Introduction To Laravel Lecture 2 PDF

INTRODUCTION TO LARAVEL Tools for Rapid Web Application Development ICT Electives 3 2024. Prepared by JC Akwunwa  2 WHAT IS A LARAVEL...

INTRODUCTION TO LARAVEL Tools for Rapid Web Application Development ICT Electives 3 2024. Prepared by JC Akwunwa  2 WHAT IS A LARAVEL Laravel is a powerful and popular PHP web framework known for its expressive syntax, developer-friendly features, and robust ecosystem. Developed by Taylor Otwell and first released in 2011, Laravel has quickly become one of the leading choices for building modern web applications. Here's a detailed discussion of Laravel's key features, components, and advantages Laravel is a "progressive" framework, meaning that Laravel grows with you ICT Electives 2024. Prepared by JC Akwunwa  3 KEY FEATURES OF LARAVEL 1. Expressive Syntax: Laravel's syntax is clean, elegant, and expressive, making it easy to write and understand code. It emphasizes readability and reduces boilerplate, enhancing developer productivity. 2. MVC Architecture: Laravel follows the Model-View-Controller (MVC) architectural pattern, which separates the application logic into three distinct layers: models for data handling, views for presentation, and controllers for business logic. This separation of concerns improves code organization and maintainability ICT Electives 2024. Prepared by JC Akwunwa  4 KEY FEATURES OF LARAVEL 3. Blade Templating Engine: Laravel comes with Blade, a powerful templating engine that allows developers to write concise and reusable templates with features like inheritance, sections, and conditional statements. Blade templates are compiled into plain PHP code, offering excellent performance. 4. Eloquent ORM: Eloquent is Laravel's elegant and intuitive Object-Relational Mapping (ORM) system, which simplifies database interactions by abstracting SQL queries into expressive PHP syntax. It provides an easy way to work with databases and relationships between database tables. ICT Electives 2024. Prepared by JC Akwunwa  5 KEY FEATURES OF LARAVEL 5. Artisan CLI: Laravel includes Artisan, a command-line interface (CLI) tool that automates repetitive tasks and scaffolds boilerplate code. Developers can use Artisan commands to generate controllers, models, migrations, database seeds, and more, speeding up development workflows. 6. Routing System: Laravel's routing system provides a simple and expressive way to define application routes. Routes can be defined using closures or controller methods, making it easy to handle different types of HTTP requests and parameters. ICT Electives 2024. Prepared by JC Akwunwa  6 KEY FEATURES OF LARAVEL 7. Middleware: Middleware in Laravel provides a mechanism for filtering HTTP requests entering your application. It allows developers to add custom logic to the request- response cycle, such as authentication, authorization, and logging, in a modular and reusable way. 8. Authentication and Authorization: Laravel makes implementing authentication and authorization systems a breeze with its built-in authentication scaffolding. Developers can quickly set up user registration, login, and password reset functionalities, as well as define access control policies using middleware. ICT Electives 2024. Prepared by JC Akwunwa  7 KEY FEATURES OF LARAVEL 9. Testing Support: Laravel comes with built-in support for testing, allowing developers to write unit tests, feature tests, and browser tests easily. The framework provides expressive testing APIs and integrates seamlessly with PHPUnit and other testing libraries. 10. Security Features: Laravel prioritizes security and includes features like protection against SQL injection, cross-site request forgery (CSRF), and cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks out of the box. The framework also provides tools for encryption, hashing, and password salting. ICT Electives 2024. Prepared by JC Akwunwa  8 KEY FEATURES OF LARAVEL 11. Database Migrations and Seeds: Laravel's migration system simplifies database schema management by allowing developers to define database tables and their relationships using PHP code. Migrations can be version-controlled and rolled back, ensuring consistency across development, staging, and production environments. Additionally, Laravel's database seeding feature allows developers to populate databases with sample data for testing and development purposes. 12. Community and Ecosystem: Laravel has a vibrant and supportive community of developers contributing to its ecosystem. The framework is regularly updated with new features, improvements, and security patches. Additionally, Laravel's ecosystem includes a wide range of packages, tutorials, documentation, and community resources, making it easy for developers to learn and extend the framework's functionality. ICT Electives 2024. Prepared by JC Akwunwa  9 KEY APPLICATIONS OF LARAVEL 1. Web Application Development: Laravel is widely used for developing various types of web applications, including: Content Management Systems (CMS) E-commerce platforms Social networking platforms Business and productivity applications Online marketplaces News Portals ICT Electives 2024. Prepared by JC Akwunwa  10 KEY APPLICATIONS OF LARAVEL 2. API Development: Laravel is well-suited for building RESTful APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) to facilitate communication between different software applications. Developers can use Laravel's routing, middleware, and controllers to create APIs for mobile apps, web services, and third-party integrations. 3. E-commerce Platforms: Laravel's expressive syntax, robust architecture, and rich ecosystem of packages make it an excellent choice for building e-commerce platforms and online stores. Developers can leverage Laravel's features to implement product catalogs, shopping carts, payment gateways, and order management systems. ICT Electives 2024. Prepared by JC Akwunwa  11 KEY APPLICATIONS OF LARAVEL 4. Content Management Systems (CMS): Laravel can be used to develop custom content management systems (CMS) for managing website content, blogs, articles, and multimedia resources. Laravel's Blade templating engine and flexible routing system make it easy to create dynamic and user-friendly CMS interfaces. 5. Enterprise Applications: Laravel is suitable for building enterprise-level applications that require scalability, security, and maintainability. It offers features such as authentication, authorization, database migrations, and testing support, which are essential for developing complex business applications. ICT Electives 2024. Prepared by JC Akwunwa  12 KEY APPLICATIONS OF LARAVEL 6. SaaS (Software as a Service) Platforms: Laravel can power Software as a Service (SaaS) platforms that offer subscription- based access to web applications and services. Developers can use Laravel's multi-tenancy capabilities, user management features, and billing integrations to create scalable and monetizable SaaS products. 7. Real-Time Applications: Laravel can be used to build real-time applications such as chat applications, live streaming platforms, and collaborative tools. Developers can integrate Laravel with technologies like WebSockets and event broadcasting to enable real-time communication and updates in web applications. ICT Electives 2024. Prepared by JC Akwunwa  13 KEY APPLICATIONS OF LARAVEL 8. Prototyping and MVP Development: Laravel is often used for rapid prototyping and Minimum Viable Product (MVP) development due to its ease of use, comprehensive documentation, and robust feature set. Developers can quickly build and iterate on web application prototypes using Laravel's scaffolding, routing, and ORM capabilities. ICT Electives 2024. Prepared by JC Akwunwa  14 CREATING A LARAVEL PROJECT 1. Install Required Software: PHP: Download and install PHP from the official website or Install XAMPP or WampServer. Composer: Install Composer, a dependency manager for PHP. 2. Install Laravel: Open your terminal or command prompt. Run the following command to install Laravel globally in your system: composer global require laravel/installer check that laravel is installed with this command: laravel ICT Electives 2024. Prepared by JC Akwunwa  15 CREATING A LARAVEL PROJECT 3. Create a Laravel Project Create a project folder for your projects e.g. project-folder and, cd project- folder In the project folder, use the following command to create a Laravel project composer create-project laravel/laravel first-app 4. Navigate to the project directory: Get into the application folder: cd first-app 5. Serve Laravel Application: Run the following command to start the PHP built-in server: php artisan serve Open your web browser and visit http://localhost:8000 to see your Laravel application running. ICT Electives 2024. Prepared by JC Akwunwa