Do you know Laravel framework why it so popular

What is Laravel?

Laravel is the most popular free open-source MVC(model–view–controller) architecure and Symfony kernel based PHP framework.

As we know a PHP framework is a platform to create PHP web applications that provide collection of classes and functions for common tasks for a faster, secure, efficient, and easy development process of the robust and modern web application.

Being PHP framework, Laravel also fulfill and qualify those criteria that a PHP framework supports.

Version history -

Laravel had been created by Taylor Otwell for a superior substitute to the CodeIgnitor framework in June, 2011 Laravel 1 had been released as the first stable version. Laravel 1 was followed by many more versions in subsequent years. e. g. -
Laravel 2 in September 2011,
Laravel 3 in February 2012,
Laravel 4 in May 2013,
Laravel 5 in February 2015,
Laravel 6 in September 2019,
Laravel 7 in March 2020, Laravel 8 in September 2020.

The Laravel 3 was the most popular version due to inclusion of Artisan CLI(command-line interface), database management systems and database migrations supports, support for handling events, and a packaging system called Bundles. The laravel user base increased magically after this version release.

The latest version is Laravel 9, which was released in February 2022.

Requirements and prerequisites –

The Laravel 6 requires running instance of server with PHP 7.2.5 or an upper version with active extensions like - BCMath, Ctype, Fileinfo, JSON, Mbstring, OpenSSL, PDO, Tokenizer, XML, etc.

The Laravel 9 requires running instance of server with a minimum PHP 8.0.

The Composer must be installed at your machine as prerequisite because the Laravel uses Composer to manage its dependencies.

Database Interaction -

It uses and supports MariaDB 10.2 or an upper version, MySQL 5.7 or an upper version, PostgreSQL 10.0 or an upper version, SQLite 3.8.8 or an upper version, SQL Server 2017 or an upper version.

Licensing –

The Laravel is available to use for free under MIT License(free software license). The Laravel source code is hosted on GitHub.

Architecture –

It uses MVC(Model View Controller) architecture design pattern for neat and clean code organization and rules for quick and super fast web application development.

As we know in MVC approach, the model are responsible for interfacing with an SQL database for data storage and the controllers are responsible for executing user inputs and adminstering the business logic of the application. The views acts as the presentation layer for showing the HTML pages.

If you are preparing and looking for a career in Laravel, please read and collect the interview questions from Laravel interview questions for getting your dream job.

Why use it - Why Laravel is best for web application development –

As you know there are multiple of tools and framework are avialable for developing the web application. However, the Laravel is the best option in those. The following are the facts and reasons that will explain to you for implementing the Laravel framework in your web application is the correct choice -

• 1. Simple learning curve and elegant coding –

  It is easy to learn the Laravel due to its simple, expressive and elegant syntax. It avoids complex and messy code and maintains the neat and clean coding approach beautifully which provide a wonderful developer experience.

• 2. Easy Installation -

  You can install the Laravel easily using the Composer and start your project development quickly.

• 3. User centric documentation -

  A comprehensive, updated and user centric guidance with docs is available for learning and working with Laravel for building the web applications more fast, efficiently and joyfully.

• 4. Robust and impressive command line tool -

  The Laravel provides inbuilt CLI(command line tool) known as “Artisan CLI” which boost the development work flow and automate the common and repetitive tasks for quick and easy development process e. g. - publishing package assets, managing database migrations, etc.

• 5. Architecture -

  It implements MVC(Model View Controller) design approach for efficient and well structured coding practices which makes the web application process and work flow convenient, seamlessly and super fast speedy even on the large and enterprise level projects.

• 6. Ready to use features as the package system –

  It provides and uses many inbuilt ready-made codes or pre-programmed features in the package format. It can be added in the application by adding just a few lines of code which finally speed up and automate the development work flow and functionality seamlessly. For example - Socialite(for authentication to social sites), Passport(for authentication using OAuth server ), Scout(for full-text searching), etc.

• 7. Templating engine –

  The Laravel uses inbuilt template engine which is called “Blade Template Engine”. It provides capability to create a web page easily using dynamic content seeding. It helps web developers to quickly process the data with its layouts without any impact on the web application’s performance or speed.

• 8. Scalable Framework -

  The Laravel is extremely scalable framework and make web application scalable more than other frameworks. It can handle a vast growing amount of request(hundreds of millions of requests per month). For example – You can run the Laravel application at nearly limitless scale on AWS’s latest server less technology using the “Laravel Vapor”.

• 9. Secure Web Application development -

  The Laravel provides a secure and protective layer to the web application from several web attacks and threats(e.g. SQL injection) by using inbuilt CSRF token, hashed passwords feature etc.

• 10. Event & Broadcasting –

  The Laravel provides the event and broadcasting feature for extracting the real time data or information from the web application for creating the amazing realtime application.

• 11. Multiple File System –

  The Laravel support a superior filesystem abstraction layer using "Flysystem" PHP package. It provides one and single interface for multiple type of filesystems so you can work with local filesystems, SFTP, and Amazon S3 - all three different file system in one application using a common API.

• 12. Task Scheduling –

  It supports task scheduler functionality for executing the tasks periodically that has been preprogrammed intentionally.

• 13. Object Oriented Database interaction -

  The Laravel supports object oriented database interaction using inbuilt ORM(Object Relational Mapper) system which is known as "Eloquent ORM". It provides database abstraction layer to you for queyring the database using an expressive syntax without any coding complexities.

• 14. Built-In Authentication and Authorization -

  The Laravel has inbuilt authentication and authorization system that you can implement it in the web application using a few line of commands in Artisan CLI. It saves time and speed up the application building without coding headache and complexities.

• 15. Integrated testing environment -

  The Laravel has very easy inbuilt support for testing functions through PHPUnit(a testing framework for executing unit tests) for quick and bug free web application building process. The unit tests can also be run through the Artisan CLI which finally speed up the work flow in application development.

• 16. Community and Support -

  The Laravel has a worldwide, comprehensive and growing active community of experienced and talented developers including blogs, forums and social networks(Twitter, YouTube etc.) The developer can report the bugs or application building issues to the community to get a quick response from this community.

The Laravel also provides multiple screen cast tutorials for educating and guiding the developers. These tutorials is known as "Laracasts"

• 17. Support for multiple languages -

  It supports for many languages so that any website or application can be customized to different countries for expanding the business to local customer.

Best for -

The Laravel is used for creating PHP scripting language based multiple types of modern and commercial web application in various businesses and sectors like finance, information technology, entertainment, traveling, retail, etc.

It is best choice for developing both large and medium scale custom web applications like Web portal applications(forums, job portals, news portals, etc.), Content Management Systems(CMS), Social networking sites, e-Commerce web sites, enterprise-level applications etc.

Source: infotokri