SensioLabs Stories

Dive into the SensioLabs Blog

SensioLabs Stories is a blog that gathers articles from experts, tutorials, and the latest news from SensioLabs, the creator of Symfony. Focused on PHP, Symfony, and development, it's a key resource for following the latest trends.

Fabien Potencier
Elise Hamimi New

SymfonyCon Amsterdam 2025: Our Recap and the Highlights

After an iconic first edition in 2019, SymfonyCon made its big comeback to Amsterdam. From the start, you could feel the energy of a highly anticipated conference: more than 1,200 attendees, 39 nationalities, the biggest Symfony community reunion of the year, great discoveries... and a fun atmosphere. This year was extra special because it was the 20th anniversary of Symfony. SensioLabs was there: we'll tell you all about our experience there!

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Chart going up
Silas Joisten

Why Tests? Explained for Management

For business leaders: why testing matters for ROI, risk reduction, and agility explained in management language with numbers and real case studies.

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Code happy in lights
Imen Ezzine

Code Review: Types, Organization, and Best Practices

Code review is an essential step in the software development cycle. It improves code quality, reduces bugs, and encourages knowledge sharing within the team. GitLab and GitHub, two of the most popular code management platforms, offer advanced features to facilitate this process. This article covers the various types of code reviews, how to organize them, and how to use templates and checklists to make PRs (pull requests) more efficient.

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The SensioLabs team celebrating the 20th anniversary of Symfony with balloons
Jules Daunay

The Story Continues: SensioLabs Celebrates Symfony's 20th Anniversary

Time flies, especially when you're busy shaping the future of development! The SensioLabs team has just reached a milestone with the anniversary of the Symfony framework. We marked the occasion at the office, but the party isn't over yet. The date is already set for an XXL celebration at SymfonyCon Amsterdam 2025, from November 27 to 28.

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PHP 8.5 URI extension
Oskar Stark

PHP 8.5's New URI Extension: A Game-Changer for URL Parsing

PHP 8.5 introduces a powerful new URI extension that modernizes URL handling. With support for both RFC 3986 and WHATWG standards, the new Uri class provides immutable objects, fluent interfaces, and proper validation - addressing all the limitations of the legacy parse_url() function. This guide shows practical before/after examples and explains when to use each standard.

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Open in new tab
Silas Joisten

The Tab Trap: Why Forcing New Tabs Is Bad UX

We’ve all done it — added target="_blank" to a link to “help users” stay on our site. But what feels like a harmless convenience often creates confusion, breaks accessibility, and introduces hidden security risks.

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3 dog heads
Mathieu Santostefano

Bring Your Own HTTP client

Break free from rigid dependencies in your PHP SDKs. Learn how to use PSR-7, PSR-17, and PSR-18 standards along with php-http/discovery to allow users to bring their favorite HTTP client, whether it's Guzzle, Symfony HttpClient, or another. A must-read for PHP and Symfony developers.

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Vegetables on a wooden board with a knife with a pan on top
Rémi Brière

Why Scrum Fails (and How to Fix It) - Part 2

Scrum is often seen as the obvious framework for structuring and energizing product development, especially digital products. However, its adoption doesn't automatically guarantee success. So, what does Scrum really enable? More importantly, what are the conditions necessary for its effectiveness? And, above all, what pitfalls should be avoided to ensure it becomes a real asset?

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Blue sign on a building with several Now What? letters
Thibaut Chieux

How To Prioritize Messages When Building Asynchronous Applications With Symfony Messenger

Asynchronous processing offers benefits like decoupled processes and faster response times, but managing message priorities can become a challenge. When dealing with tasks ranging from password resets to complex exports, ensuring timely delivery of critical messages is essential. This article explores common asynchronous processing issues and provides solutions using Symfony Messenger, allowing you to optimize your application without extensive refactoring.

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PHP 8.5
Oskar Stark

What's New in PHP 8.5: A Comprehensive Overview

PHP 8.5 will be released in November 2025 and brings several useful new features and improvements. This version focuses on developer experience enhancements, new utility functions, and better debugging capabilities.

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the surface of the earth seen from the space with city lights forming networks
Imen Ezzine

HTTP Verbs: Your Ultimate Guide

HTTP Verbs Explained: Learn the basics of GET, POST, PUT, DELETE, and more. This article explains how they work, their applications, and their security implications.

