Top 6 laravel framework features & Installation
Choicest features of PHP Laravel Framework
We are going to mention some of the most choice features of PHP Laravel Framework which makes it popular among developers and businesses.
1. Template Engine:
Laravel framework is extremely recognised for its built-in lightweight templates which can be managed to create excellent layouts using dynamic content seeding. In extension to this, it gives multiple widgets incorporating CSS and JS code with robust structures. Laravel templates are innovatively designed to create simple as well as complex layouts with distinctive sections.
2. MVC Architecture Support:
Laravel helps the MVC design pattern which isolates business philosophy and presentation layers. MVC design of Laravel has a lot of built-in functions, promotes application performance and progresses security as well as scalability.
3. Eloquent ORM (Object Relational Mapping):
Furthermore, Laravel allows Eloquent Object Relational Mapping (ORM) which incorporates a simplistic PHP Active Record implementation. This enables web application developers to write database inquiries with PHP syntax rather than writing SQL code. An ORM is comparatively faster than other PHP frameworks.
4. Security:
Laravel structure appears very powerful web application protection. It uses a hashed and salted password tool so the password would never be saved as plain text in the database. It also handles “Bcrypt Hashing Algorithm” for creating an encrypted password. Additionally, this PHP web development framework uses processed SQL statements that prevent SQL injection attacks.
5. Artisan:
Laravel framework allows a built-in command-line tool termed as Artisan which serves to automate the majority of slow monotonous programming assignments. These artisans can also be employed to build the database structure, a skeleton code, and control migration so it is a pretty easy-to-manage database system. In addition, it can generate basic MVC files through command-line and manage those assets as well as their respective configurations. Artisan even helps developers to create their own commands and use them as required.
6. Libraries & Modular:
Laravel begins with pre-installed Object-Oriented and Modular libraries which are not available in many other PHP frameworks. For example, an Authentication library which is easy-to-implement and has features such as checking active users, Bcrypt hashing, password reset, CSRF (Cross-site Request Forgery) protection, and encryption. Furthermore, this framework is divided into individual modules adopting modern PHP principles facilitating responsive and modular web applications development.
7. Database Migration System:
Laravel migration system helps to expand the web application database structure without re-creating every time when there is a change in code. Because of this feature, the risk of losing data is very minimal. It not only offers the facility to change the database structure but also helps to do using PHP code instead of SQL. Laravel Schema Builder helps to create database tables and inserts indices or columns promptly.
8. Unit-Testing:
Laravel is a preferred framework for web application developers today due to the way it facilitates unit testing. This framework is capable of running multiple unit tests to ensure that new changes done by the developer do not unexpectedly break the web application. Ideally, Laravel based web applications are capable of stable releases as it is careful of the known failures. It also makes it easy for developers to write unit-tests.
Server Requirements
Make sure you have the following Laravel 8 requirements installed
- PHP >= 7.3
- BCMath PHP Extension
- Ctype PHP Extension
- Fileinfo PHP extension
- JSON PHP Extension
- Mbstring PHP Extension
- OpenSSL PHP Extension
- PDO PHP Extension
- Tokenizer PHP Extension
- XML PHP Extension
Laravel 8 Installation
composer create-project –prefer-dist laravel/laravel blog
PHP Artisan Serve Autoreload If Any Changes
Old Versions
In earlier versions of Laravel if you made any changes to .env files then you had to manually stop and start the server.
New Version
In the newer versions of Laravel as soon as you make any changes to the .env file, it’s automatically detected and the server is reloaded by Laravel.
Routes Changes (web.php)
Old Versions
<?php
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Route;
Route::get(‘/’, ‘TestController@index’);
New Version
<?php
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Route;
use App\Http\Controllers\TestController;
Route::get(‘/’, [TestController::class, ‘index’]);
Models Directory
Old Versions
In earlier versions of Laravel the models used to be under the App namespace. I personally used to create an app/Models directory and would put all my models in that folder.
New Version
In the newer version of Laravel, we have an app/Models directory be default.
