1.What is Laravel?
In an effort to offer a more sophisticated alternative to the CodeIgniter framework, Taylor Otwell developed and maintains the open-source Laravel PHP web framework. Its architectural styles are largely borrowed from Symfony.
After the release of version 3, which added features like the Command Line Interface known as Artisan, support for the database system, and migrations, this framework saw an increase in popularity. Bundles, a new type of packaging, were also introduced.
In June 2011, the initial stable version of Laravel was made available. Version 5.6 of the stable software was published in February 2018, followed by version 5.7 in September 2018, 5.8 in February 2019, 7 in March 2020, and 9 in February 2022. Laravel developers are also among the most sought-after types of programmers.
2. Why Laravel?
MVC Support
The Model, View, and Controller (MVC) architectural pattern and the expressive, lovely syntax of the Laravel framework make it object-oriented, which is it’s first and biggest benefit.
Built-In Authentication and Authorization
The Authentication and Authorization system is already configured by default in Laravel. That is, your application will have secure authentication and authorization in just a few artisanal instructions.
Packaging System
A packaging system handles the various auxiliary programs or libraries that enable the web application to automate the procedure. In order to maintain all the data required to manage packages, Laravel uses a composer for dependency management. Packages offer the functionality we require right out of the box, which is a terrific method to speed up development. Some of the top Laravel packages are Image, Laravel Debug Bar, and Laravel IDE Aid.
Multiple File Systems
Additionally, Laravel includes built-in support for local storage as well as cloud storage services like Amazon S3 and Rackspace Cloud Storage. Since the API is the same for each system, switching between different storage alternatives is remarkably easy. To serve files from many places, like in a distributed environment, one can employ all three technologies together in a single application.
Artisan Console
The command line interface for Laravel is called Artisan. Artisan is frequently used for managing database migrations, publishing package assets, and producing boilerplate code for new controllers, models, and migrations. The developer can avoid writing correct code skeletons because of this functionality. By adding additional custom commands, one can increase Artisan’s functionality and capabilities.
Eloquent ORM
The built-in ORM implementation in Laravel is called Eloquent. Compared to other frameworks, Laravel offers the best object-relational mapper. You can use expressive syntax to interact with your database objects and relationships using syntax.
Templating engine
The Blade Template Engine is the default template engine included with Laravel. The Blade templating engine combines one or more templates with a data model to create the final views. For faster performance, the templates are converted into cached PHP code. Additional control structures offered by Blade include conditional statements and loops, which are internally mapped to their PHP equivalents.
Task Scheduling
The Artisan command-line tool now includes a Scheduler, which enables programmatic scheduling of tasks that are carried out on a recurring basis. The scheduler was first introduced in Laravel 5.0. The scheduler internally uses the scheduling daemon to launch a single Artisan job, which then performs the configured tasks.
Events and broadcasting
In order to incorporate real-time data, show live feeds, etc. in current online applications, Laravel provides a notion called “broadcasting.” You can access real-time data from the application by using broadcasting, which enables you to share the same event name between the server side and client side of your application.
Testing
When it comes to testing the application, Laravel by default offers the unit test for the app, which also includes tests to find and stop framework regressions. In a Laravel application, integrating PHP unit tools like a testing framework is fairly simple. Additionally, using the artisan command-line tool, unit tests can be executed.
3.Getting started on Windows
Make sure of the following things before we install Laravel on your Windows computer:
Xampp
The Apache HTTP Server, MariaDB database, and interpreters for scripts written in the PHP and Perl programming languages are the core components of XAMPP, a free and open-source cross-platform web server solution stack bundle created by Apache Friends.
Composer
A common structure for managing the dependencies of PHP applications and necessary libraries is provided by Composer, an application-level dependency manager for the PHP programming language. Nils Adermann and Jordi Boggiano, who are still in charge of the project’s management, created it.
4. First Laravel project
You may use the Composer create-project command to start a new Laravel project after installing PHP and Composer:
Method 1:
composer create-project laravel/laravel example-app
Open cmd and enter the command.
After creating the project, it will display a successful message as the application key has been set successfully and we are good to start with the project.
Method 2:
Or you can create a project simply by entering the command:
laravel new example-app
5.File Structure
The App Directory:
It is the application folder and contains all of the project’s source code. It includes middleware declarations, events, and exceptions.
The Bootstrap Directory:
The app.php file, which bootstraps the framework, is located in the bootstrap directory. The cache directory in this directory also stores files produced by the framework for performance optimization, such as the route and services cache files.
The Config Directory:
The configuration files for your program are all located in the config directory, as the name suggests.
The Database Director:
The database migrations, model factories, and seeds are all stored in the database directory.
The Lang Directory:
All of the language files for your program are stored in the lang directory.
The Public Directory:
The index.php file, which serves as the starting point for all requests sent to your application and sets up autoloading, is located in the public directory. Additionally, your materials, including photos, JavaScript, and CSS, are stored in this directory.
The Resources Directory:
Your views as well as your raw, uncompiled components like CSS or JavaScript can be found in the resources directory.
The Routing Directory:
All of the route definitions for your application can be found in the routes directory. Laravel includes a number of route files by default, including web.php, api.php, console.php, and channels.php.
The Storage Directory:
Logs, compiled Blade templates, file-based sessions, file caches, and other files produced by the framework are all located in the storage directory. This directory is divided into directories for the app, framework, and logs.
The Test Directory:
The automated tests can be found in the tests directory. Unit tests and feature tests in the PHPUnit format are given right out of the box. The term test should come after every test class. You can use the PHPUnit or PHP vendor/bin/phpunit commands to run your tests.
The Vendor Directory:
It contains all the composer dependencies in the vendor directory.
Conclusion:
The Laravel framework’s out-of-the-box capabilities are ideal for all types of web application development, from modest to enterprise level. Additionally, it offers a wealth of built-in features that make it simple for developers to work.
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