Forem: Sabbir Alam

Turning My Hidden Code Comments into a Productivity Tool: The Story of GhostNotes 👻

Sabbir Alam — Tue, 16 Dec 2025 13:41:01 +0000

How I built a Laravel package that transforms @ghost and @todo comments into a beautiful developer diary and a real-time web dashboard.

Introduction

As developers, we often leave breadcrumbs in our code. Whether it’s a quick // @todo: Fix this or a cryptic // @ghost: Refactor this later, these notes often get lost in the sea of thousands of lines of code.

I wanted a way to keep track of these "ghostly" thoughts without manual effort. So, I decided to build GhostNotes—a Laravel package that scans your code, identifies your notes, finds out who wrote them via Git, and presents them in a beautiful Markdown file and a modern web dashboard.

The Problem: The "Lost Comment" Syndrome

In a fast-paced development cycle, we often forget the small improvements we intended to make. Existing project management tools like Jira or Trello are great for big tasks, but they feel too heavy for a 1-line code thought. I needed something:

Lightweight: Living right inside the code.
Automated: No manual copying.
Visual: A clean UI to see everything at a glance.

The Solution: GhostNotes

GhostNotes is a Laravel package that acts as a bridge between your messy comments and a clean developer diary.

Key Technical Challenges I Solved:

Dynamic Scanning: I used Regex to scan the entire app/ directory for customizable tags like @ghost, @todo, and @fixme.
Git Blame Integration: To make it useful for teams, I integrated git blame commands via PHP's shell_exec. This allows the tool to identify exactly who wrote each note.
Modern Dashboard: I didn't want just a boring text file. I built a modern, dark-themed dashboard using Tailwind CSS that renders your notes in the browser.
Auto-Cleanup: One of my favorite features is the --clear flag. It generates your diary and then automatically wipes those comments from your source code to keep it clean.

How it Works

Installing it is as simple as any other Laravel package:

composer require iamsabbiralam/ghost-notes

Simply run a command:

php artisan ghost:write

And boom! You have a "GHOST_LOG.md" and a dashboard at "/ghost-notes"

The Architecture

I kept the architecture clean and "Laravel-way":

Service Provider: To register routes, views, and commands.
Custom Commands: For the CLI experience.
Blade & Tailwind: For the zero-config dashboard.

What’s Next?
This is just the beginning. I'm planning to add:

Slack/Discord Notifications: To alert teams when a new @fixme is added.
Custom Export: Exporting the diary to PDF or HTML.

Check it out!

If you want to try it out or contribute, here is the GitHub repository: 👉 https://github.com/iamsabbiralam/ghost-notes

I’d love to hear your feedback. What do you do with your @todo comments? Let’s discuss in the comments!

laravel #php #opensource #productivity #webdevelopment #github

From Zero to Laravel Hero: PHP Environment Setup on Ubuntu 22.04LTS

Sabbir Alam — Thu, 22 Feb 2024 11:39:58 +0000

It is recommended that you configure your Ubuntu environment to execute Laravel projects using a Nginx server. You appear to be able to connect your Nginx server to PHPMyAdmin. On your Ubuntu system, you can install MySQL server with PHP-8.1.

Before Running Any Command You Need To Run

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade

After running that command we have to install curl.

sudo apt install curl

Now check the curl version

curl --version

Then install the nginx server php dependencies

sudo apt install nginx

Now we can install php with fpm

sudo apt install php-fpm

Now check the PHP version

php -v

Run this again

sudo apt-get update

Install nginx repository

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ondrej/nginx

To check the status of PHP that it has collaborated properly with the Ngnix repository

sudo systemctl status php8.1-fpm

Now Restart Nginx

sudo nginx -t

then

sudo systemctl restart nginx

Install Network Manager Now

sudo apt-get install php-zip && sudo apt-get install php-mbstring && sudo apt-get install php-curl

Install PHP Extensions

sudo apt-get install php-zip && sudo apt-get install php-mbstring && sudo apt-get install php-curl

NB: It will automatically detect your version and do its work.

Run this again

sudo apt-get update

Install Composer

curl -sS https://getcomposer.org/installer -o composer-setup.php

Set Composer Address

sudo php composer-setup.php --install-dir=/usr/local/bin --filename=composer

Now Check the Composer version

composer

Run this again

sudo apt-get update

Install valet

composer global require cpriego/valet-linux

then

test -d /.composer && bash /.composer/vendor/bin/valet install || bash ~/.config/composer/vendor/bin/valet install

The command for the updated valet version

composer global update

then

valet install

Run this again

sudo apt-get update

Install MySQL Server

sudo apt install mysql-server -y

Adjusting MySQL Authentication

sudo mysql

then

SELECT user,authentication_string,plugin,host FROM mysql.user;

then

ALTER USER 'root'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED WITH mysql_native_password BY 'password';

then

FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

Now exits by

exit;

