What is Laravel Framework?
Laravel is a free, open-source PHP web application framework designed for the development of web applications. It was created by Taylor Otwell in 2011 and has gained significant popularity in the PHP community due to its elegant syntax, modular structure, and powerful features.
Laravel uses the Model-View-Controller (MVC) architectural pattern, which separates application logic from presentation. It provides a robust set of tools and features such as routing, middleware, blade templating engine, eloquent ORM, and artisan CLI, to make web development easier and faster.
What is new in Laravel 9?
Laravel 9, which was released in September 2021.
Laravel 9 introduced several new features and improvements, including:
- Route caching: Route caching is now faster and more efficient in Laravel 9, which can improve the overall performance of your application.
- New blade components: Laravel 9 includes several new blade components, such as input, label, and form error components, that make it easier to create reusable UI elements.
- Improved event handling: Laravel 9 introduced several improvements to event handling, including the ability to define listeners using closures and the ability to prioritize event listeners.
- Improved error handling: Laravel 9 includes several improvements to error handling, including better support for reporting errors in JSON APIs and improved error messages for common errors.
- Improved testing tools: Laravel 9 includes several improvements to testing tools, including the ability to run tests in parallel and improved support for testing console commands.
Overall, Laravel 9 is a significant update that brings several new features and improvements to the framework.
Difference between CodeIgniter and Laravel.
Basis of | Laravel | CodeIgniter |
Database Model | Laravel supports object-oriented. | CodeIgniter supports relational object-oriented. |
Built in Module | It comes with built-in module. | It doesn’t come with built-in module. |
Integrated ORM | It supports Eloquent object-relational mapping ORM. | It does not support ORM. |
Structure | It follows MVC structure of filing with command line tool known as Artisan. | It also follow MVC structure. |
Development and Template | Laravel comes with default Blade template engine. | There is no template engine. |
Utilized by | Laracasts, octoberCMS | Expression engine, PyroCMS. |
Routing | It supports explicit routing. | It supports both Explicit as well as Implicit routing. |
Define Composer.
Composer is a dependency manager for PHP that is used in Laravel to manage the dependencies of a Laravel project. It is a tool that simplifies the process of installing and managing third-party libraries and packages that are required for a PHP application.
In Laravel, Composer is used to install and manage the dependencies of the Laravel framework itself, as well as any third-party packages or libraries that are used in a Laravel project. Composer allows developers to easily specify the required dependencies for their project, and it will automatically download and install those dependencies, along with any other required packages or libraries.
Composer is used to manage dependencies in Laravel by using a file called “composer.json”. This file specifies the required dependencies for the project, along with other configuration options such as the version of PHP that the project requires.
To install the dependencies for a Laravel project using Composer, you simply run the “composer install” command in the terminal, which will download and install all of the required dependencies specified in the “composer.json” file.
What is the difference between composer.lock and composer.json?
composer.json is a file that specifies the dependencies of a PHP project, while composer.lock is a file that is automatically generated by Composer when dependencies are installed or updated.
The composer.json file is created by the developer and committed to version control, and it specifies the dependencies required by the project at a high level, along with other configuration options.
The composer.lock file contains a list of the specific versions of each dependency that were installed, along with the versions of any dependencies of those dependencies. This file is used to ensure that all developers working on the project have the same versions of dependencies installed, which helps to prevent conflicts and ensures that the project is consistent across different environments.
What is Middleware in Laravel?
Middleware in Laravel is a mechanism that allows you to define and apply filters to HTTP requests and responses in your application. Middleware acts as a bridge between a request and a response, allowing you to perform actions before or after the request is handled by the controller.
In Laravel, middleware can be used for a variety of purposes, such as:
- Authentication: Middleware can be used to check if the user is authenticated and authorized to access certain resources in the application.
- Security: Middleware can be used to add additional security measures, such as CSRF protection and rate limiting.
- Logging: Middleware can be used to log requests and responses for debugging and auditing purposes.
- Localization: Middleware can be used to set the language or locale for the current request.
