Latest Posts

Use deleteAll() method on a search query to, well, delete all entries from a search index.

While testing notification logic in Osm Admin, an exception is thrown in $db->committing() callback, and the logic in $db->rollback() fails.

Let's review how transaction callbacks work, and fix it.

A View is a short-living object that is created and computed during page rendering. You can also create a pre-configured a View object prototype in advance, and then clone it for rendering.

It's important not to execute render-time properties while configuring the prototype.

Use view() helper function to create render-time view instances, and mark render-time properties using #[RenderTime] attribute to prevent accessing them before rendering.

Yesterday, I optimized search responses, made search hit limit explicit, and decided not to obfuscate ID in URL.

The implementation of the faceted implementation in osm.software blog has shown that sometimes you need only facet counts, or only total count of matching entries.

Until now, Osm Framework had always queried total count, ids and facets. Not anymore - and the search engine only provides the information that is actually needed.

The implicit ElasticSearch hit limit is confusing. And you can't get all the hits - there is 10000 maximum hit limit that you can't exceed anyway.

Be explicit about the maximum number of search hits.

I had two weeks full of meaningful, productive work. I started with sketching Osm Admin grid and form pages, and implemented a very basic, but working home page, and success/error messages. To enable that, Osm Framework now have extensible Blade templates, and a nice JavaScript solution for capturing user input into a modal dialog box, or into some picker component.

Then, I undertook a major refactoring of Osm Admin, including moving lots of pieces of code to their new places, stabilizing the underlying object model, rewriting database migrations and sketching future effort on data indexing. During this effort, I implemented generic object hydration and reflection over named subtypes.

I've already shared most of this information on Twitter, so if you are reading this, consider following me on Twitter and getting daily updates.

Recently, I developed a couple of helper functions for transmitting PHP objects over the wire, and saving them in database records:

• dehydrate() - recursively converts an instance of a PHP class to a plain untyped object. Then, store the plain object in the database, or convert it to JSON and send it to a browser.
• hydrate() - recursively converts a plain untyped object back to a PHP class instance. Use if after decoding a JSON received from the browser, or after loading a database record.

This article describes how to use these functions.

When active, modal elements - dialogs, pickers, or AJAX spinners - need to prevent user interaction with the rest of the page.

A common approach is putting an overlay <div> under the modal element covering the rest of the page, as a click shield. However, user can still navigate the page with the keyboard.

Today, I implemented a better solution by capturing mouse and keyboard events outside the modal element, and keeping focus inside.

Currently, I'm working on Osm Admin package, and I need a module to inject its HTML markup around some well-known place in a Blade template. However, Blade template extensibility is not a problem that's specific to Osm Admin project. It's a generic problem. Let's solve that.

I had two very productive weeks. #buildinpublic works wonders.

Most effort went into my new project, Osm Admin. I sketched how data classes look like, generated database tables from class attributes, and started working on the Admin UI. It's very fulfilling to see how an abstract idea gains shape.

Install PHP 8, MySql, Node, Gulp and ElasticSearch. Clone the project. Edit project settings. Finally, run few commands in the command line.

New Osm Framework version comes with improved, configurable and easily customizable Gulp script, modular NPM dependencies, standard page layout Blade component and brand new README. osm.software website contains an easy-to-follow new project installation instruction.

Install and use osm, osmc, osmt and osmh command line aliases for faster command typing.

Note. This post is moved to Osm Framework documentation.

Once PHP 8, Node and Gulp are installed, create new projects quickly using the command line.

Note. This post is moved to Osm Framework documentation.

The first osm.software blog articles have been written, edited and revised. Content changes are deployed in semi-automated way. The website got some SEO improvements, and now it scores 100% in Google Lighthouse.

Today, osm.software reached an important milestone - 100% Lighthouse score.

This article explains how to manage and assign blog categories.

Osm Framework introduced production mode and maintenance mode. osm.software website went live.

Osm Framework introduced JS controllers, and JS unit tests. osmcommerce.com website project was renamed to osm.software, it finalized the post rendering, and introduced a tool for checking broken links.

Readers of osm.software blog can search the blog for a specific phrase, and narrow down listed articles using multi-select layered navigation. Let's see how it works under the hood.

osmcommerce.com (now osm.software) blog got multi-select layered navigation, category management, FontAwesome icons, Tailwind CSS Typography. Osm Core allows debugging accidental assignments of the computed properties.