PHP With Laravel
To get some knowledge about PHP with Laravel, Let’s break down PHP and Laravel separately so that the definition is easy.
Definition of PHP
PHP or Hypertext Pre-Processor is an open source general purpose scripting language which is mainly used for web development. PHP is widely used programming language as it can be used along with HTML code. Generally PHP codes are embedded into HTML.
Instead of lots of commands in the most common web scripts like Perl and C, PHP uses HTML with embedded code.
PHP which is executed on the server generates HTML straightly to the client. The client would receive the results , but would not know what the underlying code was. The code is always hidden in the output.
The best thing in PHP is that it is extremely simple which comes with many advanced features for a professional programmer. Although development with PHP is focused on server-side scripting, you can do much more with it.
Laravel Framework
Laravel is a web application framework written in PHP which is more secure, advance and easy PHP framework. The most beautiful part of it is that, it is free and opensource. The application developed in Laravel follows MVC platform which is Model – View – Controller. Licensed under the terms of MIT License The source code of Laravel is hosted on GitHub.
With this sourcecode, you can run Laravel Framework on Linux server. The standard testing server (APACHE) for Linux can be setup on Wamp or Xamp under the PC running non-linux application.
When it’s come to support, Laravel comes with great community support. The stackoverflow community has lot of answers on Laravel. Also discussion and projects on GitHub helps a lot.
| Laravel Details | Laravel |
| Definition | Laravel is an open-source PHP framework which is based on MVC pattern. Lravel is robust and easy to learn . It is targeted for those programmers who need a medium to high level and pleasing toolkit to build full-featured web applications. |
| Database Model | Database model of Laravel is Object Oriented |
| Programming Paradigm | Laravel is Object Oriented Event Driven Functional |
| Routing | Explicit Routing |
| Built-in Modules | The build in modules allow programmers to divide a project into small modules. Also, the models can be reused across various projects. |
| HTTPS Support | Laravel preserves the data transmission secure by adding https:// protocol before the URL automatically. Laravel allows developers to establish custom HTTPs routes. Developers also have the choice to build a specific URL for every HTTPS route. |
Laravel is a popular choice in the market. Developers can take an advantage of Eloquent object-relational mapping ORM. ORM system can be used to work with varieties of databases more efficiently by Active Record implementation. Eloquent Object Relational Mapping also allows the developer to interact with the database directly through the specific model of individual database tables. Even the use of the model to achieve common database tasks like inserting new records and running database queries is easy with Laravel.
Top 10 Benefits of learning PHP with Laravel
There are many benefits of learning PHP with Laravel. Among many benefits, below are listed top 10 benefits of learning PHP with Laravel together.
BUILDING AUTHENTICATION AND AUTHORIZATION SYSTEMS
Laravel benefit #1:
Laravel is great for authentication system. Laravel makes authentication very simple. It’s easy to integrate authentication system with Laravel. Laravel provides a simple way to organize logic used in authorization and control access to resources.
INTEGRATION WITH MAIL SERVICES
Laravel benefit #2.
Laravel provides a very clean and simple API over the popular SwiftMailer library. As, laravel comes with drivers for SMTP, Mailgun, Mandrill, SparkPost, Amazon SES, PHP’s “mail” function, and “sendmail”, it’s easy to send mail through a local or cloud-based service. In addition to support for sending email, Laravel provides support for sending notifications too. It’s easy to send notifications across a variety of delivery channels, including SMS (via Nexmo) and Slack.
INTEGRATION WITH TOOLS FOR MAKING WEB APPLICATIONS FASTER
Laravel benefit #3.
Laravel supports configuration of multiple cache like Memcached and Redis out-of-the-box. By default too, Laravel is configured to use the file cache driver. The file cache driver stores cached objects in the file system. For larger applications, it is a good choice use an in-memory cache such as Memcached or APC.
FIXING THE MOST COMMON TECHNICAL VULNERABILITIES
Laravel benefit #4.
Laravel helps to secure the web application as it protects against the most serious security risks like SQL injection, cross-site request forgery, and cross-site scripting. Laravel itself is always secure.
CONFIGURATION ERROR AND EXCEPTION HANDLING
Laravel benefit #5.
Error and exception handling is already configured even for a new Laravel-based project too. Laravel is integrated with the Monolog logging library. Monolog logging library supports a variety of powerful log handlers.
AUTOMATION OF TESTING WORK
Laravel benefit #6.
Laravel makes testing easier as it is built with testing in mind.Laravel provides support for testing with PHPUnit which is included out-of-the-box and a phpunit.xml file is already setup for the application. Laravel framework also ships with convenient helper methods which allows for expressive testing of the applications. It provides easy ways for simulating basic behavior of users (example of behavior : making requests to the application and examining the output, for example, clicking links, filling out forms).
URL ROUTING CONFIGURATION
Laravel benefit #7.
All of the Laravel routes are defined in the app/Http/routes.php file. The route file is automatically loaded by the framework. The most basic Laravel routes simply accept a URI and a Closure which provides a very simple and expressive method of defining routes.
SEPARATION OF LOGIC CODE AND A CLEAN MVC
Laravel benefit #8.
Laravel is a MVC framework. The separation is already done. The figure below describes the full MVC request cycle in a Laravel 5 application.
MESSAGE QUEUE SYSTEM (DELAYED DELIVERY) CONFIGURATION
Laravel benefit #9.
The Laravel provides a unified API across a variety of different queue backends which makes it easier to process task in queues. Queues makes it easy to complete time-consuming tasks, such as sending an e-mail, until a later time, which drastically speeds up web requests to your application.
SCHEDULING TASKS CONFIGURATION AND MANAGEMENT
Laravel benefit #10.
In the past, developers used to generate Cron entry for each task they need to schedule. However, that was a headache. The Laravel command scheduler makes it easy and uses only a single Cron entry in the server to complete multiple tasks.
CONCLUSION
Developers always focus on faster and easier development with lot of security and features. Laravel makes it easier in such situation. Laravel is so popular framework in the market. Developers can start to build a Laravel application within a few minutes that’s too with few lines of code and few mental load.
Tasks that usually take hours and hundreds of lines of code to write, can be done within a few minutes with pre-built functions of Laravel. Some time consuming application features like basic authentication (including social login integration), cache (to improve performance), form validation (to ensure that user has provided necessary and properly formatted information), and etc can be done withing few minutes and few lines with built in MVC platform of Laravel .Development becomes easier, faster, and efficient!
Laravel community is also very friendly and helpful. The documentation of laravel is detailed. Developer doesn’t need to spend much time researching and practicing. Unlike other frameworks of PHP, developers can find many code snippets, tutorials, courses about Laravel anywhere in the internet.
Demand of Laravel developers in the market is also very high. A good laravel developer can earn $30-80 per hour depending on his skillset. Isn’t PHP with Laravel too good ?
Related link : PHP and Laravel Training in Nepal
