Symfony Station Communiqué — 14 July 2023. A look at Symfony, Drupal, PHP, Cybersecurity, and Fediverse news!
Tags: symfony, drupal, php, fediverse
Published: 2023-07-15 13:50:27

This communiqué [originally appeared on Symfony Station](https://www.symfonystation.com/Symfony-Station-Communique-14-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. Fediverse items are growing almost as fast as the Fediverse itself.

Or jump straight to your favorite section via our website.

 

- [Symfony](https://www.symfonystation.com/Symfony-Station-Communique-14-July-2023#symfony)
- [PHP](https://www.symfonystation.com/Symfony-Station-Communique-14-July-2023#php)
- [Other](https://www.symfonystation.com/Symfony-Station-Communique-14-July-2023#other)
- [Cybersecurity](https://www.symfonystation.com/Symfony-Station-Communique-14-July-2023#cybersecurity)
- [More programming](https://www.symfonystation.com/Symfony-Station-Communique-14-July-2023#more)
- [Fediverse](https://www.symfonystation.com/Symfony-Station-Communique-14-July-2023#fediverse)

Once again, thanks to Javier Eguiluz and Symfony for sharing [our latest communiqué](https://www.symfonystation.com/Symfony-Station-Communique-07-July-2023) in their [Week of Symfony](https://symfony.com/blog/a-week-of-symfony-862-3-9-july-2023).

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

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![Symfony Station](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, the upcoming Symfony 6.4 version continued adding native return types to its codebase. Meanwhile, the Symfony 7.0 branch, which will be released at the same time, continued removing deprecated code paths. In addition, Symfony announced the SymfonyOnline January 2024 conference and the first speakers of SymfonyLive Berlin 2023 conference.”

[A Week of Symfony #862 (3-9 July 2023)](https://symfony.com/blog/a-week-of-symfony-862-3-9-july-2023)

Symfony announces:

[SymfonyCon Brussels 2023 - Submit your talk before August 28!](https://symfony.com/blog/symfonycon-brussels-2023-submit-your-talk-before-august-28)

Blackfire shares:

[Navigating your first days as an environment manager with Blackfire](https://blog.blackfire.io/navigating-your-first-days-as-an-environment-manager-with-blackfire.html)

SensioLabs compares:

[TDD vs. TFD: no more confusion!](https://medium.com/the-sensiolabs-tech-blog/tdd-vs-tfd-no-more-confusion-d371bca5e682)

PlatformSH says:

[Drupal 7 EOL announced: It's time to move on](https://dev.to/platformsh/drupal-7-eol-announced-its-time-to-move-on-2n8f)

**You will notice this is something of a theme this week.**

SymfonyCasts releases a new course:

[This week in SymfonyCasts](https://5hy9x.r.a.d.sendibm1.com/mk/mr/sh/1t6AVsd2XFnIGBrRERGJumwddAsNT1/VnzHwSgtQD86)

---

## Featured Item

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

We toot our own horn this week for our featured item.

I have had harsh words in the past for sinful sites refusing to upgrade from Drupal 7. And for wishy-washy Drupal leadership that repeatedly backslides from ending support for it.

But fear not, ye doomed and damned denizens of Drupal 7 misery, a savior is at hand. Stretch out your wretched arms and embrace salvation before death drags you down to the fires of website hell. 😈

Matt Glaman’s Retrofit has opened an easier path to upgrading from Drupal 7. And Backdrop CMS offers an option for those who refuse modern Drupal in their life but require a solid off-ramp.

### **[Retrofit or Backdrop CMS: Which savior should the damned on Drupal 7 sites turn to?](https://www.symfonystation.com/Retrofit-Backdrop-CMS-Drupal-7)**

---

### This Week

Nico Anastadio explores:

[RESTful APIs with Symfony: Building Web Services](https://anastasionico.uk/blog/restful-apis-with-symfony-building-web-services)

Gremo demonstrates:

[API Platform up and running in 5 minutes](https://dev.to/gremo/api-platform-up-and-running-in-5-minutes-1ko2)

Soufiyane Aitmoulay shows us:

[Setting up a testing database in Symfony](https://medium.com/@soufiyane.aitmoulay/setting-up-a-testing-database-in-symfony-54c5ff5a85dd)

Nacho Colomina Torregrosa examines:

[Testing an external API using PHPUnit](https://dev.to/icolomina/testing-an-external-api-using-phpunit-m8j)

### eCommerce

Vpodorozh looks at:

