https://blog.fortrabbit.com/ en Wed, 02 Sep 2026 09:59:26 GMT 10 https://blog.fortrabbit.com/mcp-cli-and-api-launched https://blog.fortrabbit.com/mcp-cli-and-api-launched Wed, 02 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer chronicles Three three-letter acronyms for the new platform — and a skills update that glues them together. Three three-letter acronyms just landed, an MCP server for coding agents, a CLI for the terminal and pipelines, and a public API underneath.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/platform-updates-august-2026 https://blog.fortrabbit.com/platform-updates-august-2026 Thu, 27 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer changelog More temp space, log downloads that finish, a handful of dashboard fixes, and a website that lost its hosting guide. A quiet month on the surface. A good part of August went into work we are not ready to talk about, so this round is the smaller stuff - limits raised, papercuts closed, a website that got shorter.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/findhost-a-register-of-web-hosts https://blog.fortrabbit.com/findhost-a-register-of-web-hosts Fri, 21 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer opinion chronicles I have built an openly-licensed, ratings-free register of web hosting providers. Why? This is the story of a side project that grew out of internal competitor research.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/platform-updates-july-2026 https://blog.fortrabbit.com/platform-updates-july-2026 Tue, 28 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer changelog A command palette for the dashboard, logs in the browser, MySQL timezone support, and a public API taking shape.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/logs-in-the-browser https://blog.fortrabbit.com/logs-in-the-browser Tue, 21 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer changelog Read PHP, access, Apache, and Jobs logs right in the dashboard. Filter, follow live, download — no SSH required. Nobody picks a web host for its log viewer. Yet. We believe observability is key. So we've built a nice log view for the browser.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/apm-for-php https://blog.fortrabbit.com/apm-for-php Mon, 13 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer opinion A take on PHP application performance monitoring and meta-observability. Application Performance Monitoring can help big time researching performance issues after and before they come critical. An overview.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/platform-updates-june-2026 https://blog.fortrabbit.com/platform-updates-june-2026 Mon, 29 Jun 2026 08:32:49 GMT Frank Lämmer changelog US data center live, a new actions menu, social logins, and better mails.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/moving-knowledge-base-from-notion-to-markdown https://blog.fortrabbit.com/moving-knowledge-base-from-notion-to-markdown Thu, 11 Jun 2026 15:02:41 GMT Frank Lämmer chronicles Why we left Notion for a folder of Markdown files, and the gotchas we hit along the way. We used Notion as our knowledge base for years. It served us well. But now we moved everything to a folder of Markdown files.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/us-data-center-new-platform https://blog.fortrabbit.com/us-data-center-new-platform Tue, 02 Jun 2026 12:11:03 GMT Frank Lämmer changelog fortrabbit apps can now be hosted in the US data center on the new platform. Hello again 🇺🇸! The United States (East) data center location is now available on the new platform.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/mysql-8-4-upgrade-plan https://blog.fortrabbit.com/mysql-8-4-upgrade-plan Tue, 26 May 2026 11:00:00 GMT Erin Strand changelog Two ways to upgrade an app on the old fortrabbit platform from MySQL 8.0 to 8.4, now that 8.4 is the default for new apps. MySQL 8.4 is now the default for newly created fortrabbit apps. This guide covers two methods for upgrading your existing (old platform) App before we will retire MySQL 8.0 in June 2026.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/platform-updates-may-2026 https://blog.fortrabbit.com/platform-updates-may-2026 Fri, 22 May 2026 09:01:59 GMT Frank Lämmer changelog Longer trials, agent skills, environment thumbnails, and a MySQL upgrade on the way.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/why-we-dont-do-1-click-installers https://blog.fortrabbit.com/why-we-dont-do-1-click-installers Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer opinion Why fortrabbit doesn't offer 1-click installers — and the local-first workflow we recommend for shipping real PHP projects. 1-click installers make great demos. They're poor starting points for a real project — and we think the trade-off isn't worth making.