Laravel Creator Spotlight

Omar Chouman on LaraUtilX and the Lebanese Laravel Community

In this episode, Omar Chouman shares his journey into Laravel, the story behind his utility package LaraUtilX, and insights into building a vibrant Lebanese Laravel community. Discover how open source and community engagement can boost your career and learn about the future of AI-friendly Laravel tools. https://larautilx.omarchouman.com/

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Building Community Through Laravel Live Denmark with Kasper Hartwich

# Building Community Through Laravel Live Denmark > Exploring the journey of Casper and the rise of Laravel Live events. Welcome to this week’s newsletter, where we dive into the inspiring journey of Casper, a key figure in the Laravel community in Denmark. ## From Programming Beginnings to Laravel Leadership Casper’s journey into programming began back in the 90s, starting with PHP. He recalls, > "I started programming PHP back in the 90s, doing like the classic just web pages with a small PHP backend." His passion for web development led him to discover Laravel around 2013, culminating in a significant project for a major energy supplier in Denmark. His journey truly blossomed when he attended Laracon EU in 2015, where he felt embraced by the Laravel community. > "The community just gave me a big hug. That was the way how I fell in love with the Laravel community." ## The Birth of Laravel Live Denmark The idea for Laravel Live Denmark sparked during a Laracon event in Lisbon. Casper envisioned bringing a similar event to Denmark. He meticulously gathered ideas, venue options, and budget plans, ultimately leading to the formation of a non-profit association dedicated to community-driven conferences. > "I’ve always been a non-profit guy and loved the non-profit association and volunteers. So I kind of tried to make an association here in Denmark to do it in a community way." ## A Unique Experience at Laravel Live Casper emphasizes that Laravel Live Denmark aims to provide a more intimate experience compared to larger conventions. > "We don’t want to be a Laracon. I think Laracon is a big business. We are between meetups and the Laracons." This approach allows for a blend of experienced speakers and newcomers, creating an atmosphere where everyone feels included. ## Bringing Big Names to the Stage One of Casper's notable achievements has been securing prominent speakers like Taylor Otwell and DHH for the conference. His connections in the community and a shared history with DHH paved the way for this success. > "I had this crazy idea to get you and Taylor to do just a tech talk about doing a framework. I think they have a lot of similar experience with starting this." ## Looking Ahead Casper’s vision for the future includes expanding Laravel Live to other countries, fostering a global community of developers. > "I wish to have more... I think Brazil should have a Laravel Live as well." As the Laravel community continues to grow, events like Laravel Live Denmark play a crucial role in connecting developers and sharing knowledge.

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The first official Laravel Meetup in Georgia

The conversation revolves around the launch of a brand new Laravel Meetup in the country of Georgia, featuring discussions with the co-founders of RedBerry, a software development agency based in Georgia. The meetup aims to bring together the Laravel community in Georgia and provide a platform for sharing experiences and knowledge related to Laravel and PHP development. Takeaways Laravel community in Georgia is growing and enthusiastic The meetup aims to create a platform for sharing experiences and knowledge related to Laravel and PHP development

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Matt Stauffer on Shaping the Future of PHP Through the Foundation

Matt Stauffer discusses his recent appointment to the PHP Foundation board and provides insights into the foundation's purpose, structure, and impact on the Laravel community. He emphasizes the importance of community contribution and support for the PHP Foundation's initiatives, highlighting the potential for positive change and collaboration within the PHP ecosystem. Takeaways PHP Foundation's Purpose Community Contribution Chapters 00:00 Joining the PHP Foundation Board 06:34 Board Responsibilities and Meetings 12:00 Community Contribution and Support 18:11 PHP Foundation's Role and Future

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NativePHP After Laracon India: Mobile, Plugins, and AI Workflows

