What is Laravel? Everything you need to know about the PHP web framework
Laravel is a web framework that supports the PHP programming language. It is still the most popular PHP framework despite its youth. Taylor Otwell Laravel in 2011. Laravel 8 was released in September 2020.
Laravel’s Making
Taylor Otwell created Laravel using Symfony, an existing web framework. This new development was made to enhance the functionality of CodeIgniter, a PHP framework. Laravel, unlike CodeIgniter, was already able to support authorization and authentication in its first version (Laravel 1).Otwell spent much time documenting his framework. Laravel is a well-documented PHP framework, and this contributed greatly to its popularity.
Licensing and Development
The framework’s source code is available on GitHub. It is licensed under the MIT License. This permits use in non-open-source software.
Laravel Version 4 was the beginning of major improvements to the web framework. It was important to integrate the PHPUnit tests. To ensure functionality, it was important to improve the testability of Laravel functions. To simplify the installation of packages, package management systems were also introduced. This included the use of Composer, an application-oriented package manager system, which is the gold standard in PHP development.
Laravel in web development
Laravel, a PHP framework, is what we have already mentioned. Bundles are useful functions that can be used to customize a framework’s functionality. In programming language, this bundling is known as a library. Laravel’s web framework aims to make your website design and development easier under PHP. Some modules don’t need to be created in-house but can be accessed and used at any time. Laravel also provides a structure and a basic system. Laravel provides functions that allow data transmission using switching technology and routing, for example. There are also functions that allow for database connections (ORM), job queues, and an architecture default called MVC.
Laravel can be used in combination with other software. You can use the web-specific library to program WordPress websites.
WordPress is a content management platform that was built on PHP. It is very simple to use thanks to its graphical interface. WordPress is easy to use even for those with less technical skills. The application is limited in its ability to design websites that can be programmed.
Laravel and PHP are also useful here. Because the framework was designed for website development, there are many useful components that can be drawn from it. Laravel is a great choice for specific, individual solutions. This is especially true for the development of business customers.
Laravel Features
The MVC pattern
This architectural pattern is used to represent the program code in a logical way. This is done using the model-view-controller pattern, hence the name MVC. The program code can be logically broken down into data (model), controller (controller), and display logic (view). This allows for data integrity and clear separation between access options. Laravel has ready-made modules available for each of these areas. Model classes allow for connections to databases, relationships, and attribute management. Controllers can be integrated in the routing to provide validation and authentication. Laravel provides many simplifications at the view level with its own template language Blade.
Routing
Already PHP provides an easy to understand implementation of URL routing. Laravel allows you to separate the routing logic from the rest. It also provides a better readability and offers a variety of configuration options.
Job Queues
Complex web applications require complex calculations that can be performed asynchronously. Laravel provides an easy-to-use job queue to ensure page views are always optimized. Developers can create jobs that are processed using a variety of parameters by queue workers.
Security
Laravel makes it easy to integrate security features. This framework supports salt cryptography and hash functions for passwords. This makes it impossible to store passwords in plain text. Laravel also prevents SQL injections. This is because SQL functions have been designed so that they are not vulnerable to attack. On-board resources can be used to prevent CSRF attacks or XSS injections. Also, sessions and cookies can be encrypted automatically.
Database Connections
Laravel allows you to connect multiple databases. This is especially useful when data is pulled from multiple databases or when different database types are used. This could be done by using MariaDB and MySQL on the production system and an in-memory sqlite on the test system.
Test
Laravel provides two types of testing. By extending PHPUnit, you can easily test individual modules. Feature tests on the other hand test the whole lifecycle of a query, and simulate full access by a visitor. Laravel also offers a ready to use test suite that can easily be modified.
Laravel ecosystem
What is the Laravel ecosystem? It is basically a framework that supports Laravel. To make Laravel more user-friendly, different packages and applications were combined.
This ecosystem can host applications like Vapor, Forge, and Envoyer. Vapor is a serverless platform that allows you to quickly and easily deploy your Laravel application on Amazon Web Services. Forge and Envoyer make it easy to deploy to traditional servers. You can also find extensions, or “boilerplates”, that allow you to deploy to other servers. There are already pre-made program sections that you can use in certain cases.
Laravel: the summary
The web framework provides all the necessary functions to create secure and quick websites. Laravel is a pioneer in PHP frameworks, thanks to its many testing options and ability to avoid common security attacks. It is ideal for web development due to its simplicity, job queues, and support for MVC software architecture.
