Logging in PHP (Structured Logs You Can Trust)

Good logging makes you faster when things break. ## What to log - errors + stack traces - important actions (order created, payment success) - request id, user id (if safe), endpoint, timestamp ## Basic log helper ```php function log_event(string $message, array $context = []): void { $line = date("Y-m-d H:i:s") . " " . $message . " " . json_encode($context) . PHP_EOL; file_put_contents(__DIR__ . "/app.log", $line, FILE_APPEND); } ``` ## Example usage ```php log_event("order_created", ["order_id" => 123, "user_id" => 10]); ``` ## Pro tip In real apps, use a mature logger like Monolog (via Composer). Same idea, better tools. > Next: Environment variables and config management (no hardcoding secrets).