Terms starting with "A"
API Contract Testing
1
Consumer-driven contract tests verify that a provider API matches what consumers expect — catching breaking changes before deployment, without end-to-end tests.
3mo ago
api_design advanced
API Documentation
OpenAPI/Swagger for REST APIs, Postman collections for explorability, and Stoplight for design-first workflows — good API docs are the product's user interface for developers.
3mo ago
api_design intermediate
API Idempotency Keys
PHP 7.0+ A client-generated unique key sent with non-idempotent requests — the server stores the response and returns it unchanged if the same key is received again, preventing duplicate operations.
3mo ago
api_design intermediate
API Key Lifecycle Management
4
Generating, distributing, rotating, and revoking API keys securely — covering scoping, expiry, audit logging, and emergency revocation procedures.
3mo ago
security intermediate
API Mocking
Prism (OpenAPI mock server), WireMock (HTTP stub server), Mockoon (GUI), and Guzzle MockHandler for PHP unit tests — enabling testing without real API calls.
3mo ago
api_design intermediate
APM Tools
PHP 5.0+
Application Performance Monitoring tools — Datadog, New Relic, Elastic APM — provide distributed tracing, performance profiling, error tracking, and anomaly detection in production.
3mo ago
observability intermediate
App Shell Architecture
PHP 7.0+
1
Caching the minimal HTML, CSS, and JS needed to display the UI skeleton on first load — so the shell renders instantly from cache while dynamic content loads from the network.
3mo ago
mobile intermediate
Assigning new by Reference
PHP 8.1+
Writing $obj = &new ClassName() — assigning a new object by reference is redundant in PHP 5+ where objects are already passed by handle, not value.
3mo ago
php beginner
Asymmetric Visibility (PHP 8.4)
PHP 8.4+
PHP 8.4 allows separate read and write visibility on properties — public(get) private(set) means anyone can read but only the class can write.
3mo ago
php intermediate
ABC Metric (Assignments, Branches, Conditions)
PHP 5.0+
2
Code complexity metric using vector magnitude of assignments, branches, and conditions — more expressive than line count.
3mo ago
quality advanced
abstract (Classes & Methods)
PHP 5.0+
1
PHP keyword that prevents instantiation and enforces method implementation in subclasses.
3mo ago
php beginner
Abstract Classes
PHP 5.0+
4
Non-instantiable classes that define shared behaviour and enforce subclasses to implement required methods.
3mo ago
php intermediate
Abstract Syntax Tree (AST)
PHP 7.0+
10
Tree representation of code structure used by compilers and tools to analyse and transform programs.
3mo ago
compiler advanced
Acceptance Testing / BDD (Behat)
PHP 5.0+
1
Testing that the system meets business requirements from a user perspective — written in plain language (Gherkin) and automated with Behat in PHP.
3mo ago
testing intermediate
Account Enumeration
PHP 5.0+ Differing application responses to valid vs. invalid usernames allow attackers to build a list of registered accounts.
CWE-203 OWASP A2:2021
3mo ago
security intermediate
5.3
Account Takeover (ATO)
PHP 5.0+
4
An attacker gains full control of a user account through credential stuffing, phishing, session hijacking, or abusing password-reset flows.
CWE-287 OWASP A7:2021
3mo ago
security intermediate
9.8
ACID Properties
PHP 5.0+ The four guarantees of database transactions: Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, and Durability.
3mo ago
general intermediate
Adapter Pattern
PHP 5.0+ Converts the interface of a class into another interface clients expect, allowing incompatible interfaces to work together.
3mo ago
general intermediate
Advanced Array Functions
PHP 5.0+
1
PHP's array_walk, usort, array_reduce, array_column, and array_combine enable expressive data transformation without explicit loops.
3mo ago
php intermediate
Advanced Context Managers
Python 3.1+
Context managers (with statements) manage resource acquisition and release — contextlib provides tools for creating them without a full class definition.
3mo ago
python intermediate