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/us-against-them https://blog.fortrabbit.com/us-against-them Wed, 06 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer opinion A German company on American infrastructure serving a global customer base. On EU data sovereignty, and what European should mean. We are a German company running on American infrastructure, serving a global customer base. That is hard to defend these days. Caught between geopolitical fault lines.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/introducing-agent-skills https://blog.fortrabbit.com/introducing-agent-skills Tue, 28 Apr 2026 12:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer chronicles An early preview of fortrabbit agent skills: plain-text instruction files that teach AI coding assistants how to manage apps. We just published a first preview of fortrabbit agent skills — a set of plain-text instruction files that teach AI coding assistants like Claude how to deploy code to fortrabbit, sync databases, and work through common platform tasks. It's an early release. How we got there.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/platform-updates-april-2026 https://blog.fortrabbit.com/platform-updates-april-2026 Wed, 15 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer changelog April 2026 on the new platform: GitHub deployment comments, smoother dashboard flows, smarter deployments and better documentation. Here is a batch of quality of live improvements across the dashboard and docs, bringing us closer to general availability.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/our-new-env-var-edit-experience https://blog.fortrabbit.com/our-new-env-var-edit-experience Wed, 08 Apr 2026 08:38:48 GMT Erin Strand chronicles Building an environment variable editor that handles multiline values, special characters and a base64 helper without feeling clever. Editing ENV vars should be easy, right? Here's how we iterated to make it more powerful and developer-friendly, tackling devilish details.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/autoscaling-now-available https://blog.fortrabbit.com/autoscaling-now-available Wed, 25 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer changelog Autoscaling arrives for MySQL, web storage and traffic: plans move up when usage grows and back down again, without any interaction. Autoscaling for MySQL, web storage, and traffic is now available. Plans scale up when usage increases and down again when usage drops.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/cold-outreach https://blog.fortrabbit.com/cold-outreach Tue, 10 Mar 2026 11:01:03 GMT Frank Lämmer opinion An inbox full of AI-written cold outreach, collected over weeks and read closely. What the most sophisticated spam so far looks like. My inbox is full of unsolicited business proposals. The senders know my name, my mail, my company, and often specific details about our company, despite most of this information never being publicly listed. AI meets leaked customer data.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/php-85-update https://blog.fortrabbit.com/php-85-update Tue, 17 Feb 2026 10:44:59 GMT Erin Strand changelog PHP 8.5 is live on both platforms: selectable in the dashboard, default for new apps, and available through the latest setting. We finally rolled out PHP 8.5 and here are the details.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/vibe-coding-an-rss-feed https://blog.fortrabbit.com/vibe-coding-an-rss-feed Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer chronicles Building RSS feeds for a Nuxt Content blog with fuzzy prompts and little supervision. What the AI got right, and where it went off. Let's try lazy slopping a trivial feature into existing by providing some fuzzy prompts. What can possibly go wrong?

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/essential-metrics-are-here https://blog.fortrabbit.com/essential-metrics-are-here Tue, 03 Feb 2026 15:26:54 GMT Frank Lämmer changelog Usage metrics land in the fortrabbit dashboard: MySQL storage, web storage and monthly traffic, shown per environment as they update. Essential metrics help you track usage data for web storage, MySQL storage, and traffic.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/frank-at-saas-unbound https://blog.fortrabbit.com/frank-at-saas-unbound Tue, 13 Jan 2026 07:45:09 GMT Frank Lämmer chronicles fortrabbit co-founder Frank spends an hour on the SaaS Unbound podcast with Anna Nadeina, talking about bootstrapping hustles. I recently invited myself and talked for an hour with Anna Nadeina about bootstrapping hustles. Thanks for having me.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/how-to-detect-and-fix-a-hacked-php-website https://blog.fortrabbit.com/how-to-detect-and-fix-a-hacked-php-website Wed, 07 Jan 2026 09:27:09 GMT Frank Lämmer Spot signs of a hacked PHP website, clean infected files, restore from backup, and lock things back down. Recover a hacked PHP website, detect intrusion, clean code, restore from backup. Actionable tips for web developers. This is the human-to-human edition.