For a recent project, we had to connect and query a Microsoft SQL database from a Symfony project. Since we use Docker to run the apps in separate containers, we added a new container to simulate the MSSQL database.

Preface We recently had the opportunity to work on a Symfony app for one of our Higher Ed clients that we recently built a Drupal distribution for. Drupal 8 moving to Symfony has enabled us to expand our service offering. We have found more opportunities building apps directly using Symfony when a CMS is not needed. This post is not about Drupal, but cross posting to Drupal Planet to demonstrate the value of getting off the island. Enjoy! Writing custom authentication schemes in Symfony used to be on the complicated side. But with the introduction of the Guard authentication component, it has gotten a lot easier.

PHP is without a doubt the most popular language used for programming server-side applications for the Web. However, despite its popularity, it is not the best-optimized of them all. In order to satisfy more modern requirements for web applications, we need to turn to other technologies to patch up some of PHP inadequacies. An example of such techologies are message queues. This blog post will give you an overview of what message queues are about, its capabilities and what type of problems they address, and how you can use them in PHP.