Eric Van Johnson and John Congdon interview feature contributor Vinícius Campitelli about his article Cryptography with Libsodium.

According to the just-released 2021 version of OWASP Top 10 (a curated list of the most critical web application security risks out there), “Cryptographic Failures” are the 2nd most important of the many security concerns we should have as web developers. These concerns include a lot of misuses of cryptographic systems, like choosing weak algorithms, poor randomness sources, or usage of deprecated methods. That is why this is also the second article covering the main topics for cryptography: on our last issue, we covered the main theory, which sometimes is the cause of those errors mentioned above, and right now we will see how to use libsodium, a modern library with the most recommended algorithms already built-in and no weak settings available per default. It is a cross-platform tool, available to use on Windows, Mac, and Linux, and has been included in PHP’s core since 7.2. It also has bindings for Java, NodeJS, Python, Go, and several other languages. So we are safe to say it runs pretty much everywhere. The official website is libsodium.org, and you can find the full documentation there instead of the PHP.net manual as it is sometimes not complete. There is also a Quick Reference and a “Using Libsodium in PHP Projects” article.

Eric and John talk about their first release and the October 2021 issue, Decrypting Cryptography

Topics Covered

* Cryptography 101

* What I Wish Something Told Me About SQL Database Design

* Education Station: Windows 11 for PHP Development

* The Workshop: Nitro

* Design Patterns by Moonlight: The Dragon Wrangling Pattern

* Sebastian Bergmann and the PHPUnit project part 2

* Security Corner: Updating the OWASP Top Ten

* PHP Puzzles: Time Value of Money

* finally{}: Rubber Ducky, You’re the One!

Eric van Johnson and John Congdon interview Tomas Votruba, who wrote an article on Why Would Anyone Want to Downgrade Their PHP Code? in the September 2021 issue.

Topics Covered

* Downgrading PHP Code and why this might be a good workflow for you

* Rector – Instant Upgrades and Automated Refactoring

* The power of automated refactoring.

Eric, John, and Oscar talk about changes behind the screen and the September 2021 issue, It’s Really an Upgrade.

Topics Covered

* Changes in ownership at php[architect]

* The Rector project: using it to upgrade and downgrade library code.

* CQRS: using it to scale database reads and writes.

* JWTs and Security

* Livewire and JavaScript front end frameworks for PHP developers

* Sebastian Bergmann and the PHPUnit project

* Xdebug tutorials on YouTube

* MVC pattern in PHP applications

* Animating Life with Imagick

* Why its a good thing that PHP is “the Worst” and why that makes it successful.

* Why its essential to keep learning.

Eric, John, and Oscar sit down to go over the August 2021 issue, Trimming One’s Sails.

Topics Covered

* Grokking algebraic structures and functional programming with PHP

* Laravel Horizon and diving into worker queues

* Multi-factor authentication and why you should use add it to your application.

* Testing with Pest PHP and how it’s different from PhpUnit.

* Eric’s interview with Taylor Otwell, creator of Laravel.

* Annotations, using them in legacy code and PHP 8’s implementation.

* Interfaces and patterns for using them.

* How step debugging improves your productivity.

Eric van Johnson and John Congdon interview Scott Keck-Warren, who wrote an article on Boosting User Perceived Performance with Laravel Horizon, in the August 2021 issue.

Topics Covered

* Getting started programming with QBasic

* Working with PHP, Laravel, and picking up new languages.

* Scaling with queues and tasks to send surveys and synchronize data.

* The benefits of using Horizon.

* Building a youtube channel for new PHP developers.

Eric van Johnson and John Congdon talk to Ken Marks about his article in the July issue, Mentoring and Teaching PHP and his new book PHP Web Development with MySQL

Topics Covered

* How he got started writing and why he wrote a book.

* How he teaches students to build web applications with PHP and MySQL.

* Getting started in teaching PHP.

* Becoming part of his local web development community.

* Staying motivated as a student or intern.

Listen to Eric, John, and Oscar discuss the articles in the July 2021 issue, Deep Dive into Search.

Topics Covered

* Using Elasticsearch in an application.

* Archery (for some reason).

* Password complexity and entropy.

* Why you should use a password manager.

* Eric’s interview with Joe Watkins about Bus Factors.

* Teaching and mentoring new developers.

* Rocky Linux, a CentOS alternative.

* Soylent Green, Stakeholders, and Requirements.

* When to use the Decorator Pattern.

* Returning to a new normal.

Eric, John, and Oscar chat about the articles in the June 2021 issue, Debug, Rinse, Repeat.

Topics Covered

* Debugging

* Git Hooks and Automation

* Make files

* GitHub Actions

* Bug Bounties

* Docker Swarm

* Longhorn PHP and in-person conferences.

* Approaches for Securing APIs

* Contributing to Open-Source

Eric and John talk to Joseph Maxwell, from Swiftotter, about ecommerce, debugging, and his article in the June 2021 issue, Debug, Rinse, Repeat.

Topics Covered

* Debugging with purpose in web applications and under pressure.

* Coming from an ecommerce background.

* His podcast “Smash the Bug” and upcoming book “The Art of Ecommerce Debugging.”

* Understanding a bug or problem from the beginning with TAD.

* Why debugging is such a critical skill.

* What makes a developer “great.”

* Why you should be using Xdebug with PHP applications.