Intermediate terms
Man-in-the-Middle Attack (MitM)
PHP 5.0+ An attacker secretly intercepts and potentially alters communications between two parties who believe they are communicating directly.
CWE-300 OWASP A2:2021
6mo ago
Security intermediate
7.4
Map, Set, WeakMap & WeakSet
ES2015
ES6 collections that improve on plain objects for key-value storage (Map), unique value lists (Set), and memory-safe object associations (WeakMap, WeakSet).
6mo ago
JavaScript intermediate
Mass Assignment
PHP 5.0+
Blindly binding all user-submitted fields to a model allows attackers to set fields they should not control.
CWE-915 OWASP A1:2021
6mo ago
Security intermediate
8.1
match Expression (PHP 8.0)
PHP 8.0+
A stricter, expression-based alternative to switch that uses strict comparison, returns a value, and throws on unmatched input.
6mo ago
PHP intermediate
match() Exhaustiveness & UnhandledMatchError
PHP 8.0+
PHP 8's match expression throws UnhandledMatchError when no arm matches — enforcing exhaustiveness and eliminating silent fall-throughs.
6mo ago
PHP intermediate
Mediator Pattern
PHP 5.0+
Centralises complex communications between multiple objects into a single mediator object, reducing direct dependencies between colleagues.
6mo ago
Code Quality intermediate
Memoization
Caching the result of a pure function call keyed by its arguments so repeated calls with the same inputs return immediately.
6mo ago
Performance intermediate
Memory Leak
PHP 5.0+
11
Memory allocated during execution that is never released, causing PHP processes to grow until they exhaust available memory or are restarted.
6mo ago
Performance intermediate
Message Chains
A long chain of method calls ($a->getB()->getC()->getD()) that tightly couples code to the internal structure of multiple objects.
6mo ago
Code Quality intermediate
Metrics Types
2
Counters (ever-increasing), Gauges (current value), Histograms (distribution), and Summaries — each suited to different measurement needs in monitoring systems.
6mo ago
Observability intermediate
Middle Man
A class that does little more than delegate every method to another object — an unnecessary layer of indirection.
6mo ago
Code Quality intermediate
mime_content_type()
PHP 5.3+
Detects the actual MIME type of a file by inspecting its content — not its extension or the browser-reported type.
6mo ago
PHP intermediate
Mocking Best Practices (PHPUnit & Mockery)
PHP 5.0+ Guidelines for effective mocking: mock interfaces not classes, avoid over-mocking, prefer stubs for queries and mocks for commands.
6mo ago
Testing intermediate
Monorepo vs Polyrepo
Monorepos store multiple packages/services in one repository enabling atomic cross-service changes; polyrepos give each service independent versioning.
6mo ago
Architecture intermediate
move_uploaded_file()
PHP 4.0+
PHP's function for safely relocating an uploaded file from the temporary directory to its final destination.
OWASP A5:2021
6mo ago
PHP intermediate