[Extension Attributes in Adobe Commerce: Achieving Clean and Decoupled Code](https://dev.to/vpodorozh/extension-attributes-in-adobe-commerce-achieving-clean-and-decoupled-code-1i88)

Shopware published:

[Shopware Community Digest June 23](https://www.shopware.com/en/news/shopware-community-digest-june-23/)

Neue Anleitung shares: 

[Shopware 6 mit Object Storage verbinden](https://timmehosting.de/shopware-6-mit-object-storage-verbinden)

### CMSs

Joomla announces:

[Joomla 4.3.3 and 3.10.12 Bug Fix Release](https://www.joomla.org/announcements/release-news/5888-joomla-4-3-3-and-3-10-12-bug-fix-release.html)

[Call for Manifestos - Group 1 Elections (2024)](https://community.joomla.org/blogs/leadership/call-for-manifestos-group-1-elections-2023.html)

TYPO3 announces:

[TYPO3 12.4.3 and 11.5.29 maintenance releases published](https://typo3.org/article/typo3-1243-and-11529-maintenance-releases-published)

[The Schedule for Developer Days Conference](https://t3dd23.typo3.com/schedule)

Drupal opines:

[Drupal Event Platform makes major strides in 2023](https://www.drupal.org/community/event-organizers/blog/drupal-event-platform-makes-major-strides-in-2023)

DrupalizeMe announces:

[Changes in How We Approach Theming in Drupal](https://drupalize.me/blog/changes-how-we-approach-theming-drupal)

**This is one of the best Drupal posts I have seen in a while. But DrupalizeMe, you need to get the fuck off Pantheon.**

InWebWorks tells us why:

[Why Drupal introduces swift upgrades and why to perform timely migrations](https://www.lnwebworks.com/Insight/why-drupal-introduces-swift-upgrades-and-why-perform-timely-migrations)

[7 Fabulous Tools Every Drupal Developer Should Be Aware Of](https://www.lnwebworks.com/Insight/tools-every-drupal-developer-should-be-aware)

HashBangCode explores:

[Drupal 10: Using Default Content Deploy To Create Testing Content](https://www.hashbangcode.com/article/drupal-10-using-default-content-deploy-create-testing-content)

OHO Interactive is putting on a free and interesting conference:

[OHO U Drupal Healthcare Conference: Registration](https://www.oho.com/oho-u/drupal-healthcare-conference/registration)

Specbee shares details of their recent site makeover:

[A Marketer’s Take on why your website deserves a Drupal-powered Makeover](https://www.specbee.com/blogs/why-your-website-deserves-drupal-powered-makeover)

Lullabot demonstrates:

[Drupal Webforms and Zapier Automation](https://www.lullabot.com/articles/drupal-webforms-and-zapier-automation)

Savior of Drupal 7 sites, Matt Glaman asks:

[Can we use concurrency to speed up streamed BigPipe responses in Drupal?](https://mglaman.dev/blog/can-we-use-concurrency-speed-streamed-bigpipe-responses-drupal)

DrupalEasy’s podcast features an interview with Matt Glaman.

[Transcript](https://www.drupaleasy.com/podcast/transcript/1043)

**By coincidence, they discuss Retrofit about 6 minutes in.**

Qtatech explains:

[Why You Should Consider Migrating from Drupal 7 to Backdrop CMS](https://qtatech.com/en/article/why-you-should-consider-migrating-drupal-7-backdrop-cms)

**You shouldn’t consider it. You should do it or migrate via Retrofit to Drupal 9/10.**

Chromatic examines:

[Migrating Drupal 7 to Modern Drupal in 2023](https://chromatichq.com/insights/migrate-drupal-7-into-modern-drupal/)

**Drupal core and three modules can do a lot of the heavy lifting before you even get to Retrofit.**

Qtatech covers:

[Mastering Patch Creation for Drupal Modules: Tips and Tricks](https://qtatech.com/en/article/mastering-patch-creation-drupal-modules-tips-and-tricks)

PreviousNext demonstrates:

[Zero friction testing with Drupal Test Traits](https://www.previousnext.com.au/blog/road-zero-friction-testing-drupal-test-traits)

### Previous Weeks

Acquia has:

[Drupal SEO - A Marketer’s Guide](https://www.acquia.com/blog/drupal-seo)

Miary Rabehasy shares:

[Héberger une application Symfony 6.3 dans un téléphone Android avec Termux et utiliser FRP pour créer un tunnel](https://miary.dev/2023/06/30/heberger-une-application-symfony-6-3-dans-un-telephone-android-avec-termux-et-utiliser-frp-pour-creer-un-tunnel/)