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/small-team-big-ideas https://blog.fortrabbit.com/small-team-big-ideas Sun, 14 Dec 2025 16:14:11 GMT Frank Lämmer chronicles Five developers, no venture capital, competing with giants. A brain dump on motivation, project management and business philosophy. Dear diary, here is a brain dump on motivation, project management and business philosophy.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/new-platform-beta https://blog.fortrabbit.com/new-platform-beta Wed, 26 Nov 2025 10:24:14 GMT Frank Lämmer changelog chronicles The new fortrabbit platform opens in public beta after years of work — a hosting service rebuilt from scratch rather than updated. Welcome to the public BETA of our new platform.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/goodbye-hello https://blog.fortrabbit.com/goodbye-hello Fri, 14 Nov 2025 16:10:14 GMT Frank Lämmer changelog A farewell to the old fortrabbit design — sharp rectangles, a custom SCSS framework, Raleway — and a first look at what replaces it. We are getting closer to releasing our new platform. This is a little farewell to the old, and a quiet hello to what comes next.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/modern-php-monoliths https://blog.fortrabbit.com/modern-php-monoliths Tue, 11 Nov 2025 14:17:01 GMT Frank Lämmer opinion Interactive interfaces without splitting the stack: how a modern PHP monolith competes with a decoupled headless architecture. Web pages are so yesterday. Single-page apps are the shit. Users want interactive experiences. But you don't have to get headless right away. This is an introduction to coupled systems with PHP and JavaScript.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/headless-php https://blog.fortrabbit.com/headless-php Mon, 03 Nov 2025 08:16:08 GMT Frank Lämmer opinion Decoupled systems with a JavaScript frontend and a PHP backend: what headless actually means, how it is built, and when it pays off. Decopuled systems. Frontend in JavaScript. Backend in PHP. Why. How. If.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/deploying-laravel-on-fortrabbit https://blog.fortrabbit.com/deploying-laravel-on-fortrabbit Wed, 15 Oct 2025 10:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer webdev Deploy Laravel to fortrabbit via GitHub — environment variables, build commands, post-deploy migrations, queue workers and zero-downtime swaps. Deploy a Laravel application to fortrabbit through GitHub — environment configuration, build commands, post-deploy migrations, queues and zero-downtime swaps. If you have shipped Laravel elsewhere, most of this will look familiar; we point out the differences as we go.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/chromopoly https://blog.fortrabbit.com/chromopoly Mon, 15 Sep 2025 14:44:24 GMT Frank Lämmer opinion Chrome holds around 65 percent of the browser market. What that concentration means for competition, privacy and web standards. The Google Chrome team is pushing the web forward. I am worried about competition, privacy and the future of web standards. No revealing news here, just my personal view based on vague pre-assumptions.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/building-websites-in-the-age-of-ai https://blog.fortrabbit.com/building-websites-in-the-age-of-ai Tue, 22 Jul 2025 22:03:31 GMT Frank Lämmer opinion AI site builders generate code, content and layout in seconds. What that leaves for the people who build websites for a living. Not too long ago, building a website meant crafting mockups in Photoshop, hand-coding HTML and PHP, wrangling CSS. Then came page builders, no-code and low-code tools. Now, with the rise of AI, the ground is shifting again. What does it possible mean for us? This is my unprofessional opinion.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/growing-aname-alias-support https://blog.fortrabbit.com/growing-aname-alias-support Tue, 08 Jul 2025 14:54:40 GMT Frank Lämmer webdev dns domains Standard DNS forbids CNAME records at the apex. More providers now offer ANAME and ALIAS records that route a bare domain to a host. Standard DNS doesn't allow CNAME records at the apex domain. Fortunately, more DNS providers are offering ANAME/ALIAS records as a solution.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/vertical-browser-tabs https://blog.fortrabbit.com/vertical-browser-tabs Thu, 12 Jun 2025 09:48:22 GMT Frank Lämmer webdev Vertical browser tabs move the tab strip to the side, which quietly complicates web development if the pattern ever goes mainstream. Vertical browser tabs will add more complexity to web development if they ever become mainstream.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/craft-cms-cve-2025-32432 https://blog.fortrabbit.com/craft-cms-cve-2025-32432 Wed, 07 May 2025 09:24:51 GMT Frank Lämmer webdev A high-impact Craft CMS vulnerability in the asset transform endpoint, what fortrabbit blocked, and what every installation must update. Update and check your Craft CMS installation. There is a high-impact vulnerability out there (again).

