Laravel – What, Why & Who!

This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by UI Lib

Introduction

Laravel is basically a framework used to build web applications using PHP at the backend. It is one of the most popular PHP-based web frameworks considered nowadays. Laravel was introduced in June 2011 by developer Taylor Otwell. Its latest version Laravel 9 was launched in February 2022.

It is well-known for the features it provides us with. Application building is very easy and less time consuming with Laravel. Its built in packages make our coding journey less hectic. Laravel does most of our work for us. Implementing authentication and authorization, managing security, roles and permission handling, etc all can be integrated to a project by the help of some CLI commands.

How Laravel Works

Laravel follows the MVC architecture or also known as the Model-View-Controller Structure which is a common application developing architecture.

The MVC architecture is quite easy to understand. Whatever request a user inputs goes directly to the controller. After receiving a valid request from a user, the controller file interacts with the database to retrieve the requested information. Finally, the retrieved information from the database is shown as a response to the user in a view file.

MVC architecture is very useful as it divides the presentation layer or the view file from the logical layer or the controller file. This makes identifying and fixing bugs easier. Also, it makes our code more structured and flexible.

Why Use Laravel

Laravel offers variety of features and that is why one should think about using Laravel before starting a new project. Let us discuss some of the fetures of Laravel below,

Simplicity

Laravel is simple and easy to understand. If you have a little coding knowledge with PHP and if you know how MVC structure works you are ready to work with Laravel. Starting a project with Laravel is just one command away. It generates all the necessary files and folders at the start of a project.

So, we are given a common directory structure that we can start working on for our project. This common folder structure of Laravel makes analyzing the code of other developers less complex.

Security

Implementing security measures for any mobile or web application is an important albeit hard thing to do. But with Laravel security is not your concern. Laravel takes care of all types of security issues that you may face from the start of your project. Also, Laravel provides many library packages implemented for handling security issues.

As Laravel handles all types of requests by working as an intermediary system, harmful code injection is not an issue anymore. Also, its built-in CSRF token handles all types of security threats.

Artisan CLI

Laravel comes with a built-in command-line tool named Artisan. This command-line tool helps developers not to perform repetitive tasks manually. Tasks like creating controller files, middleware, or models can be done easily with Artisan. Managing our database like creating migration files, or migrating databases can also be done with the help of Artisan.

Eloquent ORM

Eloquent ORM offered with Laravel is also a handy tool for us. An ORM is always helpful to interact with databases and make queries. Laravel's Eloquent ORM is quite easy to understand as its syntax is quite similar to SQL.

Templating Engine

Laravel also comes with a templating engine named Blade. Blade helps to build both static and dynamic both types of templates. Html, CSS, Javascript, and even raw PHP code can be written in Blade template.

Built-in Packages

Laravel is widely admired for its huge amount of library packages. There are library packages for almost every functionality. From authentication to debugging your application can be done by the pre-built library packages.

Some of Laravel's well-known packages are Laravel-Breeze(for authentication and authorization), Spatie(for assigning roles and permissions), Socialite(for authentication with social links like Facebook, Instagram, etc), Cashier(for payment gateway integration), and many more.

Who Uses Laravel

Laravel is being used by many top-notch companies because of its highly appreciable features. Some large business companies that use Laravel development environment to manage their website are mentioned below,

Laravel is very handy for developing and maintaining the website for your large business. If you have a huge database system and your website has to do complex computing every time you should go for Laravel.

If you feel interested in Laravel after reading this article feel free to visit Laravel's official documentation at Laravel.

Conclusion

Laravel is truly a gem for any PHP web developer. It makes our coding life easy. The large amount of library packages it provides and the huge number of community support it has makes working with Laravel a ride to the Wonder Land. Now more developers are considering using Laravel which makes the Laravel Community bigger and stronger.

For this reason if we get stuck with any issue we know we have an enormous Laravel community ready to help us. Also Laravel is a framework that gets updated regularly so any issues with Laravel framework will be fixed for sure. So if you are thinking about starting a project do give Laravel a try.