Middleware in Laravel is implemented as a series of classes that are chained together to form a pipeline. Each middleware class performs a specific action, and the pipeline is executed in the order that the middleware classes are defined. The pipeline can be modified at runtime, allowing you to add or remove middleware classes as needed.
How will you register a middleware in Laravel?
In Laravel, you can register a middleware in the following steps:
- Create the middleware class: First, create a new middleware class using the “php artisan make:middleware” command in the terminal. This command will create a new class file in the “app/Http/Middleware” directory.
- Define the middleware logic: In the middleware class, define the logic that you want to execute before or after the request is handled by the controller. For example, you might check if the user is authenticated, or add headers to the response.
- Register the middleware: To register the middleware, you can add it to the “$routeMiddleware” property of the “app/Http/Kernel.php” file. This property is an associative array that maps middleware aliases to middleware classes. For example, if you named your middleware class “MyMiddleware”, you might register it like this:
protected $routeMiddleware = [ 'my-middleware' => \App\Http\Middleware\MyMiddleware::class, ];
- Apply the middleware to a route: Finally, you can apply the middleware to a route or group of routes by adding the middleware alias to the “middleware” property of the route definition. For example:
Route::get('/my-route', function () { // ... })->middleware('my-middleware');
In this example, the “my-middleware” middleware will be executed before the closure function is executed for the “/my-route” route.
What is Database Migration in Laravel?
Database migration in Laravel is a feature that allows you to manage changes to your database schema using PHP code. With database migration, you can define the changes to your database schema in code, and then apply those changes to your database using simple commands in the terminal.
Using database migration in Laravel has several benefits, including:
- Version control: You can use a version control system, such as Git, to track changes to your database schema over time, making it easier to collaborate with other developers and roll back changes if necessary.
- Consistency: You can ensure that all developers working on the project have the same database schema by running the same database migrations.
- Safety: You can test your database changes locally before deploying them to production, reducing the risk of data loss or corruption.
How to use Database Migration in Laravel?
To use database migration in Laravel, you can follow these basic steps:
- Create a new migration: Use the “php artisan make:migration” command in the terminal to create a new migration file. The migration file will be created in the “database/migrations” directory, and will contain an “up” method and a “down” method.
- Define the schema changes: In the “up” method of the migration file, use the “Schema” facade to define the changes you want to make to the database schema. For example, you might create a new table, add a column to an existing table, or modify an existing column.
- Reverse the schema changes: In the “down” method of the migration file, use the “Schema” facade to reverse the changes made in the “up” method. This allows you to roll back the migration if necessary.
- Run the migration: Use the “php artisan migrate” command in the terminal to run the migration and apply the schema changes to the database.
- Roll back the migration: Use the “php artisan migrate:rollback” command in the terminal to roll back the migration and undo the schema changes. This is useful if you need to revert a migration that caused errors or introduced bugs.
What is reverse Routing in Laravel?
Reverse routing in Laravel is a technique that allows you to generate URLs for named routes in your application using a simple function call. Instead of hard-coding URLs in your views and controllers, you can use reverse routing to generate URLs dynamically based on the name of the route.
To use reverse routing in Laravel, you can use the “route” helper function, which takes the name of the route as its first argument, and any parameters as additional arguments. For example, if you have a route named “profile” that takes a “username” parameter, you could generate a URL for that route like this:
$url = route('profile', ['username' => 'johndoe']);
This would generate a URL like “/profile/johndoe”, based on the named route “profile” and the “username” parameter.
Using reverse routing in Laravel has several benefits, including:
- Easy maintenance: By using named routes and reverse routing, you can change the URLs of your application without having to update every reference to that URL in your views and controllers.
- Improved readability: Using reverse routing makes your code more readable by clearly indicating the intention of each URL, and by separating the URL generation logic from the rest of your code.
- Improved security: Reverse routing helps prevent security vulnerabilities that can arise from hard-coding URLs, such as cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks and SQL injection attacks.
What is PHP artisan in Laravel? List out some artisan commands?
“php artisan” is a command-line interface (CLI) tool included with the Laravel framework that provides a variety of helpful commands for building and maintaining Laravel applications. The “php artisan” command is typically run from the command line in the root directory of a Laravel project.