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/php-84-update https://blog.fortrabbit.com/php-84-update Wed, 23 Apr 2025 12:04:25 GMT Frank Lämmer changelog PHP 8.4 rolls out across the fortrabbit platform. The full version list, the sequential update procedure and the expected downtime. We are preparing to roll out PHP 8.4 to our platform. Here is a list with lots of numbers and dots.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/improving-dx-for-executing-scripts https://blog.fortrabbit.com/improving-dx-for-executing-scripts Wed, 02 Apr 2025 12:28:52 GMT Vlastimil Holer Making scripts with a shebang line run as expected on a hosting platform, by modifying the C standard library without giving up security. Make running scripts easier, support user expectations, still maintain security. We do that by modifying the C standard library to evaluate shebang directives in user space.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/web-hosting-and-open-source https://blog.fortrabbit.com/web-hosting-and-open-source Mon, 17 Mar 2025 10:46:16 GMT Frank Lämmer opinion changelog It's complicated. The relation between open source and web hosting from our point of view This is not about WordPress founder Matt, who is angry about the web hosting service WP-Engine. It's a much smaller story, it's ours.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/yes-we-rewrite https://blog.fortrabbit.com/yes-we-rewrite Thu, 06 Feb 2025 20:25:35 GMT Frank Lämmer chronicles Rewriting a hosting platform from scratch is the mistake every essay warns about. Why fortrabbit did it anyway, and how it went. We decided to rewrite our entire hosting platform. Here is more on the process and how we are doing so far.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/how-we-hire https://blog.fortrabbit.com/how-we-hire Fri, 10 Jan 2025 10:53:08 GMT Frank Lämmer chronicles Hiring at a small company without an applicant tracking system or a hiring manager, and the things that end an application early. Hiring as a small company is challenging. Currently we have one open position, remote. Finding the right person is hard. How we look at candidates.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/billing-research https://blog.fortrabbit.com/billing-research Thu, 09 Jan 2025 21:31:03 GMT Frank Lämmer chronicles Choosing a billing provider for a hosting platform: the requirements, the candidates, and why a homebrew system finally had to go. Our journey to find a billing service provider to handle products, prices, payment methods, customers and invoices, programmatically by API.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/infra-research-2024 https://blog.fortrabbit.com/infra-research-2024 Wed, 04 Dec 2024 07:26:27 GMT Frank Lämmer chronicles After a decade on AWS, a new platform is a chance to reconsider. How infrastructure providers were evaluated, and against which criteria. Our hosting service is running on AWS for more than a decade. The new platform - in the making - is offering us a chance to switch the infrastructure vendor. This documents our journey.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/three-ways-to-reset-the-craft-cms-control-panel-password-without-email-access https://blog.fortrabbit.com/three-ways-to-reset-the-craft-cms-control-panel-password-without-email-access Thu, 17 Oct 2024 07:16:31 GMT Piotr Pogorzelski webdev Need to reset your Craft CMS admin password but email functionality isn't working? Need to reset your Craft CMS admin password but email functionality isn't working? Here is how you can do this using alternative methods.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/hosting-panel-with-social-network https://blog.fortrabbit.com/hosting-panel-with-social-network Fri, 11 Oct 2024 17:32:51 GMT Frank Lämmer chronicles Why a hosting dashboard gets collaboration features that look like a small social network, and what agencies and freelancers do with them. We are integrating a mini social network into our hosting dashboard. Why we are even building a custom hosting control panel? There are Plesk and cPanel already.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/support-driven-development https://blog.fortrabbit.com/support-driven-development Tue, 27 Aug 2024 13:11:39 GMT Frank Lämmer webdev Doing first-level support and product ownership at once: how client conversations turn into features rather than just bug reports. How we use client feedback to shape and extend our service offering.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/action-oriented-ux https://blog.fortrabbit.com/action-oriented-ux Wed, 24 Jul 2024 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer opinion Action-oriented UX puts the verb first, closer to how people speak and think, instead of the object-first layouts most dashboards use. This is usability experience concept. Verb first interfaces to be closer to natural language and human thinking.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/on-horizontal-scaling https://blog.fortrabbit.com/on-horizontal-scaling Fri, 05 Jul 2024 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer opinion Why the new fortrabbit platform drops horizontal scaling, a signature feature of the Pro Stack, and what replaces it. Some clients asked us why we don't plan to provide horizontal scaling for the new platform in the making any more. Let me try to explain.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/php-and-js https://blog.fortrabbit.com/php-and-js Mon, 24 Jun 2024 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer opinion PHP and JavaScript have grown apart. What is missing between them in 2024, seen from a company that hosts one and serves the other. Is something missing to bring together JS and PHP?

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/our-new-frontend-stack https://blog.fortrabbit.com/our-new-frontend-stack Fri, 17 May 2024 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer webdev So many options - React, Svelte, Vue, Nuxt, htmx, Interia, Livewire. What to choose for our new web properties?