The conversation covers experiences at Laracon India and preparations for Laracon EU, as well as announcements made at Laracon India regarding Native PHP version 3, technical limitations, open-source development, and showcasing Native PHP's apps and capabilities. The conversation delves into the power of Laravel plugins and their impact on empowering developers. It explores early plugin adoption and sponsorship, as well as the integration of a local ML model on a device. Additionally, it highlights the significance of the Cloud Code Plugin and its potential for developers. Takeaways Laracon India and Laracon EU events Native PHP version 3 and its features Challenges and opportunities in building mobile apps with Native PHP Local ML model on device Power of Laravel plugins

Laravel, AI, and the Future of PHP (Live Chat with Jump24 Co-Founder Daniel Newns)

In this live episode of the Laravel Creator Series, I’m joined by Dan Newns, co-founder of Jump24, a Laravel development studio with over a decade of real-world experience building Laravel applications across multiple industries. We talk candidly about: - How Jump24 uses Laravel in client and internal projects - Creating weekly “This Week in Laravel” style videos - AI tools in PHP and Laravel workflows - Planning vs one-shot prompting with AI - Skills, agents, and internal AI tooling - PHP’s evolution and where Laravel is headed next - The future of junior and senior developer roles - Middleware, architecture, and long-term maintainability - Conferences like Laracon EU and Laravel Live UK Show Links - Daniel Newns LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-newns/ - Daniel Newns X https://x.com/DanielNewns - Jump 24 - https://jump24.co.uk/ This was a relaxed, unscripted live conversation covering what it’s really like to build with Laravel in 2026 and how AI is starting to reshape the ecosystem without replacing experienced developers. If you’re working with Laravel, curious about AI-assisted development, or thinking about the future of PHP, this one’s for you.

PHP Pie with James Titcumb

PIE is a new installer for PHP extensions intended to eventually replace PECL. It is distributed as a PHAR, just like Composer, and works similarly to Composer. However, it installs PHP extensions (PHP Modules or Zend Extensions) to your PHP installation rather than pulling PHP packages into your project or library. 🔗 Show Links https://laravel-news.com/php-pie-with-james-titcumb https://github.com/php/pie https://github.com/asgrim

Inside the New Laravel Forge with James Brooks

In this episode, Eric Barnes sits down with James Brooks, team lead for Laravel’s core services team, to dive into the new Laravel Forge launch. James walks through the biggest updates to Forge, from organization support and zero-downtime deployments to the new command palette that makes managing servers and deployments easier than ever. We also explore how Forge compares with Envoyer and Laravel Cloud, the challenges of building on top of legacy infrastructure, and how community feedback continues to shape the future of Laravel’s server management tools. Whether you’re a hobbyist or running production workloads at scale, this conversation will help you understand how Forge empowers developers with flexibility and control. 🔑 Key Takeaways James Brooks leads Laravel’s core services, including Forge and Envoyer. The new Forge introduces organization support and zero-downtime deployments. The command palette is a major UX improvement for developers. Forge continues to provide maximum flexibility for custom server setups. Envoyer focuses on zero-downtime deployments across multiple servers. Laravel Cloud offers a fully managed, simplified deployment experience. User feedback is central to feature development and roadmap decisions. 🔗 Resources Laravel Forge Laravel Cloud

Laravel Boost with Ashley Hindle

Laravel Boost is your new AI coding starter kit, designed to make working with AI agents better. It does this by feeding them Laravel-specific data to help them write higher-quality code. Ashley Hindle described it as, "Boost helps guide the AI to do better". Some of the features of Boost include: Provides a Laravel-specific MCP Server Version-specific documentation Laravel maintained AI guidelines Show Links https://laravel-news.com/laravel-boost https://x.com/ashleyhindle https://x.com/ericlbarnes

