Ainsof's Blog

Talofa! I came across an interesting video on how enterprise software development workflows might work. I found that I was using a hybrid of techniques mentioned which aligned well given that it was showing how BIG companies with teams of developers would develop software. We have a few software developers at SPREP but mostly work on our own projects . I thought I would reflect on my workflow as it is something that I've built up over time from research and collaboration with other developers. Tests, Continuous Integration/ Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) My workflow involves setting up tests from the get go and putting them into Gitlab CI pipelines . This gives me confidence that the system builds and I'm not breaking stuff I already fixed . Here is an example of how I would set up a Drupal project with style tests and a Github Action for running them. Feature building with Git branches I build features using git branches . If I have an urgent requirement or fix , I can switch

Upgrading ensures our sites and apps remain secure with security patches as needed. They will also continue to receive feature enhancements going forward. Today I deployed the Drupal 10 upgrade for the SPREP Virtual Library . It was completed over a 3 week period while juggling the day-to-day support requests, meetings and providing technical advise. In contrast, I later upgraded and deployed one of our smaller apps with no custom code in just 2 hours. Upgrading from Drupal 9 to Drupal 10 involves a series of critical steps and considerations to ensure a smooth transition. This post looks at how to upgrade then outlines key lessons learned and best practices from the upgrade process, focusing on Drupal configurations, Docker environments, and CI/CD pipeline adjustments. How do you upgrade?   1. Start with installing the Upgrade Status module which will check if you are ready for an upgrade.  2. Uninstall any deprecated core modules and themes 3. Reduce the clutter and remove any unin

I spent the weekend reviving 2 old laptops. Both  have more than 10 years on them. The Compaq one had recently been upgraded to Windows 11 from Windows 7. Big mistake! It resulted in a sluggish barely useable laptop. The second was an old Dell XPS 15 from my Uni days. It was running Windows 11 well but it would randomly blue screen so it was pretty useless. Enter LXLE OS . This is an Ubuntu based distro using the lightweight Lubuntu LTS distro but with some improved UI elements. I downloaded the image which was about 2GB and created a bootable USB driving using Rufus . Plugged it into the laptops and it did its thing. Both laptops are working very smoothly. Wifi, bluetooth, graphics and audio work fine. I was even able to set them up for coding using Docker and Vscode. The Dell XPS has not blue screened since switching.  LXLE comes preinstalled with a lightweight browser (I installed Firefox anyway), Libre Office, some simple games and other useful apps. The UI takes some getting used

Who says PHP is dead? Always exciting to see how Laravel progresses the PHP landscape by providing a lightening fast product and an amazing ecosystem to support it. Laravel 11 is out and also unleashes Laravel Reverb for working with websockets. Ive only been building with Laravel since v10 and seeing they also have Laravel Shift for automated upgrades from v10 to v11 is amazing. Its a paid service but its peanuts compared to the time you'd spend upgrading it manually. Cheers Taylor Otwell and team!! https://blog.laravel.com/laravel-11-now-available