M Bytes
Watch. Read. Apply. One topic every week.
🟧 M Bytes #10: Magento's dependency injection container
by M.academy Hey Reader, This week, we're heading back to the basics and talking all about Magento's dependency injection container: Object Manager. While you probably know not to use OM directly, ...do you know why? This tripped me up for a while, but it's an absolute must-know for any backend Magento dev. When I interviewed Magento developers for open positions, asking "Explain what Object Manager is and why it works" was always one of my favorite types of interview questions, because 1)...
🟧 M Bytes #9: Containers can run without Docker
by M.academy Hey Reader, I'm basically about 90% focused on Magento, but there are also some other things that I love to learn, teach, and talk about, including PHP, Docker, and other parts of the LAMP stack. This week, we're talking about the whale! 🐳 Here are a few things you may not know about Docker (and Magento), like how you can build your own custom image, how you can more easily debug Magento within a Docker container, and maybe a few other things you didn't know — like how it...
🟧 M Bytes #8: Magento plugin execution order intricacies
by M.academy Hey Reader, Last week's M Bytes issue was a bit hit! Y'all loved the weekly theme, so we're going to stick with it for the time being (if you don't like it, please let me know in the survey at the end). I love doing little experiments. You never really know what works until you try it — and this goes for your Magento code as well. This week, we're talking about plugins. Plugins aren't modules or extensions (please don't say that in a tech interview! 😅), but allow you to easily...
🟧 M Bytes #7: How well do you know the Magento cache?
by M.academy Hey Reader, This week I thought... wouldn't it be cool if M Bytes focused on just one topic every week? So rather than three random video lessons, we'll have a lesson (or more if applicable), a blog post, and an image tut/cheatsheet. Think of this as a mini-dive into learning just one thing better this week. We'll try it out this week and learn more about Magento caching. Let me know if you like this format! (poll at end of email 👇) Keep coding, Mark Shust Teacher / M.academy Say...
🟧 M Bytes #6: What are atomic lessons?! 🤔
by M.academy Hey Reader, I just realized that I started blasting out this new newsletter format all about "atomic" lessons, without explaining what they are or why I'm even creating them 🫠 From day one, M.academy has been built on a simple principle: take complex Magento concepts and break them down into simple and easy-to-understand bite-sized lessons. Each lesson teaches exactly one thing, which makes things easy to learn. This is the premise of atomic lessons. But by posting them outside...
🟧 M Bytes #5: PHP asymmetric visibility — simplified
by M.academy Hey Reader, This week, I'm in Fort Lauderdale for Meet Magento Florida! 🏖️ I've been having a blast so far. Yesterday, I ran a live debugging workshop, and today I'm looking forward to sitting in on some tech talks, meeting everyone, and enjoying the afterparty. If you're at the event, be sure to stop me and say hi! Enjoy this week's lessons below, ...these are some good ones 👇 Keep coding, Mark Shust Teacher / M.academy Say hi 👋 on LinkedIn & YouTube Control plugin execution...
🟧 M Bytes #4: Debug complex PHP with conditional breakpoints
Hey Reader, I've been hard at work preparing for my Xdebug workshop at MMFL 2025, and what's great about this prep is that I'll also have a ton of lessons coming on the way for debugging PHP with Xdebug. The first is below 👇 These atomic lessons are just meant to provide you with a small taste of the kind of content that I create. If you're interested in diving way deeper into topics like this, then you'll definitely want to check out the University. Keep coding, MarkTeacher, M.academySay hi...
🟧 M Bytes #3: Create a dynamic JavaScript component in Magento... with PHP!
Hey Reader, It's almost that time of the year again -- time for Meet Magento Florida! If you are a developer and planning on attending in a couple weeks, you may want to check out my Magento + Xdebug workshop. It's free for attendees, but you'll need a ticket to the conference and attend in-person to see it. Otherwise, below are some new lessons about how around() plugins work, how to implement Magewire in Luma, and a new must-use PHP 8.4 feature. Keep coding, MarkTeacher, M.academySay hi 👋...
🟧 M Bytes #2: Understand how Dockerfiles work
Hey Reader, Thank you to everyone who provided me with some feedback on the first issue of M Bytes! The feedback was so overwhelmingly positive, and I'm excited about this new approach. There are a couple updates you should know about before we get into the lessons this week though. The first is PCI DSS 4.0, which is a new security standard that was released back in June and applies to all eCommerce sites (and your Magento builds are probably not following it). Storefronts can quickly get up...
🟧 M Bytes #1: Your new weekly dose of free dev video lessons
TL;DR Segment → M Bytes! Hey Reader, I hope you're having a great start to the new year! Don't worry, this isn't an unsolicited message — you are receiving this because you are a subscriber of M.academy's Segment newsletter. After some deep reflection and introspection this last year, I decided to focus on just one thing this year: teaching. Teaching has always been a focus of mine, but it came second to running the business. Answering emails, taking requests, providing support... all great...
Watch. Read. Apply. One topic every week.