PHPverse - Celebrating PHP's 30th Anniversary with Brent Roose

Eric and Brent discuss the evolution of PHP, the importance of testing, and the introduction of Tempest, a new PHP framework. They delve into the challenges of code highlighting and the innovations that have emerged in the PHP community, including the exciting developments surrounding Franken-PHP. The discussion also touches on the future of PHP and upcoming events in the community. Show Links: * https://stitcher.io * https://www.youtube.com/@phpannotated * https://laravel-news.com/tempest-highlight Chapters 00:00 Celebrating 30 Years of PHP: The PHPverse 20:41 The Evolution of PHP: Features and Community Feedback 25:26 Exciting New Features: The Pipe Operator in PHP 8.5 34:31 The Importance of Testing in PHP Development 38:08 Introducing Tempest: A New PHP Framework 45:58 The Evolution of Code Highlighting in PHP 52:54 Exciting Developments in the PHP Community Takeaways * PHP is celebrating its 30th anniversary with the PHPverse event. * The PHP community has evolved significantly over the years. * JetBrains is hosting a live-streamed event to celebrate PHP's milestone. * The pipe operator is a new feature in PHP 8.5 that enhances code readability. * Community feedback is crucial in the evolution of PHP features. * The PHP core team consists of a diverse group of contributors. * The acceptance of new features often faces initial resistance from the community. * The importance of community in shaping the future of PHP is emphasized. * Type properties introduced in PHP 7.4 have greatly improved code quality. * The evolution of PHP has made it a more robust and user-friendly language. Testing is crucial for PHP development. * Many developers still do not write tests. * Innovation in PHP frameworks like Laravel is essential. * Tempest is a new PHP framework that aims to simplify development. * Code highlighting has evolved significantly in PHP. * Brent created a highlighter package to address modern PHP needs. * The highlighter package is extensible and user-friendly. * Franken-PHP is a new runtime for PHP that simplifies deployment. * The PHP community is thriving with new projects and events. * Consistency in content creation is key to success.

Whisp, a Pure PHP SSH server, with Ashley Hindle

WhispPHP is a Pure PHP SSH server created by Ashley Hindle. It is the simplest way to build PHP SSH apps and allows you to run your Laravel Prompts apps through SSH with ridiculous simplicity. Show Links: - Whisp Docs - https://whispphp.com - Whisp Demos - https://whispphp.com/docs/1.0.0/whisp-demos - Ashley’s site - https://ashleyhindle.com - FancyOG - https://fancyog.com - Croft - https://github.com/ashleyhindle/croft - Cursor AI IDE - https://www.cursor.com/ - Sam Carre’s ssh-php - https://github.com/Sammyjo20/ssh-php - Terminal.shop - https://www.terminal.shop/ - Joe Tannenbaum’s CLI experiments - https://laracasts.com/series/cli-experiments - Joe Tannenbaum’s hacking prompts for fun and profit - https://blog.joe.codes/hacking-laravel-prompts-for-fun-and-profit

Larabelles, Conference Speaking, and more with Zuzana K

In this episode, Eric L. Barnes sits down with Zuzana to explore the power of community in tech and her journey building Larabelles, an initiative supporting women and everyone who doesn't identify as a man in Laravel development. Zuzana shares her path into tech, the challenges of promoting diversity, and why visible role models matter. They dive into the importance of sponsorships, the flexibility tech careers offer (especially for parents), and how creativity and mindfulness intersect with coding. # Show Links * https://larabelles.com/ * https://www.zuzana-k.com/ * https://cheeseandweather.com/

How to Get Hired and Hire Better with Dave Hicking

We sat down with Dave Hicking to talk about LaraJobs' new section of articles and videos to help you advance your career and improve your hiring processes. They are breaking it down into two sections: For Developers: How to Get Hired This section offers insights and practical advice to assist developers in navigating the job market effectively. Some of the highlights include: Finding Your First Developer Job: Essential strategies for landing your first role in software development. Level Up: From Junior to Senior Developer: Guidance on advancing your career in software development. How to Prepare for a Job Interview: Effective strategies to confidently prepare for and succeed in your next job interview. For Hiring Managers: How to Hire This segment focuses on enhancing the hiring process to attract and retain top talent. Key articles include: Creating a Good Hiring Process: A comprehensive guide to building an effective hiring process that attracts and identifies the right candidates. How to Write a Good Job Post: Crafting clear, compelling job posts to attract the right developer candidates. Building a Team That Works Well Together: Key steps to building a high-performing team. Show Links LaraJobs Hiring and Career Articles LaraJobs YouTube LaraJobs Affiliate Program

