It is accomplished: "Modernizing Legacy Applications in PHP", the book that will help you modernize your legacy PHP codebase, is complete. You can get it now it at https://leanpub.com/mlaphp.

Is your legacy PHP application composed of page scripts placed directly in the document root of the web server? Do your page scripts, along with any other classes and functions, combine the concerns of model, view, and controller into the same scope? Is the majority of the logical flow incorporated as include files and global functions rather than class methods?

If so, you already know that the wide use of global variables means that making a change in one place leads to unexpected consequences somewhere else. These and other factors make it overly difficult and expensive for you to add features and fix bugs. Working with your legacy application feels like dragging your feet through mud.

But it doesn't have to be that way! Modernizing Legacy Applications in PHP will show you how to modernize your application by extracting and replacing its legacy artifacts. We will use a step-by-step approach, moving slowly and methodically, to improve your application from the ground up.

Moreover, we will keep your application running the whole time. Each completed step in the process will keep your codebase fully operational with higher quality. When we are done, you will be able to breeze through your code like the wind. Your code will be autoloaded, dependency-injected, unit-tested, layer-separated, and front-controlled.

From the Foreword by Adam Culp:

Developing with PHP has really matured in recent years, but it's no secret that PHP's low level of entry for beginners helped create some nasty codebases. Companies who built applications in the dark times simply can't afford to put things on hold and rebuild a legacy application, especially with today's fast paced economy and higher developer salaries. To stay competitive, companies must continually push developers for new features and to increase application stability. This creates a hostile environment for developers working with a poorly written legacy application. Modernizing a legacy application is a necessity, and must happen. Yet knowing how to create clean code and comprehending how to modernize a legacy application are two entirely different things.

But understanding how to use these refactoring processes on a legacy codebase is not straight forward, and sometimes impossible. The book you're about to read bridges the gap, allowing developers to modernize a codebase so refactoring can be applied for continued enhancement.

Early reviews and testimonials from the feedback page:

  • "This is one of those books that PHP developers from all skill levels will be able to glean value from, and I know after just a single read-through that it will be an oft-referenced resource when I need to convert my old legacy-based procedural code into something cleaner, object-oriented, and testable." (J. Michael Ward)

  • "As I followed the exercises in the book, my questions almost seemed to be anticipated and answered before the chapter was over. Structurally the book is very well paced. Chapters that I breezed over tended to be more useful than I thought they would be. I’ve been testing for years and I still picked up some useful tidbits about structuring my tests. Just having the step-by-step advice of an expert really made a difference." (James Fuller)

  • "Reading through the book, it feels like you're pair programming with the author. I'm at the keyboard, driving, and the author is navigating, telling me where to go and what to do next. Each step is practical, self-contained and moves you closer to the end goal you seek: maintainable code." (Joel Clermont)

  • "This book helped me slay a 300k line of code giant and has allowed me to break out my shell. The refactored code has 15% code coverage for unit testing which grows every day." (Chris Smith)

If you feel overwhelmed by a legacy application, "Modernizing Legacy Applications in PHP" is the book for you. Purchase it today and get started making your own life easier!

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Are you stuck with a legacy PHP application? You should buy my book because it gives you a step-by-step guide to improving you codebase, all while keeping it running the whole time.