Before developing your application, it’s necessary to choose the right framework to build it. While there are many frameworks to choose from, one has become the go-to for many developers around the world. That would be Laravel. Laravel is one of the most popular frameworks out there. But why?
What is Laravel?
Laravel is an open-source PHP framework developed by Taylor Otwell. It uses architectural patterns mostly based on Symfony. Laravel really became popular with the release of version 3. This version included a Command Line Interface called Artisan, support for the database system, and more.
The framework is extremely popular with large organisations around the world, including BBC, Crowcube, Pfizer, Lenovo, and more. The reason these organisations have chosen Laravel is that it handles tasks better and includes options such as service containers, event broadcasting, and more.
What’s more, Laravel offers a scalable solution for small- and medium-sized businesses, which expect future growth. It’s easy and fast for these companies to scale with the Laravel Framework.
Advantages of Using Laravel
Laravel comes with a host of advantages—let’s take a look:
1) MVC Support
Laravel includes the MVC architectural pattern, which makes the framework easy to use. Developers can easily manage and organise large projects. MV also makes the coding structure easier to work with. It’s no longer necessary to work with unstructured code. Instead, developers can create efficient and coherent apps with PHP.
MVC also makes it easier to find files within their directories when working on larger projects. And Laravel allows developers to control the look of the app, which means applications are much easier to brand.
2) Artisan CLI
Laravel includes its own Artisan CLI (command-line interface), which keeps the development process simple and fast. It’s based on the Symfony Console component for building apps. The tool helps with database management and data migrations. You can also create skeleton code, controllers, models, and more.
The Artisan tool also reduces repetitive, monotonous coding that developers use to do manually. What’s more, the tool can also generate MVC files and data configurations by creating its own commands.
3) Secure Authentication
Laravel makes secure authentication easier. No longer do developers have to code thousands of lines to make their apps secure. Instead, Laravel makes it easier by simplified organisation and implementation of the authorization logic.
4) Template Engine
Laravel includes the Blade template engine, which is powerful and is driven by template inheritance and sections.
Blade is lightweight and comes installed on Laravel. Developers find it makes their lives and work easier, with smooth, easy, beautiful layouts.
5) Object-Oriented Libraries
The Laravel framework includes several object-oriented libraries, a feature not often included with other frameworks. These libraries make coding easier and convenient by cutting out repetitive tasks, reducing the amount of coding needed.
6) Multiple File Management
Laravel is able to deal with many types of file structures. Any file can be used within Laravel, even one from your local system. The framework also supports cloud storage from Rackspace and Amazon S3. And the API stays the same, even if the developer needs to switch between these storage options.
Developers can use multiple systems within a single application, which creates a distributed environment to use files from multiple locations.
7) Scheduling Tasks
The Laravel framework also includes a scheduler, which allows developers to schedule certain tasks. The scheduler makes use of system-managed executable commands to execute Artisan jobs. These jobs will run the scheduled tasks.
8) Strong Community
Laravel has a very strong community, which contains a mix of developers and development companies. They work to provide support to the framework. So, if a developer runs into a problem or has a question, they can simply reach out to Laravel’s strong community for expert advice and guidance.
9) Easy Unit Testing
When it comes to unit testing, Laravel wins, hands down. The framework makes it easy to verify each component and module, which means no part of the website or app stays fragmented. Unit testing means no exceptions and bugs in web applications, which means a high-performance, bug-free app for users.
10) Data Migrations
Data migrations are a way to control versions of the database, which allow the developer to make changes to the database and stay up to date. In Laravel, there’s no need to create a table, as is necessary in other frameworks. Instead, migrations are done without SQL. However, it is possible to migrate the database to SQL at a later point.
11) Set User Restrictions
Because applications are usually worked on by more than one developer at a time, it’s useful to have user and level restrictions on each app.
Laravel uses built-in authorization services that can be used to provide specific authorization for each user. Developers are able to customise restrictions with the framework’s gates and policies.
12) App Testing Features
Laravel has the ability to perform unit tests on web and mobile applications through PHPUnit. The tests run on two directories, which include Feature and Unit. Unit tests work on small portions of code, while feature tests work on large codebases with several objects.
The framework is capable of running several unit tests at one time, which ensures all new changes are properly tested. When used in the right way, Laravel’s testing features can make applications bug-free and high-performance.
13) Easy to Develop Multilingual Applications
Because many companies are looking to reach new markets around the world, they need to have multilingual capabilities built into their applications. This is another place where Laravel shines. The framework makes it easy and fast to build multiple languages into applications.
Summing It Up
Laravel offers progressive features and development tools that make it fast and easy to develop applications. It’s made for developers who are looking for an elegant yet simple toolkit to create their web applications. Many developers find the framework simplifies routine tasks, which makes application development faster and easier than ever before.