PHP is a general-purpose scripting language that is widely used for back-end purposes. To facilitate PHP development, there are a galore of frameworks available. One of them is Laravel.
Here, we will discuss the popular PHP framework, what type of architecture it follows, how it works, and its most important features.
What is Laravel?
Laravel is an open-source PHP framework that is powerful and simple to use. Model-view-controller (MVC) is the design pattern it uses.
To ease building online applications, the PHP framework reuses components from a variety of frameworks. The end result is a more organized and functional web application.
However, fully comprehending Laravel’s advantages and applications necessitates a deeper look. A developer can use the popular PHP framework to access a big library of pre-programmed functionalities, such as authentication, routing, and HTML templating.
This toolkit makes it easier to quickly create sophisticated web apps while reducing the amount of coding required.
Laravel provides a powerful development environment as well as user-friendly and expressive command-line interfaces. It also makes use of object-relational mapping (ORM) to make data access and manipulation easier.
Laravel applications are highly scalable and feature codebases that are simple to maintain. Thanks to the flexible packaging system and powerful dependency management of the open-source web framework, developers can easily add functionality to their apps.
How Does Laravel Work?
It’s crucial to understand how Laravel handles requests – the request lifecycle – in order to fully appreciate what it can achieve.
As previously stated, the PHP framework uses MVC architectural pattern to respond to user requests, with the controller retrieving and processing data from the model and presenting it to the user in a view.
The public/index.php file is where a request enters a Laravel application, which loads the rest of the framework and retrieves an instance of the application. The request is forwarded to the console kernel or HTTP kernel after retrieving the application instance.
The kernel, among other things, defines a set of bootstrappers that perform tasks that must be completed before requests can be handled, as well as any middleware that requests must pass through before they can be handled.
Loading any service providers required for the application is one of these pre-handling processes. The request flows to the router after bootstrapping and service providers have been registered, which then routes the request to a route or a controller.
In addition, the router executes any route-specific middleware that is required. The execution of a route or controller method returns a response that is passed back along the chain to the view once the request has passed through all appropriate middleware.
Is Laravel a Frontend or a Backend Web Framework?
Although Laravel is mostly a backend development framework, it does have certain frontend development features. However, many of its functionalities are independent of the frontend.
Laravel is a PHP framework that instead of using a programming language, uses a scripting language. While scripting languages and programming languages are almost similar, they differ in various ways, especially in terms of simplicity of use and execution speed.
Scripting languages are interpreted languages that are platform-specific. Programming languages, on the other hand, are compiled languages that are platform-neutral. Scripting languages rely on the compiler of the application in which they are used because they are platform-specific.
Scripting language applications are compiled at runtime, which means that each instruction is parsed individually at runtime, making them slower than pre-compiled applications.
If a runtime issue occurs during compilation, the application would stop or shut down; in contrast, pre-compiled apps do error checking during compilation, making them more robust during runtime. However, for many users, the drawbacks of scripting languages are outweighed by their ease of use and iteration.
What are the Benefits of Using Laravel?
Laravel comes with a suite of powerful tools that make web app development easier and faster, resulting in codebases that are well-structured and maintained. The following are some of the best advantages of using the PHP web framework:
1. It is a simple PHP framework to learn.
Given the correct background, Laravel is relatively simple to learn. For efficient use, the web framework requires a basic familiarity with PHP and object-oriented programming.
It’s also beneficial to know at least a little HTML. Understanding relational database management systems, such as MySQL or PostgreSQL, is also beneficial for understanding MVC architecture.
2. Laravel makes the development process easier.
Laravel was built from the ground up to make operations like routing, authentication, migration, and caching simpler across a wide range of web development projects.
Using straightforward and expressive command-line interfaces and Composer, the backend web framework makes it simple to integrate pre-made modules into an application.
Laravel also features a large online documentation library, which is a fantastic place to start for more experienced developers. There are also several online learning tools available for people of various ability levels.
3. It has tools for developers of all levels.
Laravel promotes itself as a progressive framework, which means it contains a wide range of features that users of all skill levels would like. Beginners, for example, have access to starter kits for modules like basic authentication.
More advanced users can develop their own authentication processes and combine them with their own frontends using the engines that underpin the starter kits.
4. It scales with ease.
Laravel is a very scalable framework. Laravel apps can handle millions of requests per month thanks to their inherent support for fast, distributed caching systems. Vapor, a serverless deployment tool based on AWS that enables a high level of scalability, is also available for the popular web framework.
5. Laravel has a large community and ecosystem.
The PHP web framework offers a fantastic ecosystem that is backed up by a strong developer community. Since Laravel is one of the most widely used PHP frameworks, a big library of applications and packages is available. Moreover, both official and third-party Laravel packages are easily available.
Authentication, server management, subscription billing, browser testing and automation, and more are all included in Laravel’s official packages (many of which are detailed further down). Packalyst and Laravel News are two sites where you can find third-party packages.
The Laravel developer community also has a wealth of information. Developers with questions should visit one of the numerous forums dedicated to the PHP framework, such as Laravel.io, The Laravel subreddit, or Laracasts.
Conclusion
Laravel is a PHP framework that allows developers to create web applications quickly and easily. It provides a large and strong set of resources that make the development process easier by removing the need to implement many basic activities from the ground up.
The web framework includes 20 built-in libraries and modules to help you improve your application. It connects to an existing session and uses Redis as a general-purpose cache.
It also contains queue services such as emailing a huge number of people or running a Cron task. Eloquent is an ActiveRecord and ORM solution. Laravel also offers a secure virtual development environment as well as user-friendly command-line APIs.
The MVC web framework is a natural choice for many developers, whether they are beginners or specialists with years of experience because it is straightforward to learn and has robust community support and ecosystem.
Aditya is a seasoned JavaScript developer with extensive experience in MEAN stack development. He also has solid knowledge of various programming tools and technologies, including .NET and Java. His hobbies include reading comics, playing games, and camping.