Tag: architecture
API Versioning
Strategies for evolving an API without breaking existing consumers — URI versioning, header versioning, and content negotiation.
2mo ago
api_design intermediate
Event Sourcing vs Messaging
1
Event sourcing stores all state changes as immutable events (the source of truth) — messaging delivers events between services. They complement each other but serve different purposes.
2mo ago
messaging intermediate
IoC Container
PHP 7.0+
An Inversion of Control container automatically resolves and injects class dependencies — you declare what a class needs, the container figures out how to create it, eliminating manual dependency wiring.
2mo ago
quality intermediate
Message Queue Patterns
Core messaging patterns — competing consumers, scatter-gather, request-reply, message filter, and routing slip — solve recurring distributed communication challenges.
2mo ago
messaging intermediate
OLAP vs OLTP
OLTP (Online Transaction Processing) optimises for many small, fast read/write operations — your main application database. OLAP (Online Analytical Processing) optimises for few, large analytical queries scanning millions of rows — your reporting and analytics database.
2mo ago
database intermediate
PHP Execution Model — Shared-Nothing Architecture
PHP 5.0+
Each PHP request runs in a completely isolated process or thread — no memory, globals, or state is shared between requests. Every request bootstraps the entire application from scratch and discards everything when it ends.
2mo ago
php intermediate
Cloud-Native Patterns
PHP 5.0+
Stateless services, externalised config, health checks, graceful shutdown, and immutable infrastructure — the 12-Factor App extended for containers.
3mo ago
cloud intermediate
Database Triggers
PHP 5.0+ Stored procedures that fire automatically on INSERT, UPDATE, or DELETE — useful for audit logs and enforcing constraints, but dangerous when they become hidden business logic.
3mo ago
database intermediate
Document Stores
PHP 7.0+
2
Databases that store semi-structured documents (JSON/BSON) — MongoDB, CouchDB — flexible schema, nested data, and horizontal scaling at the cost of no joins and eventual consistency.
3mo ago
database intermediate
Event Bus Patterns
PHP 7.0+
Patterns for routing events between publishers and subscribers — in-process event buses (Symfony EventDispatcher), message broker buses (RabbitMQ, Kafka), and hybrid architectures.
3mo ago
messaging intermediate
Git Submodules & Monorepo Alternatives
Git submodules embed one repo inside another — complex to manage. Composer packages, git subtrees, and monorepos are better alternatives for most PHP projects.
3mo ago
git intermediate
GraphQL vs REST vs gRPC
REST for public APIs and resource-oriented design, GraphQL for flexible client-driven queries, gRPC for high-performance internal service communication.
3mo ago
api_design intermediate
Message Serialisation
JSON (readable, flexible), Avro (schema-enforced, compact, Kafka standard), Protobuf (typed, 5-10x smaller) — matching format to volume and schema requirements.
3mo ago
messaging intermediate
Queue-Based Load Levelling
Using a queue between producers and consumers to absorb traffic spikes — producers enqueue at any rate, consumers process at a sustainable rate, preventing the backend from being overwhelmed.
3mo ago
messaging intermediate
Table Module Pattern
One class per database table handling all logic — a pragmatic middle ground between Transaction Script and full Domain Model.
3mo ago
quality intermediate
Transaction Script Pattern
A pattern where each business operation is a single procedure — simple, linear, and appropriate for straightforward workflows without complex domain logic.
3mo ago
quality intermediate
API Design Principles
Guidelines for designing interfaces — method signatures, HTTP endpoints, error responses — that are intuitive, consistent, and evolvable.
3mo ago
architecture intermediate
API Gateway Pattern
A single entry point for all clients that handles routing, authentication, rate limiting, and protocol translation for backend services.
3mo ago
architecture intermediate
Attack Surface
PHP 5.0+ The sum of all points where an attacker can try to enter or extract data from a system.
3mo ago
general intermediate
Circuit Breaker Pattern
PHP 5.0+ Wrapping calls to a flaky downstream service with a state machine that opens (stops calls) after threshold failures, preventing cascade failures.
3mo ago
architecture intermediate