Production Error Handling for Small PHP Applications - Show Less, Learn More
A PHP page fails halfway through a request. What should the visitor receive, and what should the operator keep? Those are related questions…
MariaDB Restore Drills for a Home Server - Prove the Backup Before You Need It
A scheduled job finishes without an error, a new archive appears on another disk, and its checksum matches. Is the database now recoverable…
CSRF Protection for Small PHP Applications - Require More Than a Session Cookie
A settings form can require a valid login and still accept a request the user never meant to send. The session cookie tells the server whic…
UTF-8 from Browser to MariaDB - Keep Text Intact Across a PHP Application
A form accepts a name correctly, PHP prints it correctly in a debug message, and MariaDB stores something that still looks plausible. Later…
Database Schema Migrations for Small PHP Applications - Change Structure Without Guesswork
An application release can be rolled back by checking out an earlier commit. A database is less cooperative: it contains state accumulated …
Secure PHP Sessions for Small Applications — Protect the ID from Login to Logout
A login form can verify the right password and still leave the account resting on a weak session. The difficult part begins after authentic…
Reliable Playwright Tests - Make Browser Failures Explain Themselves
A browser test passes on a laptop, fails in continuous integration, and passes again when retried. Is the application broken, is the test i…
SMART Disk Health on a Debian Home Server - Read Warnings Without Treating Them as Prophecy
A home server can keep answering HTTP requests while one of its drives is quietly accumulating errors. That creates a practical question: c…
Secure File Uploads for Small PHP Applications — Keep Names, Types, Storage, and Delivery Under Control
A file upload form looks like a small feature: receive a file, move it into a directory, and save its name. The difficult question begins o…
Reliable Webhook Receivers for Small Applications — Verify, Record, Acknowledge, Then Work
A webhook endpoint can look almost trivial: accept an HTTP POST, decode some JSON, update a record, and return 200. The difficult question …