Run this again

sudo apt-get update

Install phpmyadmin

sudo apt install phpmyadmin php-mbstring php-zip php-gd php-json php-curl

if you face any difficulties follow the link [https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-install-and-secure-phpmyadmin-on-ubuntu-20-04]

Symlink phpmyadmin With MySQL Server

Now You have to go to your C Drive & open the Terminal and run this

sudo chmod -R 777 /var/www

This will give Permission to Symlink now come back to the root terminal & run this

ln -s /usr/share/phpmyadmin /var/www/phpmyadmin

then

sudo chmod -R 777 /var/www/phpmyadmin

Run this again

sudo apt-get update

Install Node JS

sudo apt install nodejs

then check nodejs version

node -v

Install NPM

sudo apt install npm

then

sudo apt-get install --reinstall nodejs-legacy     # fix /usr/bin/node

You are good to go, Now develop your web application in your Ubuntu by Using Laravel & PHP....

Serving Sites by Valet
Once Valet is installed, you’re ready to start serving sites. Valet provides two commands to help you serve your Laravel sites: park and link.

The Park Command
Create a new directory on your machine by running something like

mkdir ~/folder-name

Next,

cd ~/folder-name

and run

valet park

This command will register your current working directory as a path that Valet should search for folder-name. Next, create a new Laravel site within this directory: Open http://folder-name.test in your browser. That’s all there is to it. Now, any Laravel project you create within your “parked” directory will automatically be served using the http://folder-name.test convention.

The link Command
The link command may also be used to serve your Laravel sites. This command is useful if you want to serve a single site in a directory and not the entire directory.

To use the command, navigate to one of your projects, open your terminal and run

valet link

Valet will create a symbolic link in ~/.valet/Sites which points to your current working directory. After running the link command, you can access the site in your browser at http://app-name.test. To see a listing of all of your linked directories, run this command

valet links

You may use this to destroy the symbolic link.

valet unlink app-name

Go lang Basic

Sabbir Alam — Wed, 21 Sep 2022 06:16:53 +0000

Data type in Go lang

int
int8
int16
int32
int64

uint

uint
uint8
uint16
uint32
uint64

float

float32
float64

string
slice
array
map
struct
Interface{} 10.Pointer 11.you can assign only a positive value in an unsigned integer

The default value of Data Type

The default value of int is 0.
The default value of float is 0.0.
The default value of a string is “”.
The default value of a slice is nil.
The default value of the array depends on the assigned data type.
The default value of a map is nil.
The default value of a struct is nil.
The default value of an interface is nil.
The default value of a pointer is nil.

Explanation of Data Types

Slice

slice does not define the number of items
The default value of a slice is nil.
Slice has capacity & length.
We can append the slice data.
we can access the slice like an array.
we can assign unlimited data in a slice

package main
import "fmt"
func main() {
    a := []int{1,3,4,5}
    res := sum(a)
    fmt.Println("slice: ", res)
    res = multi(a)
    fmt.Println("slice: ", res)
}

func sum(number []int) int {
    total := 0
    for _, num:= range number {
        total += num
    }
    return total
}
func multi(number []int) int {
    total := 1
    for _, num:= range number {
        total *= num
    }
    return total
}

Array

The number of data is defined in an array.
The default value of the array depends on the assigned data type.
The array has only length and doesn't have capacity.
We can't append an array, we can index an array
The size of the array is also called, more data cannot be assigned.
We can index keys and values in an array.
If we have to check the length of the array, we can use the default built-in function len() and print the required data in the terminal or web.

package main
import "fmt"
func main() {
    a := [5]int{}
    fmt.Println("integer Array: ", a)

    var b = [4]string{
        "codemen",
        "m",
        "codemen",
        "codemen",
    }
    fmt.Println("Name: ", b)

    colors := [4]string{
        "roje","gris","azul","black"}

        fmt.Println("Name: ", colors)
}

Map

The default key of a map could be an integer or a string. The value could be any type of data like integer, string, slice, array, or map.

package main

import "fmt"

type Vertex struct {
    Lat, Long float64
}

var m map[string]Vertex
func main() {
    m = make(map[string]Vertex)
    m["Bell Labs"] = Vertex{
        40.68433, -74.39967,
    }
    fmt.Println(m["Bell Labs"])
}

var a string = "codemen"
var m map[string]string
func main() {
    m = make(map[string]string)
    m["Hello String"] = a
    fmt.Println(m["Hello String"])
}

Struct

Struct users define data type.

Interface

An interface can use for dynamic purposes. We can assign any kind of data in an interface.
We can declare/signature a method in an interface. We can't implement it in an interface.
In an interface, we can define methods type, arguments, and return type.

Pointer

A pointer holds the address of a variable
A pointer holds its memory address of Ram.
To dynamically change the variable value we can use a pointer
If we want to change one of the variable's values under the block, function, for loop, if conditions, then we can use a pointer to hold the variable's value and change it through it.