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Technical insights and software architecture

Deep dives into PHP development, Horde Framework evolution and practical software engineering. Focused on real-world solutions for complex technical challenges. “Always close to the source”.

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PHP, Horde Framework, authentication systems, composer workflows and modern development practices.

Long-form Analysis

Comprehensive technical articles exploring architectural decisions, migration strategies and lessons learned from real projects.

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Open source contributions, framework development and sharing knowledge with the PHP developer community.

Month: March 2021

  • Why extending PHPUnit might be wrong

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    by

    Ralf
    in ,

    Over the last few months, I spent a lot of cold winter evening hours looking into porting ancient PHPUnit 4.x test suites over to PHPUnit 9.x. The test suites, you guessed it, belong to the Horde framework. Horde actually does not just use phpunit but wraps it into its own testing library horde/test. The full…

  • Turba Addressbook (II) – Architecture

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    by

    Ralf
    in ,

    In the first chapter we looked at Turba’s features, APIs, Protocols. In the current installment, I want to present the concepts and structure of the code. Turba is among the oldest horde applications. As such, it contains parts from various stages of Horde’s development.

  • Turba Addressbook (I) – Features

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    by

    Ralf
    in ,

    This will be the first part of a short series of articles exploring the Turba application and its architecture. Part I covers all the features and integrations provided by Turba. Part II will look into implementation, code structure etc. Part III will consist of proposals for a changed architecture.

  • What’s new in Maintaina Horde: Status 3/2021

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    by

    Ralf
    in ,

    CalDAV and CardDAV now run off SabreDAV 4 rather than SabreDAV 2 We now support both the Composer installer versions 1 and 2. Nothing still depends on the PEAR protocol. The Horde Icalendar Library now supports vCard 4. Still, importing/exporting vCard 4 or using it in CardDAV in the addressbook App Turba is not yet…

  • Maintaina Horde: Q&A

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    by

    Ralf
    in

    There’s sometimes a little confusion about that. Let’s answer common questions. What is Maintaina Horde? Horde is a long-living email and groupware solution. It’s free & open source and owned by Horde LLC.Maintaina Horde is a fork from the official horde repository adding / improving code. It started out as a proof of concept but…