PHP has been a go-to language for web development for decades, and it continues to transform and advance. As new practices emerge, keeping up with PHP trends has become paramount as are transforming the way businesses operate. In this piece, we’ll explore what opportunities the use of this open-source, scaling-friendly, and extremely versatile scripting language can bring your company.
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Advantages of using PHP in web development
According to Statista, this programming language was counted among the ten most used ones worldwide as of last year’s major online survey.
Furthermore, as for W3Techs’s data, it’s the preferred server-side programming language for approximately 77.6% of all websites.
Facebook, Wikipedia, Pinterest, and Tumblr are only a few of the world-renowned giants based on this technology. Below are just some of the advantages of using PHP in web development that contribute to its enormous popularity and evolution trends:
- It’s clear-cut and straightforward to comprehend thanks to its clear syntax,
- It’s open-source, i.e. it’s free to use, distribute and modify,
- It’s platform-independent and effortlessly employed on in-demand operating systems, including Windows, Linux, and macOS,
- It boasts an extensive community and a wealth of resources, including forums, tutorials, and libraries, that make it easy to solve diverse issues arising in the process of PHP web development,
- It’s high-speed and efficient as it has low memory usage and can smoothly handle high traffic and rapidly process data,
- It’s compatible with multifarious sought-after databases, including MySQL, Oracle, and PostgreSQL, and thus, widely used in database-driven apps,
- Finally, it’s integrated with other technologies like cloud computing and microservices, which can help your company freely scale and manage convoluted infrastructure.
The six most sought-after PHP trends in 2023
The latest trends in PHP development open up new horizons for any company that wants to avail itself of cutting-edge solutions. Let’s discuss some of these latest trends.
Leveraging the advantages of PHP and the cloud
With the growing use of the cloud, programmers are leveraging platforms like AWS, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, and others to host their apps. These platforms boast a scalable and robust infrastructure capable of handling a substantial user base, as well as a reduced overhead for maintenance and upgrades. Also, it’s safe to store sensitive data there, with all the firewalls, intrusion detection, and access controls in place.
Coders avail themselves of the latest cloud-fueled trends to effectively automate their deployment processes and augment app functionality. For instance, APIs provided by these platforms can be swiftly integrated with numerous services, e.g. analytics instruments, databases, and chat programs. This empowers them to build powerful and flexible solutions rapidly and with the minimized risk of errors.
PHP features and advantages reinforced by IoT
The Internet of Things (IoT) is yet another speedily advancing niche where a professional PHP web development company has the freedom to experiment with state-of-the-art tools. With an increasing number of interconnected devices employed in various industries, devising programs capable of seamlessly interacting with cameras, sensors, and so on is one of the prominent PHP trends of today. For this purpose, popular frameworks like Laravel and Symphony are integrated with IoT-fueled solutions via dedicated protocols, MQTT and CoAP, to name a few.
Furthermore, PHP trends in 2023 include the processing and storage of a wealth of heterogeneous data generated by IoT-driven devices. Frameworks like Symfony and Yii offer components such as support for databases, caching, and queuing systems to successfully handle this demanding task.
CodeIgniter and other frameworks come to the rescue when building web-based dashboards for efficient monitoring of IoT devices and convenient displaying of miscellaneous data in real time. Last but not least, the programming language can aid in integrating apps with products that handle IoT-enabled devices and data, e.g. AWS IoT, Microsoft Azure IoT, and Google Cloud IoT. This is possible through the use of dedicated APIs and SDKs.
Chatbots are among the latest trends in PHP development
Interactive agents are generally turned to for expeditious customer service and boosted engagement. Well-elaborated bots that are able to swiftly handle complex conversations can be successfully created based on frameworks like BotMan. The same technology is helpful for linking users with bots via messaging platforms like Facebook Messenger, Slack, and WhatsApp.
Virtual assistants ensure a highly personalized user experience when reinforced with APIs and natural language processing tools. Wit.ai and Dialogflow serve for devising conversational AI with cutting-edge NLP capabilities such as processing queries and suggesting best-matching responses.
Among noticeable PHP trends in 2023 is the development of intuitive chatbot interfaces with Laravel or CodeIgniter. Symfony, in turn, includes the necessary instruments to enable accelerated processing of requests and giving responses.
Focus on enhanced security as one of the latest PHP trends
Today, when computers are entrusted with all kinds of sensitive digital assets from financial information to health details, guaranteeing their flawless security is a must. Obviously, PHP-driven programs, being a widespread group on the web, quite often become a target of cyber-attacks.
Ironclad and other security systems serve as a reliable shield for IT solutions against SQL injection, XSS, CSRF, and other common attacks. The adoption of advanced coding techniques and design patterns also revises security and minimizes the risk of SQL injections, cross-site scripting, and other typical vulnerabilities.
Relying on automated security testing tools, e.g. OWASP ZAP, SonarQube, and others, remains one of the robust PHP trends in 2023. These technologies unmistakably detect issues and assist in fixing them in no time.
The role of programming in voice search optimization
According to estimates, there will be about 8.4 billion voice assistants worldwide by 2024б and it’s not surprising. Alexa, Siri, Google Assistant, and other voice technology brands are universally adopted thanks to their convenience and advanced capabilities.
One of the latest trends in PHP development actually lies in optimizing web products to take advantage of voice search capabilities. The following products come to coders’ aid:
- Laravel boasts built-in mechanisms for supervising voice search functionality, specifically, features for working with JSON and REST APIs,
- Symfony offers embedded features for working with HTTP requests and responses,
- CakePHP can be utilized for developing highly secure voice search assistants with components like well-thought-out database migrations,
- Google Cloud Speech-to-Text API seamlessly transcribes voice queries into text and thus, it can be applied in voice-enabled search,
- The Alexa Skills Kit SDK is specially designed to harness the potential of the Alexa ecosystem and take advantage of its custom voice skills.
Revising user interfaces among the latest trends
Finally, crafting engaging and convenient UI designs should also be listed among the latest trends in PHP development. Providing for micro-interactions, animations, responsive design, and other advanced options is now possible with the following techniques and instruments:
- Laravel’s Blade templates allow for the effortless creation of reusable, modular UI components,
- Symfony with its comprehensive templating system for envisioning complex layouts,
- CodeIgniter for envisioning smart and reusable UI components rapidly thanks to its small footprint, support for custom views, and other perks,
- Phalcon is a smart choice when you need to deliver convoluted and data-driven interfaces that require exceptional performance as it’s designed specially to work with low-level C extensions,
- Bootstrap, with its multiple pre-built UI components and styles, comes in extremely handy when envisioning responsive and intuitive interfaces,
- CakePHP’s components like view templates, form builder, authentication and authorization, routing, and plugins facilitate the generation and management of dynamic content, diverse user inputs, user accounts and permissions, and support for email, social media, and more.
To wrap up
The latest trends in PHP development harness the strengths of AI, IoT, and cloud computing, as well as encompass the issues of usability, security, voice search optimization, and more. Current frameworks and tools come to engineers’ rescue, facilitating the delivery of powerful, scalable, and secure products.
By outsourcing your IT initiative to a seasoned vendor, you can be confident that your solution will be based on the power of cutting-edge tools, techniques, the latest trends, and best practices. From project discovery to quality assurance, support, and maintenance, Andersen has you covered no matter how complex and ambitious your software plans are.
