Laravel

Laravel is a free, open-source PHP framework specifically designed for building complex websites and web applications. It simplifies authentication, routing, sessions, caching, application architecture, and database management.

Who uses Laravel and why?

Laravel is used by backend developers who write code in PHP. PHP helps define the structure of a web application and serves as its framework. The framework is written in PHP and extends its capabilities. It is distributed freely under the MIT license.

Laravel is designed for building web applications and websites based on MVC (model-view-controller). This architecture divides program components into three parts:

• The model provides data and methods for working with it: database queries and correctness checking.
• The view shows this data to the user and changes if the model changes.
• The controller directs data from the user to the system and vice versa.

When a user interacts with an MVC application, they interact with a view and a controller. The view is what the user sees, such as the information displayed in the visual interface. The controller is where the user issues commands.

For example, clicking a button in an app will trigger a call to the controller. It will modify the model. Then the view will update: it will receive the new data from the model and change its state. This is how the user sees the result of the button click.

The interaction is clearly shown in the diagram.

The MVC architecture allows you to write more readable code and make the development process comfortable by separating the work of frontend and backend developers.

Laravel framework capabilities

Artisan Console

Artisan is a command-line interface included with Laravel. It allows you to generate models, new tests, controllers, and notifications from the command line. This is much more convenient than copying a class template from somewhere or writing it manually. To view commands, you can use the list command :

list: php artisan list

The console is used for working with databases, managing the controller, and other tasks. The developer can write custom commands for it.

Eloquent ORM

ORM is a programming technology that connects a database and a programming language. Using an ORM speeds up development. There are many ORM implementations for PHP, but Laravel uses its own. It’s called Eloquent and uses the ActiveRecord model, which assigns a single class to each database table. Eloquent is popular for its convenience and ability to write clear, maintainable code, as well as protection against SQL injection attacks—a common way to hack websites and programs. The ORM can be downloaded separately from the other Laravel components.

Fluent Designer

This is a builder for quickly building database queries that is fully compatible with the Eloquent ORM core. Fluent is a powerful tool that makes it easy to modify database records. All queries use prepared statements and are protected from SQL injection attacks.

Template engine Blade

Template engines are used to transform HTML templates into finished pages. Templates are blanks for future web pages, containing HTML markup without content and PHP code. The job of a template engine is to execute the PHP code and insert the content into the template to transform it into a finished page. The final web page should not contain PHP.

Blade is the Laravel framework’s templating engine. It has no restrictions on using pure PHP in templates, making it more convenient for backend developers. This lack of restrictions doesn’t create additional load on the application.

Validation

Validation is the verification of incoming data. It’s necessary to ensure that any errors are detected and processed promptly. You can write your own validation logic. If the user enters incorrect data, they’ll be redirected to the previous page. The site won’t crash and will remain functional.

Database version control system

This allows for migrations—modifications to the database structure. The framework allows for flexible migration management directly through Artisan: running, rolling back individual or complete migrations, and modifying them.

Unit testing

Also known as unit testing, it’s the “basic level” of testing. Individual code modules are tested for functionality. This is necessary to avoid errors later on at higher levels.

Laravel comes with PHPUnit built in by default—a tool that allows you to create and run tests. PHPUnit makes this easier than doing it manually.

Authentication

With Laravel, you can implement site login using a username and password or through social networks.

The Laravel Sanctum package handles authentication for simple applications and single-page websites. It’s more lightweight than Passport and authorizes users using a token system—physical devices.

Features and benefits of Laravel

Developed ecosystem

The community includes several websites: https://laravel.su/, https://laravel.com/) with articles about Laravel’s features and additional software for convenient work with the framework.

There are global conferences called Laracon that have been held since 2013.

The ecosystem is constantly evolving. This helps maintain interest in the project among sponsors and facilitates Laravel’s development.

High performance

Laravel supports NoSQL databases. These are faster than traditional databases. Data is stored in the server’s RAM, allowing for fast access.

Laravel allows for managed caching and has its own process queuing mechanism. This improves performance, speeds up data access, and reduces the load on computing power.

Safety

Laravel has built-in protection against SQL injection and XSS attacks. Its native ORM prevents SQL injections by preventing the processing of unauthorized SQL queries. And the ability to escape tags protects against XSS attacks.

Open source

Laravel is open-source software. This means any developer can make changes to their own copy of the software. The source code is available on GitHub. In practice, this feature is rarely used. Frameworks are typically not rewritten to avoid conflicts with updates. The benefit is another: you can review the software code and understand how each module works.

Clear syntax

Laravel has a clear syntax, which promotes code readability. It lacks long and complex constructs and is rich in “syntactic sugar.” This refers to commands and features that don’t add anything new to the software but make coding easier.

Flexible routing

Routing is the creation of a path through which information flows from one point to another. In web programming, this involves analyzing a URL and a user’s request and executing code based on that request. Routes can be grouped, various validation methods can be used, namespaces can be managed, and regular expressions can be applied.

Easy migration

Thanks to the database structure version control system, developers can easily modify and roll back the database if necessary. This minimizes the risk of critical database failure—an important consideration when several people are working on a project simultaneously.

Multilingualism

Laravel can be used to create websites with multiple language zones. This includes, for example, websites for Russian-speaking and English-speaking users. The framework supports many languages, and setting up multilingual support is very quick.

An abundance of packages and libraries

Libraries are designed to solve specific problems and allow you to perform actions in a single line that would take dozens of lines if written manually. These are collections of functions designed to simplify the programmer’s work. They can be downloaded and used during development.

Packages are software modules that plug into the framework and extend its capabilities. They are more functional than individual libraries and are needed to implement specific solutions. For example, Laravel Sanctum is a package for fast token-based authentication.

Despite its functionality, the framework requires a lot of manual work from the developer. This provides flexibility when creating software solutions, but also significantly slows down work. Laravel is also more difficult to learn than its competitors.

Flaws

Despite its many advantages, the Laravel framework also has some disadvantages. Here are a few:

1. Complexity for beginners: Laravel offers a rich set of features and tools, which can be challenging for beginners. Mastering all its capabilities can take time and effort.
2. Performance: Compared to some other, more lightweight frameworks, such as Lumen or Slim, Laravel can have a higher performance overhead. This may be a problem for some projects.
3. Updates and Compatibility: When upgrading Laravel to new versions, especially for large projects, compatibility issues with existing code may arise. This may require additional effort to adapt the application to new versions.
4. Feature-Richness: For some projects, Laravel can provide too much functionality that isn’t fully utilized. This can lead to code redundancy and difficult maintenance.
5. Code Size: Applications developed using Laravel can have a large code base due to the numerous built-in functions and libraries. This can complicate maintenance and debugging.
6. Changeability: Like any framework, Laravel may undergo changes over time, which may impact existing code and require updates.
7. Training and retraining the team: Using Laravel requires training, and if the development team already has experience with other frameworks, it will take time to retrain them to use Laravel.
8. Dependency on third-party packages: Laravel makes heavy use of third-party packages (composer packages), and if one of these packages becomes unsupported or has compatibility issues, it may impact your project.

How to install and start using

These are the basic steps for getting started with Laravel. The framework also provides many additional features and tools for developing web applications, such as authorization, database interaction, routing, and much more.