tech

Laravel

PHP elegant full-stack framework - Eloquent ORM, Blade templates, Artisan CLI, batteries included for web artisans

TL;DR

One-liner: Laravel is PHP’s elegant full-stack framework - Eloquent ORM, Blade templates, and artisan CLI make web development enjoyable.

Core Strengths:

Eloquent ORM - beautiful Active Record implementation
Blade templates - powerful templating with clean syntax
Artisan CLI - code generation and task automation
Batteries included - auth, queues, caching, testing built-in

Core Concepts

Concept 1: Eloquent ORM

Active Record pattern - each model maps to a database table:

// Define model
class User extends Model
{
    protected $fillable = ['name', 'email'];

    public function posts()
    {
        return $this->hasMany(Post::class);
    }
}

// Queries are expressive
$users = User::where('active', true)
             ->orderBy('name')
             ->get();

$user = User::find(1);
$user->posts;  // Lazy-load relationship

Concept 2: Routes → Controllers

Clean routing to controller methods:

// routes/web.php
Route::get('/users', [UserController::class, 'index']);
Route::post('/users', [UserController::class, 'store']);
Route::get('/users/{user}', [UserController::class, 'show']);

// Resource routes for CRUD
Route::resource('posts', PostController::class);

// Controller
class UserController extends Controller
{
    public function index()
    {
        return User::all();
    }

    public function show(User $user)  // Route model binding
    {
        return $user;
    }
}

Concept 3: Blade Templates

Clean templating with inheritance and components:

<!-- layouts/app.blade.php -->
<html>
<body>
    @yield('content')
</body>
</html>

<!-- users/index.blade.php -->
@extends('layouts.app')

@section('content')
    @foreach($users as $user)
        <p>{{ $user->name }}</p>
    @endforeach
@endsection

Quick Start

Create Project

composer create-project laravel/laravel myapp
cd myapp

Create a Route and Controller

php artisan make:controller HelloController

// app/Http/Controllers/HelloController.php
class HelloController extends Controller
{
    public function index()
    {
        return response()->json(['message' => 'Hello Laravel!']);
    }
}

// routes/web.php
Route::get('/', [HelloController::class, 'index']);

Run

php artisan serve
# Open http://localhost:8000

Gotchas

Mass assignment protection

// ❌ MassAssignmentException
User::create($request->all());

// ✅ Define fillable fields
class User extends Model
{
    protected $fillable = ['name', 'email'];
}

// Or use guarded for inverse
protected $guarded = ['id'];  // Allow all except id

Validation in controllers

public function store(Request $request)
{
    // Validate - throws ValidationException on failure
    $validated = $request->validate([
        'name' => 'required|max:255',
        'email' => 'required|email|unique:users',
        'password' => 'required|min:8|confirmed',
    ]);

    return User::create($validated);
}

Environment configuration

# .env file - never commit this!
APP_ENV=local
APP_DEBUG=true
DB_CONNECTION=mysql
DB_HOST=127.0.0.1
DB_DATABASE=laravel

# Access in code
config('app.env');
env('DB_HOST');

Artisan generators

php artisan make:model Post -mcr
# Creates: Model, Migration, Controller (resource)

php artisan make:migration create_posts_table
php artisan migrate
php artisan migrate:rollback

When to Use

Best for:

Full-stack web applications
APIs with complex business logic
Teams wanting rapid development
Projects needing auth, queues, etc.

Not ideal for:

Microservices (too heavy)
High-performance APIs (use Go/Rust)
Simple scripts

Comparison:

Feature	Laravel	Symfony	CodeIgniter
Size	Full-stack	Full-stack	Lightweight
ORM	Eloquent	Doctrine	Custom
Learning	Easy	Medium	Easy
Opinionated	Yes	Less	Less

Next Steps

Cheatsheet

Pattern	Code
Create project	`composer create-project laravel/laravel app`
Dev server	`php artisan serve`
Make controller	`php artisan make:controller Name`
Make model	`php artisan make:model Name -m`
Run migrations	`php artisan migrate`
Tinker	`php artisan tinker`
Route list	`php artisan route:list`
Clear cache	`php artisan cache:clear`