OpenLampTech - Developer Interview with Wendell Adriel
PHP developer Wendell Adriel is very active in the open-source community, creating and maintaining several popular Laravel packages. Learn about them and more in OpenLampTech.
Welcome to this OpenLampTech text-based developer interview.
Software developer Wendell Adriel agreed to participate in a developer interview for the OpenLampTech newsletter.
Needless to say, I'm super-excited for you to read and learn all about Wendell and his many open-source projects in addition to the experience and knowledge he has gained through years of software development.
And now without any further ado, on to the interview.
Q: Please introduce yourself and tell us what you currently do for a living.
Hey there, I'm Wendell Adriel.
I'm 31 years old, I'm from Brazil, but I live in Portugal since 2016.
I currently work remotely for a company in the US called TrackStreet.
I started working with software development in 2009 as a freelancer and remained working as a freelancer until 2015 when I started working in software development companies full-time.
Since the beginning, I loved to share with others what I know, so when I started working at companies I also started contributing to the developer community by writing articles in Portuguese in a blog that I had at the time and I did this for some years. When I moved to Portugal because of all the changes in my life I stopped for a while to contribute to the developer community.
Recently (some years ago) I struggled with some mental health issues and at the time I even walked away from all social media.
I got better and since last year I started to contribute again, this time I started to contribute to Open Source projects like Laravel, MiniCLI and also created some Open Source projects on my own, being the most famous ones:
Laravel Validated DTO - https://github.com/WendellAdriel/laravel-validated-dto
This is a package that allows you to create Data Transfer Objects with data validation using the same validations you can do in a FormRequest from Laravel.
Lift for Laravel - https://github.com/WendellAdriel/laravel-lift
This is my most recent project and it has gained some traction since I released it. It's a package to boost the Eloquent Models, allowing to define public properties in the Models that match the table schema and also providing a lot of Attributes that you can use to configure your Models.
I also worked and created other projects that you can see here: https://wendelladriel.com/projects
Besides that, every now and then I write some articles and publish them in my blog: https://wendelladriel.com/blog
Q: What PHP framework(s) and/or CMS(s) are you interested in the most or currently using (if any) and why?
I already worked with many PHP frameworks, but in the last couple of years, I specialized in Laravel applications. I also really like Symfony, but I didn't work much with it in the recent years. We have great options for CMS like Statamic, but recently I've been just using Laravel + Filament to get work done quickly!
Q: Do you think it is important for developers to know some SQL and not rely solely on an ORM? Why or why not?
Yeah, it's really important. While ORMs have been getting really good to work with queries, even more complex ones, for some applications you need to fine-tune queries, and then you'll need to understand the impact of different ways of writing queries to know how to improve them.
Q: What is one piece of software that you just cannot live without and why?
PHPStorm, it's amazing all the features that it provides, and that help me with my productivity with my daily work!
Q: You type all of your code in which IDE/Text Editor/Software?
I work mainly with PHP, so PHPStorm, but in general, JetBrains IDEs. Sometimes I need to work with some Golang and Python code and GoLand and PyCharm are the best options for that! (No, JetBrains is not sponsoring me to say that xD),
Q: How has working as a web developer/designer/professional benefited you other than the obvious paycheck and monetary value?
It's amazing the opportunities that working with software development opens, not only for the money, but to meet amazing people, be able to work with people all over the world and also to have the ability to think about something, create it, and see it working (or sometimes not)! It gives a really good feeling when you work on something and see other people using it to make their lives easier/better!
Q: Do you have a book, newsletter, blog, podcast or other resource you would recommend to other developers?
I'm not going to list any particular resources, but as a developer, I think that's important for us to have other activities and subjects to be interested about. So my main advice is for you to seek something you like that has nothing related to code at all and read, search about that. For example, I love mythology, so I really like to search and learn about that.
Q: What hobbies or activities do you do for fun?
I love to play electronic games, currently, I'm playing Final Fantasy XVI in my PS5. Besides that, I love music and play some instruments for fun. Also, spending some great quality time with my girlfriend, going to the movies or watching something at home with her, going out to eat something different or new at a new place.
Q: Where can readers go to learn more about you and any projects you may have going?
I try to share things about the projects I work on in Twitter/X https://x.com/wendell_adriel
I also maintain a list of projects that I work on in my website: https://wendelladriel.com/projects
You can also follow me in GitHub: https://github.com/WendellAdriel
Q: Anything else you'd like to add or share with the OpenLampTech readers?
Just two things:
1 - Don't quit your dreams, even if you're feeling tired or thinking that you're not getting there, doing 0,1% every day is better than 0% and even that slowly, you'll get there! Believe me, I've been there in a period that I was not able to do anything for my goals, not because I didn't want to, but because I didn't take care of my mental health. Sometimes life happens and when it does, take care of yourself first and remember that taking a time off, resting, relaxing to improve your mental health is not that you're not doing anything, you're doing great because if you're not good, you can't do anything else properly!
2 - Recently I started working on my first SaaS. It's not launched yet, but you can register for the early access program: https://konf.app, Konf.app will be a platform where you can easily and securely manage the configurations and secrets for your applications! I plan to release it before the end of the year and everyone that's signed up for the early access program will get a "forever" discount in the subscriptions!
Thank you, Wendell Adriel, for sharing your knowledge and insights with the OpenLampTech newsletter readers and community!
Thank you for reading. I hope you have a great rest of your week.
Take care.
Josh Otwell