Interview with Soren Valtrex

Interview with Soren Valtrex: how to migrate legacy code without panic

Soren Valtrex is the founder of Pheryix and a legacy PHP migration specialist for 9 years. In this interview, he talks about how to safely upgrade old projects.

Q&A

  • How to start migrating from PHP 7.4 to 8.3?
    Start with a code analysis with Rector + PHPStan. They will show 90% of the problems automatically.
  • What are the most common mistakes during migration?
    Ignoring types, ignoring breaking changes in functions, missing tests.
  • How to avoid downtime?
    Use blue-green deployment or feature flags for a gradual switch.
  • Do you need Composer from the start?
    Yes - it simplifies dependency management and PSR-4 autoloading.

Comparison of a developer's workflow before and after optimization, with icons and text on a dark background.

Actionable tips

  • Run rector --dry-run on a copy of the project.
  • Add PHPStan level 5 and fix all errors.
  • Test on a staging environment with real data.

Ready to migrate your project without panic? Get started with the Free Pack or Nexus Course now.

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