Here are some common “php artisan” commands:
- “php artisan serve”: This command starts a local development server so you can view your Laravel application in a web browser.
- “php artisan make:model”: This command creates a new Eloquent model class for your application.
- “php artisan make:controller”: This command creates a new controller class for your application.
- “php artisan make:migration”: This command creates a new database migration file for your application.
- “php artisan migrate”: This command runs any pending database migrations for your application.
- “php artisan tinker”: This command starts a REPL (Read-Evaluate-Print Loop) console for your Laravel application, allowing you to interact with your application’s data and models directly from the command line.
- “php artisan route:list”: This command lists all of the routes registered in your application, along with their names, URIs, and associated controller methods.
- “php artisan optimize”: This command optimizes your application by pre-compiling routes and other data, and by generating optimized class loaders.
What is the templating engine used in Laravel?
Laravel uses a powerful templating engine called Blade. Blade is a simple, yet powerful, templating language that allows you to easily create and manage the views for your Laravel application. Blade provides a number of features that make it easier to write clean, organized, and reusable templates, including:
- Template inheritance: Blade allows you to create a base template that other templates can inherit from, making it easier to reuse common elements across your views.
- Control structures: Blade provides a number of control structures, such as if statements and loops, that make it easy to conditionally render content in your templates.
- Blade directives: Blade provides a number of special directives, such as @section and @yield, that allow you to define sections of your templates and insert content into those sections from other templates.
- Escaping: Blade automatically escapes any output that is rendered in your templates, helping to prevent cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks.
- Custom directives: Blade allows you to define your own custom directives, making it easy to extend the templating language to meet the specific needs of your application.
What are available databases supported by Laravel?
Laravel supports a wide range of databases, including:
- MySQL: MySQL is the most popular open-source relational database management system (RDBMS) and is widely used with Laravel.
- PostgreSQL: PostgreSQL is another popular open-source RDBMS that is fully supported by Laravel.
- SQLite: SQLite is a lightweight and simple file-based database that is often used for small applications or for testing purposes.
- SQL Server: Laravel also supports Microsoft SQL Server, which is a popular database management system used by many enterprises.
- Oracle: Laravel has support for Oracle database, which is an enterprise-level database management system.
Overall, Laravel provides support for a variety of databases, making it a versatile and flexible framework for building web applications.
How to put Laravel applications in maintenance mode?
Laravel provides a simple way to put your application in maintenance mode while performing updates or maintenance tasks. Here are the steps to put your Laravel application in maintenance mode:
- Open the
.env
file in the root directory of your Laravel project. - Find the
APP_ENV
variable and set its value to “maintenance” like so:APP_ENV=maintenance
- Create a new file called
maintenance.blade.php
in theresources/views
directory of your Laravel project. - Add your custom maintenance message or page to this file. For example, you could add a simple message like:
<!DOCTYPE html> <html> <head> <title>Maintenance Mode</title> </head> <body> <h1>We'll be back soon!</h1> <p>Sorry for the inconvenience but we're performing some maintenance at the moment. We'll be back online shortly!</p> </body> </html>
- Save the
maintenance.blade.php
file. - Your Laravel application is now in maintenance mode, and visitors to your site will see the maintenance message instead of the normal site content.
Once you have finished your updates or maintenance tasks, simply remove the APP_ENV=maintenance
line from the .env
file to take your Laravel application out of maintenance mode.
What is the use of DB facade?
The DB
facade in Laravel provides a simple and convenient way to interact with a database. The DB
facade provides a set of static methods that allow you to execute SQL queries, retrieve results, and perform database transactions, without having to manually instantiate a database connection.
Using the DB
facade, you can perform a variety of database operations, such as:
- Inserting data into a table
- Updating data in a table
- Retrieving data from a table
- Deleting data from a table
- Running raw SQL queries
How to generate a request in Laravel?
In Laravel, you can generate a new request class using the make:request
Artisan command. Here are the steps to generate a request class in Laravel:
- Open your command prompt or terminal and navigate to the root directory of your Laravel project.
- Run the following command to generate a new request class:
php artisan make:request MyRequest
In this example, MyRequest
is the name of the request class you want to generate.