-union)

### The Evil Empire Strikes Back

The Record reports:

[Russian hacking group Armageddon increasingly targets Ukrainian state services](https://therecord.media/armageddon-gamaredon-russian-hacking-group-increasingly-targeting-ukraine-government)

The Hacker News reports:

[Turla's New DeliveryCheck Backdoor Breaches Ukrainian Defense Sector](https://thehackernews.com/2023/07/turlas-new-deliverycheck-backdoor.html)

MIT Technology Review reports:

[How Chinese government-linked Twitter accounts hide their traces](https://www.technologyreview.com/2023/07/19/1076493/china-twitter-state-media-latam/)

Semafor reports:

[Iran is on a hacking spree. The reason why may be ominous.](https://www.semafor.com/article/07/10/2023/iran-is-on-a-hacking-spree-the-reason-why-may-be-ominous)

### Cybersecurity/Privacy

The Register reports:

[Manually patch this Zimbra bug that's under attack](https://www.theregister.com/2023/07/17/patch_zimbra_alert/)

BBC News reports:

[Typo sends millions of US military emails to Russian ally Mali](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-66226873)

**Jesus. Money can’t cure stupidity.**

Ars Technica reports:

[Exploited 0-days, an incomplete fix, and a botched disclosure: Infosec snafu reigns](https://arstechnica.com/security/2023/07/vulnerabilities-in-adobe-coldfusion-and-citrix-netscaler-are-under-active-exploitation/)

Decipher reports:

[Workers Come and Go: Offboarding Security Gaps Remain the Same](https://apple.news/ADutrBwk_QIKmeFssZNeLQg)

Dark Reading reports:

[Hacker Infected & Foiled by Own Infostealer](https://www.darkreading.com/remote-workforce/hacker-infected-foiled-by-own-infostealer)

**Karma.**

TechCrunch reports:

[Fake passports, real bank accounts: How TheTruthSpy stalkerware made its millions](https://techcrunch.com/2023/07/20/thetruthspy-stalkerware-forged-passports-millions/)

### More Programming

Joan Westenberg is the rare tech writer with a vision:

[How to Build an Internet that Doesn’t Suck](https://joanwestenberg.medium.com/how-to-build-an-internet-that-doesnt-suck-675f4b4c7039)

Henry From Online explains:

[Using Focal Points, Aspect Ratio & Object-Fit To Crop Images Correctly](https://henry.codes/writing/pure-css-focal-points/)

Comicss published: 

[ABCs of CSS](https://comicss.art/?id=95)

**Marvelous cartoons coded in CSS.**

![CSS cartoon](https://www.symfonystation.com/sites/default/files/inline-images/CSS-Florida.webp)

**Is this a dig at Fascism-Friendly Florida? ;)**

Jason Knight

[The Dangers Of Using VW/VH For Font-Size](https://deathshadow.medium.com/the-dangers-of-using-vw-vh-for-font-size-39466a05bc02)

Themer exposes:

[The Single Most Important Factor that Differentiates Frontend Frameworks](https://themer.dev/blog/the-single-most-important-factor-that-differentiates-front-end-frameworks)

Jorge Arango shows us:

[How to Write Good Labels](https://jarango.com/2023/07/10/how-to-write-good-labels/)

OpenLampTech shares:

[OpenLampTech - Founder & Developer Interview With Roman Agabekov](https://openlamptech.substack.com/p/openlamptech-founder-and-developer)

The Guardian has this database case study:

[Roll Over Rollups! The Big Future of Ophan’s Historical Data](https://www.theguardian.com/info/2023/jun/07/roll-over-rollups-the-big-future-of-ophans-historical-data)

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

### Fediverse

The Fediverse Report shares:

[Last Week in the Fediverse – episode 27](https://fediversereport.com/last-week-in-the-fediverse-episode-27/)

[Dutch government officially launches Mastodon server](https://fediversereport.com/dutch-government-officially-launches-mastodon-server/)

We Distribute reports:

[The Rise of Social Analytics on Mastodon](https://wedistribute.org/2023/07/fediverse-analytics-and-you/)

The NewStack reports:

[Threads Adopting ActivityPub Makes Sense, but Won’t Be Easy](https://thenewstack.io/threads-adopting-activitypub-makes-sense-but-wont-be-easy/)

[Calckey rebrands as Firefish](https://joinfirefish.org/)

Bonfire published:

[Making things intuitive is complex! Or, what we discovered via user testing](https://bonfirenetworks.org/posts/making_things_intuitive_is_complex/)

kbin announces:

[kbin's API is coming soon!](https://kbin.social/m/kbinMeta/p/903221)

[First upcoming /kbin release!](https://kbin.melroy.org/m/updates/t/8700)

## CTAs (aka show us some free love)

- That’s it for this week. Please share this communiqué.
- Also, please [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).
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- Do you like Reddit? Why? Instead, follow us [on kbin](https://kbin.social/u/symfonystation) for a better Fediverse and Symfony-based experience.

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!

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## Author

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

### Reuben Walker

Founder
Symfony Station