Laravel: A Back-End Framework
Laravel is one of the best back-end frameworks for web development having simple and expressive syntax. It is an open-source Hypertext Preprocessor (PHP) framework that helps provide a library containing pre-programmed modules for efficiently building web applications. The framework offers the opportunity to create an application piece-by-piece, conduct testing, implement security, fix bugs, design application architecture, and many other benefits. It also provides routing, caching, file storage, and validation features.
Laravel Key Features
Laravel uses the scripting language of PHP for its work. It is a platform-specific language and helps with runtime compilation. This framework also uses the Model View Controller (MVC) architecture. Laravel provides various business and development features. Some of these features are:
- Developers can use ORM (Object Relational Mapping) to use tables efficiently.
- With the CLI (Command Line Interface), the developers can quickly build and test their applications.
- The automatic testing feature boosts the testing process.
- With the virtual development environment, the framework allows developers to use any tool they require for building their applications.
- The framework provides security through its authentication system.
- It is a responsive and easy-to-learn framework with a built-in library of tools which allows minimum coding
- It helps integrate with mail services and cache back-end tools such as Redis and Memcached.
- The framework provides security from cross-site scripting, SQL injection, and forgery.
Web Development with Laravel
Laravel offers a wide range of functions that differentiate it from other frameworks. It provides simple, well-documented functions and requires minimum configurations. Following are some of the reliable functionalities that Laravel provides:
Packages
Packages are add-ons that developers can download and use as a plugin with Laravel installation. Artisan is a command line tool that helps in bundle installations. Spatie is a Laravel package that defines roles and permissions to the web application. It also allows specifying access to the resources. Similarly, other Laravel packages include Laravel Mix, Laravel Debugbar, and Eloqurnt-Sluggable.
Migrations
Database migrations are a crucial part of any project where multiple developers work on the same project. There is always a need to update the database schema with every change necessary for the project. Therefore, Laravel provides built-in migrations, and developers can execute these migrations using Artisan. Moreover, Laravel possesses its Schema Builder that quickly updates database schema. Following is an example of creating a table using Laravel:
Schema::table('user', function($table)
{
$table->create();
$table->increments('id');
$table->string('username');
$table->string('email');
$table->string('phone')->nullable();
$table->text('about');
$table->timestamps();
});
Moreover, The following piece of code helps in adding the location column to an existing user table:
Schema::table('users', function (Blueprint $table) {
$table->string('location')->after('id');
});
Unit Testing
Laravel provides necessary Test Driven Development features. The framework allows integration with PHPUnit, the best PHP unit testing framework. Following is a sample test case syntax using Laravel and PHPUnit:
class MyUnitTest extends TestCase
{
public function somethingShouldBeTrue()
{
$this->assertTrue(true);
}
}
The developers have to extend the TestCase class for building a unit test. The developers can use the following command to run the application’s tests:
php artisan test
The artisan command executes all the tests using the unit test directory of the Laravel application.
Seeding
Testing the functionalities while building an application is one of the most critical tasks. Seeding helps in mock-testing the functionality using fake data. The developers can populate tables having fake data for testing using artisan utility. The path for all the seeders is app/database/seeders. The following command generates a seeder using artisan:
php artisan make:seeder UserSeeder
The developers can populate user tables with autogenerated data using the following sample piece of code:
DB::table('users')->insert([
'name' => Str::random(10),
'email' => Str::random(10).'@gmail.com',
'password' => Hash::make('password'),
]);
Moreover, the developers can use model factories to generate massive database records with minimum time consumption. The following sample code helps create 60 posts for a user in the database:
Post::factory() ->count(60) ->belongsToUser(1) ->create();
Guide for Web Development with Laravel
The developers can build a Laravel application from scratch, considering the features mentioned above and the functionalities of Laravel. Following is a guide to provide essential steps required for Web Development using Laravel:
Laravel Installation
The developers can install Laravel differently depending on their operating systems and machines. This article explains Laravel installation using Composer. First, the developers have to install PHP and Composer for this task. The following command helps in creating a new Laravel application using Composer:
composer create-project laravel/laravel testing-app
After creating an application, the next step is to start the development server using the cd command:
cd my-app php artisan serve
These commands help set the environment, allowing users to access their Laravel development server at their local host.
Application Setup
Multiple working folders are created after setting up the primary application environment. For example, the app folder contains Models and Controllers folders for the newly created project. The database folder contains migrations, seeders, and factories. Similarly, the resources folder has all the front-end code and the view folder. The routes folder has all the application routes. The default template of Laravel is created at the path resources/views/welcome.blade.php, and the developers can view this default starter template at localhost.
Following is the code to bring Bootstrap CSS by embedding the CDN link in the welcome.blade.php file:
<head> <meta charset="utf-8"> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"> <title>Laravel</title> <link href="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/bootstrap@5.0.2/dist/css/bootstrap.min.css" rel="stylesheet" integrity="sha384-EVSTQN3/azprG1Anm3QDgpJLIm9Nao0Yz1ztcQTwFspd3yD65VohhpuuCOmLASjC" crossorigin="anonymous"> </head>
The next step is to create a basic Bootstrap CSS form. Following is a sample form:
<form method="post" action=""> <div class="row g-3 align-items-center"> <div class="col-auto"> <label for="inputPassword6" class="col-form-label">Add New Item:</label> </div> <div class="col-auto"> <input type="text" name="name" id="name" class="form-control" aria-describedby="passwordHelpInline"> </div> <div class="col-auto"> <button type="submit" class="btn btn-secondary">Save item</button> </div> </div> </form>
Database (MySQL) Setup
The users can create a new database in their local MySQL installation and give it a name. After setting up the MySQL server, users must open the .env file in their project root folder and pass the database name to DB_DATABASE.
DB_DATABASE=test
Every table in the database has a corresponding Model which allows interaction with that table. Models allow inserting, updating, and retrieving data tables. Model is an important concept, along with migrations. The following command helps in creating a model using the artisan command:
php artisan make:model ListItem -m
Here, the -m flag creates a migration file with the model, which goes to the app/database/migrations folder. The following code helps modify the migration file to add the required table data:
<?php
use Illuminate\Database\Migrations\Migration;
use Illuminate\Database\Schema\Blueprint;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Schema;
class CreateListItemsTable extends Migration
{
public function up()
{
Schema::create('list_items', function (Blueprint $table) {
$table->id();
$table->string('name');
$table->integer('is_complete');
$table->timestamps();
});
}
public function down()
{
Schema::dropIfExists('list_items');
}
}
Finally, the following command helps in migrating the table and its columns to the user’s required database:
php artisan migrate
Routes Setup
The application requests in Laravel map to specific functions by Routers. Routers instruct applications about URL placement. Following is an example of a command that helps in routing localhost to render the home view file by creating a route in we.php:
Route::get('/home', function()
{
return view('home');
})
Similarly, the developers can customize the web application however they want by using Laravel and its functionalities. They can create customized routes, controllers, and views and manipulate many other functionalities according to their requirements.