Gabriel Anhaia looks at the:

[Money Pattern with Symfony Framework](https://medium.com/devwarlocks/money-pattern-with-symfony-framework-55eff713b3d5)

Antonio Turdo explores:

[Applying SOLID principles with Symfony](https://antonio-turdo.medium.com/applying-solid-principles-with-symfony-2f009c9131c5)

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

## PHP

### This Week

Ben Klein examines:

[PHP 8 — Worth The Upgrade?](https://kleinis.me/php-8-worth-the-upgrade-e8e86cffcf0b)

Gabriel Anhaia looks at:

[Understanding and Using Enums in PHP 8.1](https://medium.com/devwarlocks/understanding-and-using-enums-in-php-8-1-3ed076f9f3a8)

Asifzcpe advises on:

[Choosing Between Static and Non-Static Methods in PHP: Real-World Use Cases and Code Examples](https://dev.to/asifzcpe/choosing-between-static-and-non-static-methods-in-php-real-world-use-cases-and-code-examples-1gi2)

İbrahim Halil Oğlakcı explores:

[Performing Database Operations with PHP](https://ibrahimoglakci.medium.com/performing-database-operations-with-php-ad785a41eb12)

PHPStan published:

[Using RuleErrorBuilder to enrich reported errors in custom rules](https://phpstan.org/blog/using-rule-error-builder)

Infinity Paul shares:

[ReactPHP Turns 11: Announcing Promise v3.0.0 — More Power to Asynchronous PHP!](https://infinitypaul.medium.com/reactphp-turns-11-announcing-promise-v3-0-0-more-power-to-asynchronous-php-159096ed7310)

Miladev95 has:

[PHP LDAP](https://medium.com/@miladev95/php-ldap-337cab871da9)

![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 Kyiv Post reports:

[Russian Commander Stanislav Rzhytsky Shot Dead After Posting Runs on Strava Running App](https://www.kyivpost.com/post/19325)

**High tech and human intelligence aren’t the strengths of the Russian Military. Unfortunately, they are very good at murdering people. But karma is a bitch.**

The Washington Post reports:

[The cyber provisions to watch in the big defense bill](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/07/10/cyber-provisions-watch-big-defense-bill/)

OODA Loop reports:

[The National Cybersecurity Strategy Implementation Plan is Now Available](https://www.oodaloop.com/archive/2023/07/13/the-national-cybersecurity-strategy-implementation-plan-is-now-available/)

Om reports:

[Zuck Threads The Needle & Pricks Musk](https://om.co/2023/07/11/zuck-threads-the-needle-pricks-musk/)

### The Evil Empire Strikes Back

Decipher reports:

[Microsoft Warns of Unpatched Office Zero Day](https://apple.news/A6GOtuRnBSnyDU4qDbGMwxg)

Reuters reports:

[Russian hackers lured diplomats in Ukraine with cheap BMW ad](https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russian-hackers-lured-embassy-workers-ukraine-with-an-ad-cheap-bmw-2023-07-12/)

Dark Reading reports:
[Killnet Tries Building Russian Hacktivist Clout With Media Stunts](https://www.darkreading.com/attacks-breaches/killnet-wants-to-consolidate-russian-hacktivist-groups)

The Hacker News reports:

[Two Spyware Apps on Google Play with 1.5 Million Users Sending Data to China](https://thehackernews.com/2023/07/two-spyware-apps-on-google-play-with-15.html)

The Washington Post reports:

[Chinese hackers breach U.S. government email through Microsoft cloud](https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/07/12/microsoft-hack-china/)

Daring Fireball reports:

[Facebook Wanted NSO Spyware to Monitor iOS Users](https://daringfireball.net/linked/2020/04/04/facebook-nso-group)

The Guardian reports:

[Spain closes Pegasus investigation over ‘lack of cooperation’ from Israel](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jul/10/spain-closes-pegasus-investigation-over-lack-of-cooperation-from-israel) 

### Cybersecurity/Privacy

The Hacker News reports:

[Beware of Big Head Ransomware: Spreading Through Fake Windows Updates](https://thehackernews.com/2023/07/beware-of-big-head-ransomware-spreading.html)

Dark Reading reports:
[Mastodon Patches 4 Bugs, but Is the Twitter Killer Safe to Use?](https://www.darkreading.com/vulnerabilities-threats/mastodon-patches-4-bugs-but-is-the-twitter-killer-safe-to-use-)

The lemmy.world instance of Lemmy was hacked:

