PHP & Development

cURL, an authentication header and a decoded JSON response — the three parts of calling any external API from a PHP script.

A one-line PHP script and the PHP settings screen in your control panel both show the exact version your site runs on.

A white screen means PHP hit an error and showed nothing — here is how to make it show you exactly what happened and where.

Adding SSH keys, connecting a remote and choosing pull-based or push-to-deploy — what a Git deployment setup needs on hosting.

The rsync flags that matter, a dry run before the real one, and how to stop it overwriting files it should have left alone.

Point the document root at Laravel's public folder, set up .env, run migrations, and cache the config — what a Laravel deploy needs.

Most PHP extensions are a checkbox away in your control panel — here is where to find it and what to do when one is missing.

Setting the right timezone in php.ini, and the one habit — storing everything in UTC — that stops multi-timezone dates going wrong.

Where max_execution_time lives, how to raise it without root access, and the point at which a longer limit stops being the right answer.

Where memory_limit is set, how to raise it safely, and why a higher number is not always the actual fix for an exhausted-memory error.

Two directives control upload size, not one — miss the second and a bigger upload_max_filesize changes nothing at all.

The error log names the exact file and line that failed — here is where to find it and how to read what it is telling you.

Node needs a long-running process that shared hosting cannot give it — here is what that means and where a Node app actually belongs.

Cron runs a PHP script on a schedule with no browser involved — here is the five-field syntax and how to check a run actually worked.

The handful of defences that stop almost every real attack on a PHP application, and the reasoning behind each one.

mail() sends, but it rarely authenticates — here is how to send through SMTP instead so the message actually reaches the inbox.

Without root access, environment variables come from a control panel screen where one exists, or from a .env file your app loads itself.

Generate a key pair, add the public half to your hosting account, and connect over SSH without a password from then on.

A subdomain, its own database, and a safe way to copy data across — what a staging environment needs before you can trust it.

A short-term switch that shows errors on the page while you debug, and must be turned off again before anyone else sees the site.

Check compatibility, test on staging, then switch the live version over — the order that keeps a PHP upgrade from taking your site down.

One file that controls redirects, rewrites and access rules for a whole folder — and one typo in it that can take the site offline.

Composer runs fine on shared hosting over SSH — here is how to install it, run it, and keep dependencies out of the public folder.

Ten .htaccess rules that come up again and again, from forcing HTTPS to blocking hotlinking, with working syntax for each one.