Florian Engelhardt

Florian is a father of five, developer, architect, tech lead, geek and still sometimes finds time to contribute to open source. He started writing software with PHP in September 2000 and will try to convince you to use vim.

twitter: @realFlowControl

Articles

Observability Foundations: Why Logs Matter for PHP Applications

By Florian Engelhardt

This logging-focused article is the second part in our series on observability. Previously, we explored how metrics enable real-time visibility into an application’s performance. Now, we turn to logs to illuminate what happens under the hood—from configuration warnings to new user signups. by Florian Engelhardt

Published in Happy Birthday, PHP, June 2025

Observability Foundations

By Florian Engelhardt

Where do you start troubleshooting if a PHP application slows down or crashes? Logs might give you clues after the fact, and traces can pinpoint the bottlenecks, but before anything else, you need a real-time view of what is happening. This is where metrics come in. by Florian Engelhardt

Published in Transforming PHP, March 2025

Concurrency in PHP: What are my options?

By Florian Engelhardt

In computer science, concurrency is the ability of different parts or units of a program, algorithm, or problem to be executed out of order or in partial order, without affecting the outcome. – Wikipedia by Florian Engelhardt

Published in The Symfony of PHP, October 2024

Growing the PHP Core – One Test at a Time

By Florian Engelhardt

In September 2000, I started my vocational training at an internet agency with two teams: one doing JavaServer Pages and one doing PHP. I was assigned to the PHP team, and when presented with the language, I immediately knew that no one would ever use it. I was wrong. Today, my entire career is built on PHP. It’s time to give back to the community by writing tests for the PHP core itself!

Published in Testing The Core, April 2022