Docker for PHP Developers

Introduction

The book "Docker for PHP Developers" (original title Docker for PHP Developers) by Paul Redmond was published in 2018 and immediately attracted the attention of the PHP developer community seeking to master modern containerization practices. In an era when Docker has become the de facto standard for application deployment and development, this book offers a focused, practical approach tailored specifically to the PHP ecosystem. At 290 pages, it covers the topic in sufficient depth without overloading the reader with excessive theory.

What the book is about

The book is structured as a step-by-step guide that takes the reader from the basics of Docker to creating a full-fledged development environment and production deployment of PHP applications. The author does not simply paraphrase the Docker documentation but adapts it to typical PHP developer tasks: setting up a web server (Nginx, Apache), working with databases (MySQL, PostgreSQL), managing dependencies via Composer, using Redis and other services. Special attention is given to Docker Compose as a tool for orchestrating multi-container applications. Security, image optimization, caching, and logging are also covered.

Who this book is for

The book is aimed at PHP developers of all levels — from juniors just starting to learn about containerization to experienced professionals wanting to systematize their knowledge and integrate Docker into their workflow. Basic familiarity with PHP and the command line is assumed, but deep DevOps knowledge is not required. The book will also be useful for team leads and architects who want to understand how Docker can improve CI/CD and simplify onboarding for new developers.

What the reader will learn

• Docker basics: installation, images, containers, Dockerfile, layers, volumes, and networks.
• Creating Docker images for PHP: choosing a base image (alpine, debian), installing extensions, configuring php.ini.
• Working with Docker Compose: describing services (PHP-FPM, Nginx, MySQL, Redis), environment variables, dependencies between containers.
• Development in containers: code mounting, hot reloading, Xdebug for debugging.
• Production builds: multi-stage builds, image size optimization, minimizing vulnerabilities.
• Integration with Composer: installing dependencies inside the container, caching vendor.
• Working with queues and background tasks: containerizing Supervisor, RabbitMQ, Laravel Horizon.
• Testing in Docker: running PHPUnit, Behat, configuring test databases.
• CI/CD: building images in GitLab CI / GitHub Actions, publishing to Docker Hub.

Strengths

One of the book's main strengths is its practical focus. Each chapter contains ready-made code examples, Dockerfiles, and docker-compose.yml files that can be immediately adapted to your own project. The author pays close attention to common mistakes and how to avoid them — for example, file permission issues, layer caching, and choosing PHP versions. The book is written in a lively, accessible style without excessive academicism. The chapters on debugging and profiling deserve special mention — this is rarely found in Docker literature. Another plus is that the book is not tied to a specific framework: examples are given for vanilla PHP as well as Laravel, Symfony, and WordPress, making it universal.

Who it is recommended for

The book will be useful for all PHP developers who want to move from traditional environment setup (XAMPP, MAMP, manual installation) to containerization. It will also be an excellent resource for DevOps engineers working with PHP projects, and for students learning modern development methods. If you already use Docker but feel you are not doing it optimally —