The open source nature and expressive syntax of Laravel have made it the most popular PHP framework. Despite the increasing functionality of competitors such as Symfony and Phalcon, Laravel offers features and an immense community that are still unmatched in the current market.
What is Laravel?
Laravel is a server-side PHP framework that offers a rich set of functionalities to make web development easier and faster. Its modular packaging system, object-relational mapping, and complete authentication system make it an excellent choice for building secure, feature-rich web applications. Being open-source, free and with a large community on GitHub, Laravel is accessible to everyone, making it a popular choice among developers.
Laravel is an open-source PHP framework known for its elegance, expressiveness, and rich set of functionalities. It’s the most popular PHP framework on Github with a large community of developers who have created a robust ecosystem of libraries and content to make it even more user-friendly.
Laravel developers often use Vue.js for the frontend functions to create user-friendly web applications. The framework also includes an object-relational mapping (ORM) system called Eloquent ORM, which presents database tables as classes for easier data access and manipulation.
How does Laravel work?
Laravel is a custom web development framework designed to simplify and streamline the development process. It follows the Model-View-Controller (MVC) architecture, which separates the application’s business logic into three distinct components: the controller, the model, and the view.
Laravel works by bootstrapping the application and loading the necessary dependencies. Requests are routed to the appropriate controller which performs the necessary business logic and retrieves any data needed from models. The public/index.php file acts as the entry point for all requests, and the framework creates an instance of the HTTP kernel, which handles incoming HTTP requests. The controller or closure then returns a response, which is typically an HTML view template rendered with the data from the model. Laravel sends the response back to the user.
The controller method interacts with the model to retrieve or manipulate data and then returns a response to the user. The response can be an HTML view template or other types of content such as JSON or XML.
Laravel uses a dependency injection container to manage dependencies between classes and components of the application. It also includes an ORM (Object-Relational Mapper) to simplify database interactions.
Laravel’s architecture is designed to make the development of complex applications easier by providing developers with tools and conventions to quickly build backend applications. It is built on the server-side language, PHP, and provides developers with features similar to other popular web development frameworks like Spring and Rails.
Understanding Laravel’s index file and kernels
When running an application, Laravel first has to load an index.php file which in turn opens the dependencies through the use of autoloaders. The application is then run by processing the request through a kernel. Laravel uses two main kernels:
HTTP kernel
Runs a selection of bootstrappers that perform required tasks before the request is executed. The HTTP kernel also describes a list of middleware that all requests must pass through before being executed, for example the authentication of a request through the use of login screens.
Console kernels
The console kernel is responsible for handling command-line interface (CLI) requests. Once the kernel is loaded, the HTTP kernel or the console kernel then dispatches the request to the appropriate controller, which contains the business logic for the application.
When running an application, Laravel first has to load an index.php file which in turn opens the dependencies through the use of autoloaders. The application is then run by processing the request through a kernel. Laravel uses two main kernels:
Features of Laravel
One of the main features of Laravel is its use of the Model-View-Controller (MVC) architecture, which helps to structure web applications and makes development more organized and pragmatic. Laravel also comes with the Blade templating engine, which allows for the creation of dynamic web pages by translating HTML from the controller into views that users can see.
Other features of Laravel include a complete authentication system, automated testing as an integral part of the framework, a command-line interface (CLI) with dozens of pre-built commands (Artisan), and a portable, virtual development environment with Homestead that provides developers with all the tools necessary to develop Laravel straight out of the box. More of these features are detailed below:
Authentication | Laravel uses several features, including Laravel Middleware to authenticate requests sent from the user to the server. |
Dependency management | Laravel employs a composer to manage dependencies throughout applications and web pages. |
Caching | Information is stored on temporary storage aspects of the site, allowing them to be quickly obtained and returned to the user, increasing the overall speed. |
Modularity | The use of modules and components in the development of Laravel applications further increases load times for the user and simplifies the development process. |
Ecosystem and community | The popularity of Laravel has led to the development of a large ecosystem and several libraries that can be used by developers when building applications and web pages. |
Routing | Routing in Laravel is designed to be simple and allows developers to build Restful applications. |
Security | Laravel utilists BCrypt to hash passwords to improve security for end users. An additional level of security is added with a built in SQL injection attack safety. |
Migration system | A Migration system is built into the databases used by Laravel, this allows developers to use PHP to write migrants and produce database structures, rather than using SQL. |
Artisan | Artisan is Laravel’s purpose-built command-line tool. This allows the use of pre-written codes for command-line interfaces which in turn prevents developers performing certain repetitive tasks. |
Template engine | The Blade template engine can be used in Laravel to create complex layouts. |
Eloquent Object-Relational Mapping | An expressive ORM that makes interaction with databases easier for developers. |
Why Laravel’s so popular
Laravel is a popular PHP framework known for its ease of use and comprehensive set of features. Explore some of the key advantages of using Laravel for web development. We will discuss its high level of security, standalone framework, built-in queue system, use of “auto-completes”, mail service integration, and middleware.
High level of security
The use of BCrypt and the built in SQL injection attack safeties make Laravel a very safe framework to use. This will reassure all invested parties that the application will be less likely to experience serious breaches.
Built in queue system
The in-built queue system used by Laravel decreases load times for the user as requests can be queued while they are processed by the server. This means the browser will not need to resend requests, or send them in intervals, making the entire process seamless.
Mail service integration
Swiftmailer library, among others, allows efficient and clean API configurations when sending individual emails. This makes the end user experience smoother.
Middleware
Authentication and authorisation systems are built in to Laravel at the middleware level, allowing for a streamline authentication process.
Examining the disadvantages of Laravel
While Laravel is a popular PHP framework for web development, it’s not without its limitations. Examine some of the key disadvantages of using Laravel that developers and businesses should be aware including its weak composer, limited continuity between versions, over complicated dependency injection, and slower development process:
Weak composer
When compared to similar frameworks, Laravel has a relatively weak composer. This composer is used to manage dependencies and a weaker composer can cause issues for developers.
Lack of continuity
Between versions of Laravel, there is often limited continuity. This can mean that updating your version of Laravel can break web pages and applications. Laravel V9.28.0 was released in 2022, showing this may have occurred multiple times for long standing applications.
Over complicated dependency injection
Certain aspects of the dependency injection in Laravel can be seen to be needlessly complex which can lead to errors in code.
Slow development
When compared with other frameworks like Symfony, development in Laravel seems slower, causing issues for the development team.
Who uses Laravel?
According to Enlyft, laravel is currently used by 35,000 companies worldwide, with the majority of these being small businesses with earnings between 1-10 million USD per year. As of 2022, Laravel controlled approximately 1% of the market share for software frameworks and is used by approximately 1.9% of the one million most trafficked websites
One of the most notable use cases for Laravel is the pharmaceutical company Pfizer who use Laravel as the back end framework for both their mobile and web application to facilitate customer interactions.
