No release, weekly updates and tip

No release

No release this week as Taylor and team are likely returning from Laracon EU. I also expect they may pause the weekly releases to focus on Laravel 13. Which seems Povilas got the scoop Laravel 13 releases March 17.

Weekly Journal

Last week I took a few days off to recharge. I went on a quick snowboarding trip with my brothers. Love the mountain views and the crisp, cold air.

This week I needed to handle some business tasks. Namely taxes. I also patched the Livewire Shifts based on user feedback. Namely the MFC Converter separating page components.

Otherwise, I launched the pre-release version of the Laravel 13.x Shift. While Laravel 13 may be touted as "no breaking changes", there are always things to automate. The big ones so far are adopting the new PHP attributes and refactoring deprecated request access. But I imagine they'll be more once the official Upgrade Guide is written.

Weekly Tip

On the new PHP attributes, I was surprised how much I liked them once I saw them in code. They streamline code (which you know I'm always a fan of).

Currently, the Laravel 13.x Shift will automate the adoption of PHP attributes for simple properties. These are int, bool, or string values. But not array.

I don't think using attributes for array properties provides the same streamlining. My guess is, the Laravel team prefers unguarded. So they don't have long $fillable property arrays.

I'm on the fence about this. On one hand, I want the automation to be consistent. On the other hand, I want users to find the automation helpful. That is, not revert because they too don't think array attributes provide the same streamlining.

I guess I have another week to decide. But I welcome your thoughts on this...