Laravel 9.5, weekly updates, and 🔥 tip

Laravel 9.5

More new features this week and a fast-follow patch brings us to Laravel 9.5.1. Here are the highlights:

  • Add callback support on implode on Collection in #41405
  • Add assertDirectoryEmpty to Storage fake in #41398
  • Allow assertPath to accept Closure in #41409
  • Add callable support to operatorForWhere on Collection in #41414
  • Add partial queue faking in #41425
  • Add --name option to schedule:test in #41439
  • Redesign schedule:list in #41445
  • Extend eloquent higher order proxy properties in #41449
  • Add new Str::wrap in #41455
  • Add freezeTime for tests in #41460
  • Add callable support to beforeSending in #41489

You may review the full branch diff on GitHub for a complete list of changes.

This version bump and update is automated for subscribers to a Shifty Plan. If you don't have one of those, be sure to bump your constraint and run composer update to get the latest features.

Weekly Journal

Last week we launched a few more tasks to the Workbench, including:

  • Finding any unused package in your Composer dependencies
  • Converting Str method calls to fluent stringable chains
  • Removing any guessable $model property from model factories
  • Adopting single accessor/mutator method

Yesterday, I quickly added a task request by Steve McDougall to declare strict_types in PHP files.

Last week I also finished the Human Shifts which came in from Jacob Bennett. He shared his experience on Twitter.

Over the weekend I spun up a simple Nginx server to host my static sites. Definitely could've called YANGI on this. But it had been on my list for like 2 years and I wanted to prove I could still do it.

Yesterday I made a few more tweaks to the Laravel 9.x Shift based on user feedback.

This week will be less productive as Ashley is at a conference. So I'm single parenting Izzy until Thursday. Hopefully Friday I can jump back into things with a live stream.

🔥 Tip

Working on all these Human Shifts lately got me thinking about the consulting aspect of Shift. While not a relatively large portion of revenue, it is good extra income. Enough to open the possibility for a "middle man" market.

I tweeted about this, but essentially you could brand yourself a "Laravel Upgrade expert" and use Shift as a capacity multiplier.

Either way, you should always upcharge when using Shift for client projects. It's a tool like any other. So charge for your expertise to use it.