Model Factory Classes
Old Versions
We just had a normal plain PHP file under database/factories directory
New Version
Eloquent model factories have been entirely re-written as class-based factories.
database / factories / UserFactory.php
<?php
namespace Database\Factories;
use App\Models\User;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Factories\Factory;
use Illuminate\Support\Str;
class UserFactory extends Factory
{
/**
* The name of the factory’s corresponding model.
*
* @var string
*/
protected $model = User::class;
/**
* Define the model’s default state.
*
* @return array
*/
public function definition()
{
return [
‘name’ => $this->faker->name,
’email’ => $this->faker->unique()->safeEmail,
’email_verified_at’ => now(),
‘password’ => ‘$2y$10$92IXUNpkjO0rOQ5byMi.Ye4oKoEa3Ro9llC/.og/at2.uheWG/igi’, // password
‘remember_token’ => Str::random(10),
];
}
}
Usage
use App\Models\User;
User::factory()->count(50)->create();
Model Factory States
Similar to the older factory states but now inside the factory classes.
/**
* Indicate that the user is suspended.
*
* @return \Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Factories\Factory
*/
public function suspended()
{
return $this->state([
‘account_status’ => ‘suspended’,
]);
}
Migrations Update (startingValue)
Soon we will be having startingValue to it as a starting id value in our database.
Eg: When you create new orders for customers and they don’t want to know they were the first ones.
public function up() {
Schema::create(‘Orders’, function(Blueprint $table){
$table->id()->startingValue(‘1000’);
…
Migration Squashing
When you have a large Laravel application you migrations might grow over the time and start flooding like anything.
Now you can squash many migrations files into 1 migration file, which will then get saved inside the database/schema directory.
php artisan schema:dump
// Dump the current database schema and prune all existing migrations…
php artisan schema:dump –prune
After squashing when you run the migration then first the database/schema migrations will run, then database/migrations directory migrations.
Job Batching
After performing a batch of jobs you can perform some other stuff.
The new batch method of the Bus facade may be used to dispatch a batch of jobs. Of course, batching is primarily useful when combined with completion callbacks. So, you may use the then, catch, and finally methods to define completion callbacks for the batch. Each of these callbacks will receive an Illuminate\Bus\Batch instance when they are invoked:
use App\Jobs\ProcessPodcast;
use App\Podcast;
use Illuminate\Bus\Batch;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Batch;
use Throwable;
$batch = Bus::batch([
new ProcessPodcast(Podcast::find(1)),
new ProcessPodcast(Podcast::find(2)),
new ProcessPodcast(Podcast::find(3)),
new ProcessPodcast(Podcast::find(4)),
new ProcessPodcast(Podcast::find(5)),
])->then(function (Batch $batch) {
// All jobs completed successfully…
})->catch(function (Batch $batch, Throwable $e) {
// First batch job failure detected…
})->finally(function (Batch $batch) {
// The batch has finished executing…
})->dispatch();
return $batch->id;
Improved Rate Limiting
Rate limiters are defined using the RateLimiter facades for method. The for method accepts a rate limiter name and a Closure that returns the limit configuration that should apply to routes that are assigned this rate limiter:
use Illuminate\Cache\RateLimiting\Limit;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\RateLimiter;
RateLimiter::for(‘global’, function (Request $request) {
return Limit::perMinute(1000);
});
Since rate limiter callbacks receive the incoming HTTP request instance, you may build the appropriate rate limit dynamically based on the incoming request or authenticated user:
RateLimiter::for(‘uploads’, function (Request $request) {
return $request->user()->vipCustomer()
? Limit::none()
: Limit::perMinute(100);
});
Tailwind Pagination Views
The Laravel paginator has been updated to use the Tailwind CSS framework by default.
Laravel Jetstream
Laravel Jetstream is a beautifully designed application scaffolding for Laravel. Jetstream provides the perfect starting point for your next project and includes login, registration, email verification, two-factor authentication, session management, API support via Laravel Sanctum, and optional team management.
Jetstream is designed using Tailwind CSS and offers your choice of Livewire or Inertia scaffolding.
Conclusion
This PHP framework suffices the open source application development needs of small as well as enterprise businesses. Its large community support provides a quick resolution of your programming problems. In addition, it also offers a lot of informative blogs, forums, and expert opinions for hassle-free coding.
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