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Poster of Guillaume Loulier presentation
Salsabile El-Khatouri

A Symfony Training at SensioLabs: Behind The Scenes

What does Symfony training at SensioLabs look like? Find out in this interview with Guillaume Loulier, a passionate developer and trainer, who tells us all about the official Symfony training courses.

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AI and Symfony
Silas Joisten

Building AI-Driven Features in Symfony

AI is transforming web development — and with php-llm/llm-chain, PHP developers can easily add powerful LLM features to Symfony apps. This guide shows you how to get started with chatbots, smart assistants, and more.

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Toy factory production line
Silas Joisten

Supercharging Symfony Testing with Zenstruck Foundry

Zenstruck Foundry has revolutionized the way we write tests in Symfony. In this post, you’ll learn how expressive factories, isolated test data, and a smoother developer experience helped us streamline our testing workflow and boost productivity.

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Photo de groupe devant le stand SFLIVE PARIS
Elise Hamimi

SymfonyLive Paris 2025: talks, community and 20 years of Symfony

On March 27th and 28th, the French-speaking Symfony community gathered at the Cité Internationale Universitaire de Paris for another edition of SymfonyLive Paris. This year, in addition to inspiring conferences, great workshops and community time, Symfony enthusiasts kicked off the official celebration of Symfony's 20th anniversary.

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Photo speaker meetup AI Symfony
Jules Daunay

Symfony and AI: the video is now available

What about Symfony and Artificial Intelligence (AI)? This was the theme of the exclusive event organized by SensioLabs in partnership with Codéin on October 3rd. With the added bonus of feedback from a development project combining Symfony and AI. If you missed the event, check out the video now available for free on our Youtube channel.

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2025 a year of celebrations for PHP with windows about API Platform, PHP, AFUP and Symfony
Jules Daunay

2025: a year of anniversaries for PHP, AFUP, Symfony and API Platform

2025 is going to be a big year for anniversaries. We will be celebrating the 20th anniversary of Symfony, the 30th anniversary of PHP, the 25th anniversary of AFUP and the 10th anniversary of API Platform. For SensioLabs, this is a major milestone that proves the longevity of the technologies in our ecosystem. We are proud to celebrate these anniversaries with the community all year long.

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SymfonyDay Chicago 2025
Simon André

SymfonyDay Chicago 2025: A Celebration of Community

On March 17th, the Symfony community met in Chicago for SymfonyDay Chicago 2025. The event, held on St. Patrick's Day, was both a celebration of Symfony and a moment to support Ryan Weaver in his fight against cancer. It was more than just a conference — it was a gathering around a valued member of the community.

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Blue ElePHPant on a computer
Imen Ezzine

Optimize Your PHP Code: 8 Functions You Need for Efficient Table Handling

If you want to become a good PHP developer, you must learn to work with arrays. Arrays are used a lot in PHP: temporarily store, organize, and process data before it's saved in a database. Knowing how to work with them efficiently will help you manage and process data more effectively.

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Lego
Imen Ezzine

The DRY principle: striking the delicate balance between code reuse and clarity

This article explores the DRY (Don't Repeat Yourself) principle and its impact on code quality. While emphasizing its importance in avoiding repetition and facilitating maintenance, it highlights the risks of excessive application of this principle, which can be detrimental to clarity and project evolution. The aim is to strike the right balance between reuse and simplicity.

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type-safety-uuid
Oskar Stark

Type-Safe Identifiers with Symfony and Doctrine: Using Dedicated ID Classes

Learn how to enhance type safety in Symfony and Doctrine by using dedicated ID classes like BookId and UserId instead of raw UUIDs. This approach prevents identifier mix-ups, improves code clarity, and ensures better integration with Symfony Messenger and repository methods. Explore practical examples and best practices for implementing type-safe identifiers in your Symfony applications.

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Grey Cargo Plane with a Blue Sky
Rémi Brière

Agility and the Cargo Cult - Part 1

Agility is more than just rituals and tools. In this first article of our Scrum series, we explore the Cargo Cult phenomenon and how blind imitation can hinder true Agile transformation.

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