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/on-technical-limits https://blog.fortrabbit.com/on-technical-limits Mon, 29 Apr 2024 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer webdev Fail early they say. Don't throw hardware on performance problems we say.contributions. Allow me to go a bit deeper on fortrabbit resource limitations and how they are usually helpful.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/php-83-update https://blog.fortrabbit.com/php-83-update Wed, 20 Mar 2024 10:36:54 GMT Frank Lämmer changelog PHP 8.3 rolls out to all Uni and Pro apps. The version list for PHP and its extensions, the schedule and the downtime to expect. We are preparing to roll out PHP 8.3 to our platform. Here is a list with lots of numbers and dots.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/craft-cms-cve-2023-41892 https://blog.fortrabbit.com/craft-cms-cve-2023-41892 Thu, 29 Feb 2024 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer webdev Update your Craft CMS 4 installation. There is a low-effort high-impact vulnerability out there. Update your Craft CMS 4 installation, if you have not for a while. There is a low-effort high-impact vulnerability out there.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/the-tyranny-of-inconsistent-keyboard-shortcuts https://blog.fortrabbit.com/the-tyranny-of-inconsistent-keyboard-shortcuts Mon, 12 Feb 2024 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer Insert a link in Slack, Notion, Linear, Obsidian and VS Code, and get five different shortcuts. A rant about relearning basic actions. A rant about how difficult it is to adapt keyboard shortcuts across multiple programs as a human.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/post-mortem-september-2023-maintenance https://blog.fortrabbit.com/post-mortem-september-2023-maintenance Wed, 04 Oct 2023 10:14:11 GMT Frank Lämmer chronicles A post mortem of the September 2023 internal maintenance: what went wrong across the nights in the EU, and what the aftermath was. We recently rolled out a BIG internal update. It was kinda rocky and we still have to deal with aftermath. Here are some technical details, as well as some personal reflections.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/september-2023-updates https://blog.fortrabbit.com/september-2023-updates Wed, 06 Sep 2023 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer chronicle A platform update covering operating system components and newer hardware, with the version list, the schedule and the downtime. We are preparing to roll out some minor version updates. Here is a list with lots of numbers and dots.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/why-gui-not-cli https://blog.fortrabbit.com/why-gui-not-cli Mon, 28 Aug 2023 09:36:38 GMT Frank Lämmer chronicles Developers reach for the terminal first, so why did a hosting platform for developers start with a graphical dashboard instead?

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/craft-image-transform-toolbox https://blog.fortrabbit.com/craft-image-transform-toolbox Wed, 26 Jul 2023 18:15:31 GMT Piotr Pogorzelski webdev The Image Toolbox plugin for Craft CMS builds responsive pictures with WebP variants and generates placeholders when an image is missing. Using the Image Toolbox plugin, you can create responsive pictures with WebP variants and automatically generate placeholders in case an image asset is missing.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/mysql-8-upgrades https://blog.fortrabbit.com/mysql-8-upgrades Mon, 05 Jun 2023 11:02:19 GMT Frank Lämmer changelog The last remaining apps move from MySQL 5.7 to MySQL 8 in a long-running maintenance project. What clients need to do, and when. This article informs our clients about a long running maintenance project to move remaining Apps from MySQL 5.7 to MySQL 8.0

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/mission-statement-2023 https://blog.fortrabbit.com/mission-statement-2023 Sat, 15 Apr 2023 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer chronicles Ten years of PHP cloud hosting: slow steady growth, hiring difficulties, and an honest account of a quiet period without big features. 10 years of fortrabbit cloud hosting. We haven't been doing much blogging lately. And you haven't seen many big new features landing here either. What's going on? Here is an update from the rabbitverse.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/php-82-update https://blog.fortrabbit.com/php-82-update Wed, 12 Apr 2023 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer changelog PHP 8.2 rolls out across the platform. The complete version list for PHP and its extensions, with timing and expected downtime. We are preparing to roll out PHP 8.2 to our platform. Here is a list with lots of numbers and dots.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/craft-cms-user-account-management https://blog.fortrabbit.com/craft-cms-user-account-management Thu, 09 Feb 2023 00:00:00 GMT Piotr Pogorzelski webdev Ready-to-use Craft CMS templates for registration, login, logout and password reset, with an explanation of how each of them works. Craft CMS (4 at the time of this writing) is a powerful tool to build content heavy websites. Editors love it. Little known is, that you can also have custom user management with it.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/craft-cms-pestphp-testing https://blog.fortrabbit.com/craft-cms-pestphp-testing Thu, 01 Dec 2022 00:00:00 GMT Oliver Stark webdev Testing Craft CMS sites with Pest, from the first assertion to a suite that runs on every deploy — for developers who never wrote a test. Testing a Craft CMS website might be less difficult than you think. Level up and follow us along as we learn about frontend testing Craft CMS websites.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/php-74-eol https://blog.fortrabbit.com/php-74-eol Fri, 14 Oct 2022 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer changelog PHP 7.4 reaches end of life. Why PHP 8 is worth the move — speed, active maintenance, new features — and how to get there. Same procedure as every year. PHP 7.4 will reach its end of life soon. This means that no security patches will be applied any more. This is information for PHP developers and fortrabbit clients.