Laravel automatically injects the current Http [request object][1] to all Controller actions and Middleware. Leveraging this object improves consistency and testability.
[1]: https://laravel.com/docs/requests#accessing-the-request
Laravel offers many helper functions, including: `view()`, `response()`, `redirect()`, `config()`, and more.
Review the [Helpers][1] documentation for more details.
[1]: https://laravel.com/docs/5.7/helpers
To conform with PSR-16 Laravel 5.8 changed the cache expiration time from minutes to seconds. If you were passing an integer, Shift converted this to its integer equivalent in seconds. If you were passing a "minutes" variable, Shift converted this to the relative date time equivalent for readability.
Laravel recommends using the `Str` and `Arr` class methods directly instead of the respective helper functions. These helper functions are [deprecated in Laravel 5.8][1] and will be removed in a future version.
[1]: https://github.com/laravel/framework/pull/26898
PHP 5.5.9+ adds the new static `class` property which provides the fully qualified class name. This is preferred over using class name strings as these references are checked by the parser.
This changeset's key new feature is allowing web browsers to display media player notifications for Pony.fm by implementing the media session API. These notifications display Play/Pause, Previous, and Next controls that control Pony.fm's playback. This also makes Pony.fm controllable by automotive audio systems and other Bluetooth devices that expose their own (often physical) playback controls.
Other improvements in this changeset include:
- Update the automated dev environment setup to work in 2021
- Remove extraneous frontend logging
- Fix to consistently include album data with a track's data
