The document summarizes recent developments in PHP and related frameworks from December 2015. Key updates include the release of PHP 7.0.1 with new features like scalar type hinting and return type declarations. PSR-6 was introduced as a caching interface standard. WordPress 4.4, Drupal 8.0.1, Slim 3.0, Laravel 5.2, and Symfony were all released with new features and requirements. Upcoming conferences in 2016 for PHP were also listed.

1. Last Month in PHP
December 2015
Kansas City PHP User Group

2. PHP 7
Latest: PHP 7.0.1
New Features include:
● Scalar type hinting
● Return type declarations
● New operators:
○ Null coalescing: ??
○ Spaceship: <=>
● Constant Arrays
● Anonymous Classes
● Speed!
See: http://php.net/manual/en/migration70.php

3. PSR-6: Caching Interface
Allows free-standing libraries to support caching of intermediary data without effort
Provides a common interface for basic and intermediate-level caching needs
No major frameworks or libraries utilize PSR-6 yet
See: http://www.php-fig.org/psr/psr-6/

4. WordPress 4.4: “Clifford”
New Features include:
● Theme: Twenty-Sixteen
● Responsive images
● Ability to embed posts from:
○ Other WP sites
○ Other oEmbed providers (reddit,
speakerdeck, etc)
● WordPress REST API in Core
● Other stuff under-the-hood
Requires:
● PHP 5.2.4+
See: https://wordpress.
org/news/2015/12/clifford/

5. Drupal 8.0.1
New Features include:
● HTML 5
● Out-of-the-box WYSIWYG
editing
● Built with modern PHP practices
& Libraries:
○ Composer, Symfony2, Guzzle, Twig,
etc.
● REST web services
Requires:
● PHP 5.5.9+
See: https://www.drupal.org/8

6. Slim 3.0
New Features include:
● Dependency Injection Container
● PSR-7 Middleware support
● Route callback binding
● Simpler API
New Requires:
● PHP 5.5+
See: http://www.slimframework.com/

7. Symfony
Symfony 2.8.1 & 3.0.1
Symfony 2.7.8
Symfony 2.3.36
Requires: PHP 5.5.9+
Requires: PHP 5.3.9+
Requires: PHP 5.3.3+
See: http://symfony.com/blog/a-week-of-
symfony-469-21-27-december-2015

8. Laravel 5.2
New Features include:
● Authentication Scaffolding
● Implicit model binding
● Rate limiting
● Array validation
Requires:
● PHP 5.5.9+
See: https://laravel.com/docs/5.
2/releases#laravel-5.2

9. Laravel Homestead 5.2
New Features include:
● Now with PHP7!
● Composer
● Git
Requires:
● PHP 5.5.9+
See: https://laravel.com/docs/5.2/homestead

10. Upcoming Conferences
Sunshine PHP
● Feb 4-6 - Miami, FL
● See: http://2016.sunshinephp.com/
Midwest PHP
● Mar 4-5 - Minneapolis, MN
● See: http://2016.midwestphp.org/
Lonestar PHP
● April 7-9 - Dallas, TX
● See: http://lonestarphp.com/
php[tek]
● May 23-27 - St. Louis, MO
● See: https://tek.phparch.com/

11. Nomad PHP (Online) - Jan 21
Nomad PHP EU - 01:00 PM CST
Puli: PHP’s Next Package Revolution
● Bernhard Schussek (@webmozart)
● See: https://nomadphp.
com/2015/10/16/puli-phps-next-package-
revolution/
Nomad PHP US - 08:00 PM CST
Building Better APIs
● Mike Stowe (@mikegstowe)
● See: https://nomadphp.
com/2015/10/16/building-better-apis/