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/opinionated-craft-4-upgrade-guide https://blog.fortrabbit.com/opinionated-craft-4-upgrade-guide Tue, 11 Oct 2022 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer webdev Everything you always wanted to know about updating to Craft 4 - but were afraid to ask. Upgrading to a new major version of Craft CMS is a bigger undertaking as you may think. This article aims to dive a bit deeper than the official docs. Here is what you need to know before getting started and some of our opinionated practices.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/craft-cms-frontend-testing-with-codeception-and-cypress https://blog.fortrabbit.com/craft-cms-frontend-testing-with-codeception-and-cypress Wed, 21 Sep 2022 00:00:00 GMT Piotr Pogorzelski webdev Frontend testing for a Craft CMS site with Codeception and Cypress: what to cover, how to set the suites up, and what the tests catch. Testing a Craft CMS website might be less difficult than you think. Level up and follow us along as we learn about frontend testing Craft CMS websites.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/new-at-fortrabbit-2022-04 https://blog.fortrabbit.com/new-at-fortrabbit-2022-04 Mon, 04 Apr 2022 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer changelog A recap of recent platform work: a basic web application firewall setting, Craft Copy for Nitro, and Craft Copy for Craft CMS 4. Time flies by. We keep maintaining and improving our service. Here is a recap of recent updates.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/php-81-update https://blog.fortrabbit.com/php-81-update Mon, 14 Mar 2022 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer changelog PHP 8.1 rolls out to all Uni and Pro apps. The version and extension numbers, the schedule, and the downtime to expect. We are preparing to roll out PHP 8.1 to our platform. Here is a list with lots of numbers and dots.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/php-73-eol https://blog.fortrabbit.com/php-73-eol Wed, 19 Jan 2022 16:03:34 GMT Frank Lämmer changelog PHP 7.3 reaches end of life and gets switched to 7.4 on 13 April 2022. What to test before that date, and how to move earlier. Time flies by. Here is yet another PHP version that will soon get no more security updates, so we will need to stop supporting it as well: PHP 7.3. Here is what our clients need to know about upcoming changes.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/craft-performance-tuning-debugging https://blog.fortrabbit.com/craft-performance-tuning-debugging Sun, 16 Jan 2022 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer webdev What we learned helping clients speed up Craft CMS sites: the backend bottlenecks that come up again and again, and how to measure them. Here's what we've learned helping clients to increase performance of their Craft CMS websites.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/php-8-0-12-update https://blog.fortrabbit.com/php-8-0-12-update Thu, 11 Nov 2021 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer changelog The platform update rolling out PHP 8.0.12 to all Uni and Pro apps, with the full version list and the downtime to expect. We are preparing to roll out PHP 8.0.12 to our platform. Here is a list with lots of numbers and dots.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/craft-nitro-2-first-look-how-to-quickly-set-up-a-local-craft-cms-dev-site https://blog.fortrabbit.com/craft-nitro-2-first-look-how-to-quickly-set-up-a-local-craft-cms-dev-site Thu, 27 May 2021 00:00:00 GMT Jascha Silbermann webdev Craft Nitro 2 dropped Multipass for Docker. A first look at setting up a local Craft CMS development site with it.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/image-optimization-services-overview https://blog.fortrabbit.com/image-optimization-services-overview Wed, 14 Apr 2021 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer opinion A field guide to image processing and optimization services: what problem they solve, which providers exist, and the alternatives. Learn about image processing service providers here. What are they? What problem do they solve? What options and alternatives are available?

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/mysql-8-upgrade-plan https://blog.fortrabbit.com/mysql-8-upgrade-plan Wed, 07 Apr 2021 00:00:00 GMT Oliver Stark changelog How to move an app from MySQL 5.6 to MySQL 8 on fortrabbit, including the platform-side migration workflow added later. This article guides with upgrading an App on fortrabbit to the newer version of MySQL 8.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/about-a-recent-security-patch https://blog.fortrabbit.com/about-a-recent-security-patch Tue, 23 Mar 2021 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer chronicles The story of one small dashboard security fix: a password form bypassed with browser dev tools, reported by a long-standing researcher. This is the story of a small security update we recently deployed to our Dashboard.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/geographic-features-spatial-data-mysql-8 https://blog.fortrabbit.com/geographic-features-spatial-data-mysql-8 Mon, 01 Mar 2021 00:00:00 GMT Jascha Silbermann webdev Use MySQL 8 as a spatial database: geometry types, spatial indexes and distance queries, with PHP examples that run on fortrabbit.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/php-8-update https://blog.fortrabbit.com/php-8-update Mon, 22 Feb 2021 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer changelog PHP 8 rolls out across the fortrabbit platform. The full list of versions and extensions, plus timing and expected downtime. We are preparing to roll out PHP 8 to our platform. Here is a list with lots of numbers and dots.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/meanwhile-at-fortrabbit https://blog.fortrabbit.com/meanwhile-at-fortrabbit Thu, 11 Feb 2021 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer changelog HTTP/2 finally rolls out for all apps, alongside a set of smaller platform changes from the home office task force. Here is a combined update from the home office working task force, announcing upcoming and recent changes. You care about detail? We do too!

