Fresh Resources for Web Designers and Developers (December 2020)

We are finally at the end of 2020, an unprecedented year of the decade, and with that we are also back with bring fresh resources for our fellow web developers.

This year specifically, I’ve seen Laravel ecosystem thrived with new packages, libraries, and tools. In this round of the series we will explore Laravel ecosystem more such as the latest new tool to spin up a localhost environment with Docker and a couple packages that makes creating web application quicker and easier, along with other type of resources.

DevFonts

A collection of fonts designed for writing codes. There are more than 30 font families available. Some of the fonts provide support for the font ligature that makes your codes look cleaner. The site also provides preview with the theme and language selection, so you can see whether the font fits in your preference.

Upptime

A modern uptime monitoring system and status page powered with Github infrastructure. It utilises Github Actions, Github Issues, and Github Pages all together. All you need is a Github account and repository to deploy it, which you can get for free.

Collision

A PHP library that provides a nicer error report when running your PHP application through command line / Shell environment. It will render codes with proper highlighting, colors, and numbering which make the report easier to read.

Laravel Sail

A new shiny tool from Laravel ecosystem. Sail finally provides a unified way to run a localhost environment for your Laravel application whether you’re running on Windows, macOS, or Linux.

Laravel Favicon

A Laravel package that allows you to generate a favicon image based on the site environment. You can set the background, text, and colors of the image. A quite handy approach to easily differentiate environments of your websites or Laravel applications.

Akaunting

A free web-based accounting software. Built with modern technologies such as Laravel and Vue.js, Akaunting is designed for small businesses and freelancers. For developer, you can easily extend it with new functionality to suit your needs.

Laravel Backup

Have you ever need to backup your Laravel application? Look no further this PHP library is all you’ll need. It’s able to backup file and database and you can store it multiple places that you’ve configured in your Laravel application file system.

Laravel Media Library

This handy library for your Laravel application allows you to manage files using Laravel Eloquent model. This library supports many file system that Laravel supports including local file system or S3.

Laravel Activity Log

A Laravel library that provides the functions and model that enables you to record the activities within your website or application. For example, you can name the activity, the user that’s caused it, as well as you can also set how long the log should be stored.

Invoice Ninja

A web-based application for creating invoice. It supports online payment with more than 40 payment gateways including Stripe, Paypal, and Authorize.net. You can also set it to accept deposit, partial payments, and auto reminder for payments. So not only that you can create invoices but it also helps you get paid timely.

PestPHP

A modern automatic PHP testing tool with a more linear and expressive syntax adopted from Jest, a testing tool for JavaScript. It makes your test more easy to read and understand. It also fully compatible with your current PHPUnit tests.

ClockWork

An awesome tool for debugging your Laravel application. It provides detailed insight of application when it run; data such as requests and performance data, log, database queries, cache queries, redis queries, dispatched events, and even the new Core Web Vital all presented nicely in the browser.

Corcel

A collection of PHP classes that provides a nicer way to connect and get data directly from a WordPress database on your Laravel application. You can use it to retrieve Posts along with the Posts meta data, taxonomy, pages, thumbnails, and options.

Github Universe On-demand

This month, Github has just held their annual Github Universe. It presented numerous subjects on the tech and software development. You can find the collection of pre-recorded sessions of the event here to keep up with what’s going on in tech the industry.

Generic Components

A collection of native Web Components for common web interface that is light and fast, easy to style, and accessible. There are a few custom HTML element provided including the Accordion, Switch, and Tabs

PingCRM

An example of application built using InertiaJS and Laravel. This could also be a great starting point to build your own application.

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SnapDrop

A handy web app to transfer files between devices. Using built-in modern browser features such as WebRTC, WebSockets, and PWA. You can use it cross platform whether you’re in Windows, macOS, or Linux. It’s also fully open-source so you can learn how it works.

Honey

A handy PHP library for Laravel application to prevent spam. Providing honeypot techniques, IP blocking and an a simple simple to Google Recaptcha.

Sherlock Project

A CLI that allows you to search and find usernames across social networks. It supports more than 300 sites including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Slack, Flickr, and Freelancer.com, to name a few. It makes findaing a perfect consistent username easier.

Gutenberg Post Picker

A simple Gutenberg component that allows you to easily list and select posts published on your website. You can install it through NPM to incorporate into your own plugin or theme.