Laravel Tutorial: What It is, Framework, Features

Laravel tutorial provides basic and advanced concepts. Our Laravel tutorial is designed for beginners and professionals.

Laravel is an open-source PHP framework. It also offers the rich set of functionalities that incorporates the basic features of PHP frameworks such as Codelgniter, Yii, and other programming languages like Ruby on Rails.

Our Laravel tutorial includes all the topics such as introduction, history of Laravel, installation, Laravel routes, Laravel controllers, Laravel views, etc.

What is Laravel?

Laravel is a PHP framework that uses the MVC architecture.

where,

Framework: It is the collection of methods, classes, or files that the programmer uses, and they can also extend its functionality by using their code.
Architecture: It is the specific design pattern that the framework follows. Laravel is following the MVC architecture.

Let's first understand the MVC architecture.

MVC is divided into three letters shown below:

M: 'M' stands for Model. A model is a class that deals with a database. For example, if we have users in an application then we will have users model that deals with a database to query the table of users if we have users model, then we will also have a users table. We conclude from the example that the model is going to have a table for that specific model.
V: 'V' stands for View. A view is a class that deals with an HTML. Everything that we can see on the application in the browser is the view or the representation.
C: 'C' stands for Controller. A controller is the middle-man that deals with both model and view. A controller is the class that retrieves the data from the model and sends the data to the view class.

Laravel is an open-source PHP framework. It also offers the rich set of functionalities that incorporates the basic features of PHP frameworks such as Codelgniter, Yii, and other programming languages like Ruby on Rails.

Advantages of Laravel

Following are some advantages of Laravel:

Creating authorization and authentication systems
Every owner of the web application makes sure that unauthorized users do not access secured or paid resources. It provides a simple way of implementing authentication. It also provides a simple way of organizing the authorization logic and control access to resources.
Integration with tools
Laravel is integrated with many tools that build a faster app. It is not only necessary to build the app but also to create a faster app. Integration with the caching back end is one of the major steps to improve the performance of a web app. Laravel is integrated with some popular cache back ends such as Redis, and Memcached.
Mail service integration
Laravel is integrated with the Mail Service. This service is used to send notifications to the user's emails. It provides a clean and simple API that allows you to send the email quickly through a local or cloud-based service of your choice.
Handling exception and configuration error
Handling exception and configuration errors are the major factors on the app's usability. The manners in which the software app handles the errors have a huge impact on the user's satisfaction and the app's usability. The organization does not want to lose their customers, so for them, Laravel is the best choice. In Laravel, error and exception handling is configured in the new Laravel project.
Automation testing work
Testing a product is very important to make sure that the software runs without any errors, bugs, and crashes. We know that automation testing is less time-consuming than manual testing, so automation testing is preferred over the manual testing. Laravel is developed with testing in mind.
Separation of business logic code from presentation code
The separation between business logic code and presentation code allows the HTML layout designers to change the look without interacting with the developers. A bug can be resolved by the developers faster if the separation is provided between the business logic code and presentation code. We know that Laravel follows the MVC architecture, so separation is already done.
Fixing most common technical vulnerabilities
The security vulnerability is the most important example in web application development. An American organization, i.e., OWASP Foundation, defines the most important security vulnerabilities such as SQL injection, cross-site request forgery, cross-site scripting, etc. Developers need to consider these vulnerabilities and fix them before delivery. Laravel is a secure framework as it protects the web application against all the security vulnerabilities.
Scheduling tasks configuration and management
The web app requires some task scheduling mechanism to perform the tasks in time for example, when to send out the emails to the subscribers or when to clean up the database tables at the end of the day. To schedule the tasks, developers need first to create the Cron entry for each task, but Laravel command scheduler defines a command schedule which requires a single entry on the server.

Features of Laravel

We know that PHP is the oldest programming language used by the programmers, and more than 20 million websites are developed by using PHP. PHP is a very suitable programming language as it satisfies the business requirements whether the business is big or small. Laravel is one of the most popular frameworks having a high rich set of functionalities.

Laravel is provided with a well-defined toolbox that allows the developers to write less code leading to less possibility of errors.

Following are the features of Laravel:

Authentication

Authentication is the most important factor in a web application, and developers need to spend a lot of time writing the authentication code. Laravel makes a simpler authentication when Laravel is updated to Laravel 5. Laravel contains an inbuilt authentication system, you only need to configure models, views, and controllers to make the application work.

Innovative Template Engine

Laravel provides an innovative template engine which allows the developers to create the dynamic website. The available widgets in Laravel can be used to create solid structures for an application.

Effective ORM

Laravel contains an inbuilt ORM with easy PHP Active Record implementation. An effective ORM allows the developers to query the database tables by using the simple PHP syntax without writing any SQL code. It provides easy integration between the developers and database tables by giving each of the tables with their corresponding models.

MVC Architecture Support

Laravel supports MVC architecture. It provides faster development process as in MVC; one programmer can work on the view while other is working on the controller to create the business logic for the web application. It provides multiple views for a model, and code duplication is also avoided as it separates the business logic from the presentation logic.

Secure Migration System

Laravel framework can expand the database without allowing the developers to put much effort every time to make changes, and the migration process of Laravel is very secure and full-proof. In the whole process, php code is used rather than SQL code.

Unique Unit-testing

Laravel provides a unique unit-testing. Laravel framework can run several test cases to check whether the changes harm the web app or not. In Laravel, developers can also write the test cases in their own code.

Intact Security

Application security is one of the most important factors in web application development. While developing an application, a programmer needs to take effective ways to secure the application. Laravel has an inbuilt web application security, i.e., it itself takes care of the security of an application. It uses "Bcrypt Hashing Algorithm" to generate the salted password means that the password is saved as an encrypted password in a database, not in the form of a plain text.

Libraries and Modular

Laravel is very popular as some Object-oriented libraries, and pre-installed libraries are added in this framework, these pre-installed libraries are not added in other php frameworks. One of the most popular libraries is an authentication library that contains some useful features such as password reset, monitoring active users, Bcrypt hashing, and CSRF protection. This framework is divided into several modules that follow the php principles allowing the developers to build responsive and modular apps.

Artisan

Laravel framework provides a built-in tool for a command-line known as Artisan that performs the repetitive programming tasks that do not allow the php developers to perform manually. These artisans can also be used to create the skeleton code, database structure, and their migration, so it makes it easy to manage the database of the system. It also generates the MVC files through the command line. Artisan also allows the developers to create their own commands.