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/composer-2-availability https://blog.fortrabbit.com/composer-2-availability Wed, 16 Dec 2020 00:00:00 GMT Oliver Stark changelog Composer 2 lands on fortrabbit and makes git deployments considerably faster. What to expect, and how to fix a build that breaks. What you need to know and how to troubleshoot issues.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/mysql-json-column-with-laravel https://blog.fortrabbit.com/mysql-json-column-with-laravel Tue, 08 Dec 2020 00:00:00 GMT Oliver Stark webdev JSON columns let MySQL hold data that does not fit a strict schema. How to declare, query and cast them from a Laravel application. Learn about JSON columns in MySQL and how to use them in Laravel.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/lets-encrypt-new-root https://blog.fortrabbit.com/lets-encrypt-new-root Thu, 26 Nov 2020 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer changelog Let's Encrypt will change its root certificates. Learn how this might affect you as a fortrabbit client. Let's Encrypt will change its root certificates. Learn how this might affect you as a fortrabbit client.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/craft-copy-1-released https://blog.fortrabbit.com/craft-copy-1-released Thu, 12 Nov 2020 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer webdev Our command line tool to help with Craft CMS deployment on fortrabbit is now production grade ready. We are pleased to announce that Craft Copy has now reached version 1.0.0. Craft Copy is an open source command line interface to sync your local Craft with fortrabbit in more convenient and sophisticated ways.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/php-72-eol https://blog.fortrabbit.com/php-72-eol Wed, 11 Nov 2020 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer changelog PHP 7.2 stops receiving security updates and support on fortrabbit ends. The quick upgrade route that works for most apps. Time flies by. Here is yet another PHP version that will soon get no more security updates, so we will need to stop supporting it as well: PHP 7.2. Here is what our clients need to know about upcoming changes.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/mysql-8-now-available-for-pro-apps https://blog.fortrabbit.com/mysql-8-now-available-for-pro-apps Wed, 28 Oct 2020 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer changelog We are finally making MySQL 8 available. What clients need to know about the roll-out. This has been a long requested feature. Now, we can finally announce it. Starting today, all newly created Pro Apps will run on MySQL version 8. Here is what else you might want to know.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/first-look-craft-nitro-development-tool https://blog.fortrabbit.com/first-look-craft-nitro-development-tool Wed, 14 Oct 2020 00:00:00 GMT Jascha Silbermann webdev A first look at Craft Nitro, the local development tool by Pixel and Tonic, measured against DDEV for running a Craft CMS site.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/privacy-shield-obsolete-our-thoughts https://blog.fortrabbit.com/privacy-shield-obsolete-our-thoughts Tue, 15 Sep 2020 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer opinion The European Court of Justice invalidated the EU-US Privacy Shield. What that means for a hosting platform and for its clients. The European Court of Justice (EUCJ) invalidated the Privacy Shield agreement recently. This is what clients may want to know.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/local-craft-dev-site-ddev-development-tool https://blog.fortrabbit.com/local-craft-dev-site-ddev-development-tool Thu, 10 Sep 2020 00:00:00 GMT Jascha Silbermann webdev Set up a local Craft CMS development site with DDEV, the Docker-based tool that became our recommendation for local PHP work. We will show you how to use the DDEV development tool to quickly set up a Craft CMS dev site for local development.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/tools-for-php-development-local-dev-site-setup https://blog.fortrabbit.com/tools-for-php-development-local-dev-site-setup Thu, 30 Jul 2020 00:00:00 GMT Jascha Silbermann webdev What PHP development tools are available? What are the pros and cons of each tool? The PHP ecosystem is diverse and has brought forth such industry heavyweights as WordPress, Drupal, and Laravel. Having a local PHP development environment set up allows one to develop and test sites and apps on one's own machine. Without this, one needs to push any code changes to a remote staging environment for testing; a time-consuming and inefficient process.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/seomatic-exploit https://blog.fortrabbit.com/seomatic-exploit Tue, 07 Jul 2020 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer chronicles A critical vulnerability in the Craft CMS plugin SEOmatic. How to check whether an installation was affected, and how to clean up. The Craft CMS plugin SEOmatic has had a critical security vulnerability. This is how to check if your installation is affected and maybe even hacked already. TLDR; Update Craft CMS and plugins now!

