This blog is all about Laravel which happens to be in high demand along with many such web development frameworks. Laravel has been used in many fields for web application creation and development such as, medical, education, and many more. The latest version has been introduced with many new features and many improvements. Here’s everything you should know about Laravel and why it is the most preferred web framework:
Laravel which is PHP web framework, uses the model-view-controller (MVC) architecture. It is based on Symfony which is also a PHP web framework. Laravel’s source code has been issued under the terms of MIT license.
FEATURES OF LARAVEL
- Bundles are modular software packages which are conceived to work seamlessly with Laravel 3. Also, Laravel 4 uses composer to construct a dependency manager which allows you to add framework-agnostic PHP packagist repository.
- Eloquent ORM (object-rational mapping) which is known to be an advanced PHP implementation of the active record patter, allows you to map objects to a database. With the objects being tied to the single table rows, databases are given as classes by the Eloquent ORM. It follows the active record pattern.
- Laravel 3rd-generation query builder is a more direct way to access a database. Instead of having to create SQL queries to write directly, the query builder offers a set of methods and classes which are capable of making queries meticulously.
- There is an optional way which can be brought into play to separate the logic behind serving HTTP GET and POST requests. This optional way is provided by the restful controllers.
HISTORY
The creator of Laravel is Taylor Otwell. He thought of creating Laravel as an advanced alternative to the Codelgniter framework as it did not provide specific features which included the built-in support for user authentication and authorization. Laravel first beta got released on 9th June, 2011. The Laravel 1 then was released later in the following month. It included many features such as the built-in support for authentication, models, localization, sessions, views, routing and other such mechanisms. But there was absence for the support of controllers which resulted in it not being a real MVC framework.
Laravel 2 was released on September 2011. Various improvements were made in it by the community and its creator. The support for the controllers was one of the major features which helped it in being a true MVC framework. One package, namely ‘the support for third-party’ was eradicated from it.
Many Laravel versions after it were introduced such as, Laravel 3 which had a new feature of the command-line interface (CLI) known as Artisan, database management systems, version control for database layouts, support for handling events and bundles which were packaging systems, was released in February 2012.
Laravel 4 then was released in May 2013. Many improvements were again made in it. Laravel 5 was released in February 2015. It had a scheduler and was made as an integral change in the future Laravel 4.3 release. Laravel 5.1, 5.3 and 5.4 were released on June 2015, 23rd August, 2016 and 24th January, 2017 respectively. Laravel 5.4 had numerous new features such as Laravel Dusk, blade components and slots, route improvements, automatic facades, and many more.
Many improvements were made with the release of the next version of Laravel which was the Laravel 6. It was compatible with Laravel vapor, job middleware was improved, it had lazy collections, followed by sub-query improvements, and many more. Laravel 7 was released on March 3, 2020. It also had many new features which included, custom eloquent, Laravel sanctum, fluent string operations, and much more.
The Laravel 8 is the latest version which was released on 8th September, 2020. It was improved with many new features such as, model factory classes, Laravel Jetstream, migration squashing, Tailwind CSS for pagination views and many other improvements regarding usability.
BENEFITS OF LARAVEL
- Laravel grants security by giving the benefit of the authentication and authorization systems. It gives access to the resources by which we can control it. It prevents an unauthorized user from getting any secured resource.
- Laravel helps in the creation of web applications in a short period of time. It saves time.
- Testing and verification is done to ensure that the developed web is running without any bugs or clashes. For this to happen, automation-testing is used which also saves time.
- URL routing configuration, helps in understanding what the user want to see. Without it, the web could not be able to identify what the user wants and would instead show a blank or an error page.
- The Task Scheduling mechanism provides a timely cleanup of the database which allows it to run smoothly and it also lends a hand in sending emails on time as set by the user.
- The Laravel has an error and exception handling configuration, where it handles errors. When the user presses the submit button, it recognizes the errors and corrects it before submitting.
CONCLUSION:
The blog would assist you with the understanding of the Laravel web framework. The features, history and the benefits have been discussed. The features give you what Laravel is all about and what are its different facets. The history would give you its different versions and when were they released and what all major improvements were made. Ultimately, the benefits would give you reasons as to why you should prefer Laravel over any other web frameworks.