[Recap of the Lemmy XSS incident & steps for mitigation](https://lemmy.world/post/1293336)

### More Programming

Anil Dash explores:

["VC qanon" and the radicalization of the tech tycoons](https://anildash.com/2023/07/07/vc-qanon/)

**This almost made the featured article of the week. But I'm selfish. ;)**

Meghanath Aviligonda examines:

[14 Global HTML Attributes, You Should Know](https://medium.com/@meghanathblogger/14-global-html-attributes-you-should-know-74cfa5fb200c) 

Smashing Magazine looks at:

[Writing CSS In 2023: Is It Any Different Than A Few Years Ago?](https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2023/07/writing-css-2023/)

Cory Doctorow says:

[Let the Platforms Burn](https://doctorow.medium.com/let-the-platforms-burn-6fb3e6c0d980)

**This is also worthy of the featured article of the week. Preach, Brother.**

MarkTechPost reports:

[H2O.ai Introduces h2oGPT: A Suite of Open-Source Code Repositories for Democratizing Large Language Models (LLMs)](https://www.marktechpost.com/2023/07/08/h2o-ai-introduces-h2ogpt-a-suite-of-open-source-code-repositories-for-democratizing-large-language-models-llms/)

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

### Fediverse

The Fediverse Report published:

[Last Week in the Fediverse – episode 26](https://fediversereport.com/last-week-in-the-fediverse-episode-26/)

[Making sense of Threads and regulation](https://fediversereport.com/making-sense-of-threads-and-regulation/)

Fastly writes:

[It’s been a wild week for the open social web](https://dev.to/fastly/its-been-a-wild-week-for-the-open-social-web-2c8o)

Popular Science shares:

[ActivityPub and the Fediverse, explained](https://www.popsci.com/technology/activitypub-fediverse/)

Binnenlandsbestuur reports:

[In the Fediverse, the municipality determines the rules itself](https://www.binnenlandsbestuur.nl/digitaal/amsterdam-ziet-mastodonserver-als-veilige-investering)

**Amsterdam is starting a Mastodon instance. The nation of the Netherlands is [joining the Fediverse](https://social.overheid.nl/@avhuffelen/110700825255524685) as well.**

Werd Cloud is trying to make AP easier to use:

[ActivityPub API service](https://werd.cloud/ActivityPub+API+service)

Automattic announced:

[Jetpack Social: Connecting to Social Networks](https://jetpack.com/support/jetpack-social/connecting-to-social-networks/)

**Automatically share you new WordPress posts to Mastodon.**

Speaking of which, Wee Press explores:

[Using WordPress as an ActivityPub instance](https://wee.press/blog/using-wordpress-as-an-activitypub-instance/)

Tumblr announced:

[StreamBuilder: our open-source framework for powering your dashboard](https://www.tumblr.com/engineering/722102563011493888/streambuilder-our-open-source-framework-for)

**They also announced they would be adding Activity Pub, but we are still waiting. StreamBuilder may be useful for Activity Pub clients though.**

PCMag says:

[Threads Wants to Join the Fediverse, But Some Mastodon Users Say No Way](https://me.pcmag.com/en/social-media-1/18060/threads-wants-to-join-the-fediverse-but-some-mastodon-users-say-no-way)

The Nexus Today has:

[Threat modeling Meta, the Fediverse, and privacy](https://privacy.thenexus.today/fediverse-threat-modeling-privacy-and-meta/)

In Welcome to Garbagetown, my sister from another mother writes:

[Mark Fucking Zuckerberg Is Not Your Friend](https://catvalente.substack.com/p/mark-fking-zuckerberg-is-not-your)

Siva Vaidhyanathan writes:

[Mark Zuckerberg’s Threads? The app is vapid, boring, and destined to fail](https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/jul/13/threads-mark-zuckerberg-twitter-meta)

Vijay Prima explores:

[Reddit exodus - Using Lemmy from my existing Mastodon](https://vijayprema.com/using-lemmy-from-my-existing-mastodon/)

kbin shares:

[kbin project management costs, financing, future plans](https://kbin.social/m/kbinMeta/t/177112/kbin-project-management-costs-financing-future-plans)

And evidently, kbin has a new mascot, Kirby. ;)

![kbin mascot (parrot), Kirby with Lemmy mascot (mouse)](https://www.symfonystation.com/sites/default/files/styles/max_1300x1300/public/inline-images/kirby.png?itok=eIzdoy9B)

**I am sure he’s just flying his friend Lemmy across town.**

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## Author

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

### Reuben Walker

Founder
Symfony Station