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/covid-19-info https://blog.fortrabbit.com/covid-19-info Fri, 27 Mar 2020 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer chronicles What fortrabbit changed in March 2020 to keep client sites online: remote work, shared responsibility and extended documentation. What we are doing to keep your business online and how you can help.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/php-74-update https://blog.fortrabbit.com/php-74-update Fri, 27 Mar 2020 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer changelog The platform update bringing PHP 7.4 and a set of extension bumps, with version numbers, timing and expected downtime. We are currently preparing a small update. PHP 7.4 and some extensions. Here is a list with lots of numbers and dots.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/the-story-of-our-new-invoice-numbers https://blog.fortrabbit.com/the-story-of-our-new-invoice-numbers Mon, 03 Feb 2020 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer chronicles How our new invoice numbers are structured and what went wrong when we rolled it out. We have just changed our invoice number format. This is why we changed it and about the issues during roll out.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/how-to-use-github-actions https://blog.fortrabbit.com/how-to-use-github-actions Tue, 19 Nov 2019 00:00:00 GMT Yann Rabiller webdev GitHub Actions arrives, and fortrabbit gets a deployment workflow built on it — useful when the built-in git deployment is not enough. GitHub Actions became public last week. This new CI system is free for all public repos. Private repos get 2000 minutes to build per month for free. This is a rough guide to use GitHub Actions as a deployment pipeline to fortrabbit.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/updates-ahead-2019-10 https://blog.fortrabbit.com/updates-ahead-2019-10 Wed, 16 Oct 2019 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer changelog A patch update for all supported PHP versions rolls out app by app, with up to ten minutes of downtime for web delivery. We are currently preparing a patch version update. Here is what you need to know.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/php-71-fade-out https://blog.fortrabbit.com/php-71-fade-out Wed, 25 Sep 2019 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer changelog Security support for PHP 7.1 ends in December 2019. The five-minute upgrade path, and what to check before switching production. The official security support for PHP 7.1 is ending in December 2019. Bring your Apps up-to-date now. Here are the basic and some advanced steps you — dear fortrabbit client — might need to do.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/imagemagick-update-2019-08 https://blog.fortrabbit.com/imagemagick-update-2019-08 Fri, 16 Aug 2019 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer changelog A second ImageMagick patch rolls out across the platform, with the rundown of timing and the downtime to expect for Uni and Pro apps. We are currently preparing for a smaller platform update. Mainly, this is about releasing a new patch, improving imageMagick performance - general stability and security improvements included.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/post-mortem-under-the-hood-2019-06 https://blog.fortrabbit.com/post-mortem-under-the-hood-2019-06 Fri, 28 Jun 2019 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer chronicles A post mortem of the 2019 under-the-hood update: a global operating system upgrade that did not go as planned, and why. We recently rolled out a BIG internal update and it didn't work out exactly as planned. Here is what went wrong.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/under-the-hood-updates-2019-06 https://blog.fortrabbit.com/under-the-hood-updates-2019-06 Tue, 28 May 2019 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer changelog A large internal platform update focused on stability, security and groundwork, with the timing and downtime to expect per app. We are currently preparing a big internal update. You will not find new features (PHP7.4 and HTTP/2 not yet) but it includes many bigger under the hood changes, further improving platform stability and security.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/imagemagick-issues https://blog.fortrabbit.com/imagemagick-issues Mon, 04 Mar 2019 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer chronicles The backstory of a week of ImageMagick trouble on the platform: what broke in image transformations, and what was done about it. During the last week we have had some trouble with ImageMagick. Sorry for the inconvenience. This article provides some background about what happened.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/php-eol-faq https://blog.fortrabbit.com/php-eol-faq Fri, 14 Dec 2018 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer webdev What else you need to know about the upcoming EOL of the two PHP versions 5.6 and 7.0. The end is near. At least for PHP 5.6 and PHP 7.0. Here are most facts for fortrabbit clients on the upcoming updates.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/introducing-craft-copy https://blog.fortrabbit.com/introducing-craft-copy Thu, 01 Nov 2018 00:00:00 GMT Oliver Stark webdev Craft Copy, an open-source command line tool that syncs code, assets and the database between a local Craft CMS and fortrabbit. So we said to do more open source on fortrabbit. TADA - here (if you haven't seen already) is Craft Copy. Deployment tools for Craft Apps on fortrabbit.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/php-testing https://blog.fortrabbit.com/php-testing Wed, 19 Sep 2018 00:00:00 GMT Erin Strand webdev Run automated compatibility checks against PHP 7.2 before switching a live app, and catch the breaking changes ahead of time. This post helps running automated tests on your code to detect breaking changes before switching the PHP version. It includes instructions on how to use our predefined Docker image with PHPCompatibility.

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