In this technical tutorial we will cover the use Vagrant & Chef to script and automate the setup of a Virtual development environment tailored to PHP.
We will begin by investigating the problems associated with differing environments within a development team when working with PHP and LAMP stacks, explaining how differing software stacks can lead to unexpected defects. Most notably introducing risk to our projects during deployment based on environment differences.
Based on example lead steps, delegates will build a virtual environment using a scripted Chef recipe. Over the course of the tutorial delegates will build a local virtual server with a full LAMP stack and their preferred development tools such as PHPUnit, PHPCode_Sniffer and PHPSpec. They will create a shared file system between the virtual server and their laptop to allow them to continue to use their editor of choice.
By the end of the tutorial delegates will have created a fully automated process for creating a repeatable and distributable virtual environment. They will then be able to apply these practices within their own development teams to streamline the creation of a unified environment for their software projects.