Read about upgrades, static analysis, GPT, Symfony and Laravel

I was randomly drifting through Github trending PHP repositories, and checking how popular projects use `rector.php`.

Easy Coding Standard got a [new release last week](/blog/ecs-13-2-lighter-smarter-more-fun-for-large-legacy-projects) with a couple of cool features and new dead docblock rules.

Easy Coding Standard focuses on easy setup, easy run, and easy use.

PHPStan core gets you to level 10 with solid type checks.

We've all seen it: `new Human()` followed by three `setName()`, `setAge()`, `setEmail()` calls that are always there.

In previous parts ([part 1](/blog/alice-nelmio-hautelook-faker-and-how-to-upgrade-doctrine-fixtures-part-1) and [part 2](/blog/alice-nelmio-hautelook-faker-and-how-to-upgrade-doctrine-fixtures-part-2)) we looked at a situation where we are stuck with Alic…

Keeping the tradition from [previous](/blog/5-books-i-enjoyed-reading-in-2024) [years](/blog/5-books-i-enyjoed-reading-in-2023), here is my short list of 5 books I really enjoyed reading in 2025.

[I switched this website from Symfony to Laravel](/blog/why-I-migrated-this-website-from-symfony-to-laravel) 2,5 years ago, and I [love Laravel Container](/blog/what-i-prefer-about-laravel-dependency-injection-over-symfony) ever since.

There are dozens of posts and talks about how Symfony Workflows work and what they are for.

The `@Security` annotation, which originated in the Sensio extra bundle, goes a long way.

There are 2 ways to use PHPStan.

As I'm manually writing this article, GPTs are on the hype train now.

Using PHPStan is not just about getting to level 8 with less than 100 ignored cases.

Today, I'll share a trademark secret that allows us to move fast and make huge changes without fear.

Another year is gone, and it's [tradition](/blog/5-books-i-enyjoed-reading-in-2023) to pick 5 books I enjoyed reading in 2024.

In the first part, [we've kicked off the plan](/blog/alice-nelmio-hautelook-faker-and-how-to-upgrade-doctrine-fixtures-part-1) to upgrade all these packages to their latest version, like a blind map into unknown territory.

Symfony 3 introduced a [`@required` annotation](https://symfony.com/doc/3.x/service_container/calls.html) (now also an attribute) that allows injecting more services via the setter method apart constructor.

Recently, I've been working on projects with Behat tests.

Final classes bring much more value than `extends` it lacks.

There are two types of upgrades.

While working with legacy projects, I often encountered this anti-pattern of misusing repositories.

Upgrading Doctrine Fixtures can be challenging work.

The legacy projects we work with are often flooded with mocks.

The `withConsecutive()` method [was deprecated in PHPUnit 9](https://github.com/sebastianbergmann/phpunit/issues/4255#issuecomment-636422439) and removed in PHPUnit 10.

Recently, I listened to Lex Friedman's [podcast with Pieter Levels](https://open.spotify.com/episode/6KBpL2XfR9VdojbKNpE7cX).

Yesterday, I came across a cool PHP tool.

Last month, I spent in Japan to travel and absorb the local culture.

I believe that every Symfony app can fit service config under 5 lines.

I use Livewire 3 for interactive forms and fast clickable maps.

In PHP, we have classes with methods inside them.

When using a Swiss knife, we think of a tool with many practical abilities.

When I come to a new project, I want to make a rough idea of what I'm dealing with in a few minutes.

...and how to avoid it.

When we upgrade a new project to the best version possible, the latest PHP and framework versions, it's not only about changing syntax sugar to a more fancy one.

Final classes have [many](https://ocramius.github.io/blog/when-to-declare-classes-final/) [great](https://tomasvotruba.com/blog/2019/01/24/how-to-kill-parents) [benefits](https://matthiasnoback.nl/2018/09/final-classes-by-default-why/) for future human re…

I'm happy to introduce the latest update to our book - *Rector, the Power of Automated Refactoring*, along with Rector version 0.19.5 from this week.

In [the first post](/blog/3-signs-your-project-is-becoming-legacy-and-how-to-avoid-them), we looked at the long-term effects of our decisions.

Early this year, I created a few custom Rector rules for our client.

Easy Coding Standard focuses on easy run, setup, and use.

I've read over a dozen books in 2023.

In [the first post](/blog/3-signs-your-project-is-becoming-legacy-and-how-to-avoid-them), we looked at the long-term effects of our decisions.

Taking care of a software project long-term is not about immediate action but routine and regular checks.

Do you work with Symfony from 2 through 7?

Do you use Symfony-console based tools?

Framework migration is a challenge few choose to take - yet in some cases, it makes sense for business, project health, and pure joy from coding.

Do you want to migrate your Symfony project to Laravel and not sure if it "handles it"?

When Nuno sent me a Pest plugin for type coverage that runs [TomasVotruba/type-coverage](https://github.com/TomasVotruba/type-coverage), I looked for the PHPStan container use.

The famous [phploc](https://github.com/sebastianbergmann/phploc) package to measure project size was archived by Sebastian on Jan 10, 2023.

Last month I successfully [switched the Symfony container for Laravel one](/blog/experiment-how-i-replaced-symfony-di-with-laravel-container-in-ecs) in Easy Coding Standard.

In the last post [I shared a trick](/blog/unleash-the-power-of-simplicity-php-cli-app-with-minimal-dependencies) on how to **reduce CLI project /vendor size by 70 %**.