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Once again, as a perk for joining our list, you receive The Payload a day earlier than the weekly Symfony Station communiqué. But still, check the site tomorrow for the latest developments.

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Welcome to this week's edition of The Payload. It's your review of the essential news in the Symfony and PHP development communities focusing on protecting democracy.

There's good content in all of our categories, so please take your time and enjoy the items most relevant and valuable to you.
This is why we publish on Thursdays. So you can savor it over your weekend.
Or scroll down to your favorite section.
Once again, thanks go out to Javier Eguiluz and the team at Symfony for sharing our communiqué in their Week of Symfony.
My opinions will be in bold. And will often involve cursing. Because humans. Especially tech bros.
Symfony Logo

Symfony
As always, we will start with the official news from Symfony.
Highlight -> This week, Symfony 6.4.19 and 7.2.4 maintenance versions were released. In addition, the upcoming Symfony 7.3 version added a helper to render directory trees in the console. Lastly, we welcomed four new members to the Symfony Core Team.
A Week of Symfony #948 (24 February - 2 March 2025)
They also have:
SymfonyLive Berlin 2025: Running Symfony in a Multi-Process Container
In Paris or Berlin - Take the lightning talks challenge!

Featured Item
The DropTimes shares:
A New Initiative to Make Drupal Accessible for College and University Students
This effort is vitally important.

This week
Roman Huliak has:
PHP Superglobals: Usage, Security, and Best Practices in Modern Development
PHP Error Handling and Exceptions: Best practices for robust applications
How To
LaurentMN has:
Configuring Kernel in Your Symfony Project Can Optimize Your Web Application
Run Exclusive Code Using The Symfony Lock Component
Create Easily PDFs with DOMPDF and Twig Templates in Your Symfony Project
AssetMapper vs. Webpack Encore: Choosing the Best Asset Management Tool for Your Symfony Project

Other
Mautic announces:
Announcing Mautic 6 Beta – Now Available for Testing

CMSs
TYPO3 has:
TYPO3 13.4.7 maintenance release published
Why TYPO3 is the Best CMS for Colleges and Universities
Its strengths are multi-site and multi-language.


Joomla has:
Joomla 5.2.5 Security & Bugfix Release
Entdecke die Welt der Joomla Child Templates


Drupal has:
There’s something for everyone in DrupalCon’s 2025 home city
And if you're not from the U.S., a jail cell may be waiting on you.
Why Marketers Should Pack Their Bags for DrupalCon Atlanta 2025
If you are not a U.S. citizen, you should be unpacking them.
Getting the message?
Drupal CMS leadership changes
Wim Leers shares:
Experience Builder - # XB week 29: adieu, dizzying drag and drop
The DropTimes has:
Drupal Forge Enhances Site Deployment and Collaboration for Developers
Specbee asks:
How can the Block ID module improve your Block management in Drupal?
Zoocha explores:
Drupal 11: A Major Version Milestone
LN Webworks examines:
Drupal Performance Unlocked: Expert Caching Practices for Lightning-Fast Websites
Golems looks at:
Media Content Management in Drupal 9

Previous Weeks
Bernard Ngandu shows us how to:
Streamline Symfony error tracking with GlitchTip
Amazee explores:
Composable Architecture: Why Drupal should be part of your Solution
PHP logo

PHP

This week
Derick Rethans has a xDebug mystery:
Missing Characters
Jhonatan Morais show us:
How to start using gRPC with PHP - Part 1/4
BleepingComputer reports:
Critical PHP RCE vulnerability mass exploited in new attacks
[php]architect shares:
This Week At PHP Architect: Optimizing A Query
Dominik Chrástecký examines:
Static Typing for the AWS SDK for PHP
PHP Controls explains:
Debugging PHP with VSCode and XDebug: A Step-by-Step Guide

Previous Weeks
Asian Digital Hub looks at:
Advanced Mocking Techniques in PHP Unit Testing
Jean-François Lépine takes a:
PHP Ecosystem Deep Dive: The Code Quality Landscape
Code logo

More Programming
The United Nations announces:
The OSI First to Endorse United Nations Open Source Principles
Fastly asks:
Can we be normal about AI now that DeepSeek happened?
Don't count on it, my man.
Fabio Manganiello says:
Technological innovation is increasingly held back by the engineering time wasted in managing dependencies, breaking changes, and deprecations.
It sucks and brings little to no benefits.
DarkReading reports:
GitHub-Hosted Malware Infects 1M Windows Users
BleepingComputer reports:
GitLab patches critical authentication bypass vulnerabilities
Neville Park shares:
Branching Out: Some Github & GitLab.com Alternatives
The Register reports:
MariaDB reboots DBaaS plans with open source at the core
ArsTechnica reports:
AI coding assistant refuses to write code, tells user to learn programming instead
It must have been scraping Stack Overflow.

Battalion logo

Fighting for Democracy (sponsored by Battalion)


Here we feature several items from each section of Battalion's weekly "Defending Democracy" report.
Get all the news from the front of democracy's battle against autocracy via its latest "Defending Democracy" post. And please follow Battalion via RSS or on the Fediverse at @battalion@battalion.mobileatom.net. Or even Bluesky if that floats your boat.
Please visit Symfony Stations Support Ukraine page to learn how you can help kick Russia out of Ukraine (eventually, like ending apartheid in South Africa).

The cyber response to Russia’s War Crimes and other douchebaggery
TechCrunch reports:
Signal President Meredith Whittaker calls out agentic AI as having ‘profound’ security and privacy issues
The Next Web reports:
4 European satellite firms are vying to replace Starlink in Ukraine

The Evil Empire Strikes Back
The Index reports:
The Fascist Tech Bro Takeover Is Here
Unfortunately, it's true.
The Guardian reports:
ICE accessed car trackers in sanctuary cities that could help in raids, files show

Cybersecurity/Privacy
DarkReading reports:
Democratizing Security to Improve Security Posture
Binance Spoofers Compromise PCs in 'TRUMP' Crypto Scam
He, he.
Fediverse Explorer logo

The Fediverse
The Fediverse Report has:
Fediverse Report #107
The Nexus of Privacy shares:
Notes (and thoughts) on organizing in the Fediverse and the ATmosphere
Hamish Campbell explains:
Why the Fediverse Needs a Connection Between Mainstreaming and Grassroots

Other Slightly Federated Social Media
TechCrunch reports:
Open social web browser Surf integrates with Bluesky in latest beta

CTAs (aka show us some free love)
Do you own or work for an organization that would be interested in our promotion opportunities? If so, please get in touch with us. We’re in our infancy, so it’s extra economical. 😉
More importantly, if you are a Ukrainian company with coding-related products, we can offer free promotion on our Support Ukraine page. Or, if you know of one, get in touch.

Symfony Station and The Payload cover the essential news in the Symfony, PHP, and Fediverse development communities with a focus on protecting democracy. Please use the button above to make a small donation to help cover our out-of-pocket costs. Our labor is provided free of charge to support the communities we write about.
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