Connect your Laravel application to the physical world with Pinout

Pinout is a Laravel package that bridges the gap between web applications and hardware, enabling developers to control hardware components directly from their Laravel projects. With Pinout, you can interact with GPIO pins, control displays, and more, all within Laravel. How does Pinout work? Run your Laravel application directly on your Raspberry Pi, and connect your hardware to the GPIO pins. In your Laravel application, you can use the PinService facade to control individual pins. Or you can use the included drivers to interact with more complex hardware, such as LCD displays. Show Links * https://danjohnson.xyz/ * https://github.com/danjohnson95 * https://x.com/danjohnsonxyz * https://pinout.mintlify.app/introduction

ImapEngine with Steve Bauman

Steve Bauman talks with us about his newest package, ImapEngine, which provides a simple API for managing mailboxes -- without the PHP extension. ## Show Links * https://github.com/stevebauman * https://github.com/DirectoryTree/ImapEngine * https://github.com/zbateson/mail-mime-parser * https://spamwise.ai/ * https://github.com/DirectoryTree/LdapRecord

Laravel 12 and Laravel Shift with Jason McCreary

We are joined by Jason McCreary (JMac) to discuss the upcoming release of Laravel 12, the importance of small improvements in the framework, and the role of Laravel Shift in making our lives easier. Show Links https://laravelshift.com/ https://shop.laravelshift.com/ https://x.com/gonedark https://jasonmccreary.me/ https://laravel-news.com/laravel-12-release-date https://laravel-news.com/laravel-12-laravel-shift

Introducing Fusion - write PHP inside Vue and React components with Aaron Francis

Aaron Francis and Try Hard Studios just officially launched Fusion! Fusion is the simplest way to combine your modern JavaScript frontend with your Laravel backend. Send state from your backend to your frontend, and declare methods on the backend that can be called without API endpoints from your frontend. Fusion simplifies the process of working with JavaScript in Laravel, while still giving you full control and the full power of a batteries-included backend. Find out more in our Fusion release article on Laravel News.

NativePHP for iOS with Simon Hamp

Simon Hamp discusses the development of Native PHP iOS, a project that allows PHP applications to run natively on iOS devices without needing a web server. He shares the journey from the initial concept of Native PHP to the realization of mobile app development, the technical workings of the application, potential use cases, and future enhancements. The discussion highlights the empowerment of developers familiar with Laravel to create mobile applications and the importance of building a cohesive ecosystem between server and mobile applications. Show Links: NativePHP iOS Early access program

HydePHP - The Static Site Generator with Caen De Silva

Join us as we discuss the features and benefits of HydePHP, its integration with existing Laravel applications, and the motivation behind its creation. Caen shares insights into the challenges of maintaining an open-source project and the importance of providing a quality developer experience. The conversation also touches on the use cases for HydePHP beyond blogging, including documentation, and introduces Caen's new project, Release.new, which generates release notes from Git history. 🔗 Show Links: https://hydephp.com https://github.com/hydephp/hyde https://github.com/hydephp/framework https://windowlight.desilva.se https://caen.desilva.se/projects https://x.com/CodeWithCaen https://bsky.app/profile/caen.bsky.social https://linkedin.com/in/caen-de-silva/ https://release.new

Tim Leland: URL Shorteners and browser extensions | Laravel Creator Spotlight #19

We chat with Tim Leland about creating T.ly, a URL-shortening service. The discussion also touches on his experiences with building browser extensions and the impact of weather apps like Dark Sky on his projects. Show Links Tim Leland: https://timleland.com URL Shortner: https://t.ly