Laravel

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(Redirected from Eloquent (software))

Developer(s)Taylor Otwell
Initial releaseJune 2011; 12 years ago (2011-06)[1]
Stable release
11.0.9[2] Edit this on Wikidata / 21 May 2024; 8 days ago (21 May 2024)
Repositorygithub.com/laravel/framework
Written inPHP
TypeWeb framework
LicenseMIT License
Websitelaravel.com

Laravel is a free and open-source PHP-based web framework for building high-end web applications.[3] It was created by Taylor Otwell and intended for the development of web applications following the model–view–controller (MVC) architectural pattern and based on Symfony. Some of the features of Laravel include modular packaging system with a dedicated dependency manager, different ways for accessing relational databases, utilities that aid in application deployment and maintenance, and its orientation toward syntactic sugar.[4][5]: 2, 5–9 [6][7]

The source code of Laravel is hosted on GitHub and licensed under the terms of MIT License.[8]

History[edit]

Taylor Otwell created Laravel as an attempt to provide a more advanced alternative to the CodeIgniter framework, which did not provide certain features such as built-in support for user authentication and authorization. Laravel's first beta release was made available on June 9, 2011, followed by the Laravel 1 release later in the same month. Laravel 1 included built-in support for authentication, localisation, models, views, sessions, routing and other mechanisms, but lacked support for controllers that prevented it from being a true MVC framework.[1]

Laravel 2 was released in September 2011, bringing various improvements from the author and community. Major new features included the support for controllers, which made Laravel 2 a fully MVC-compliant framework, built-in support for the inversion of control (IoC) principle, and a templating system called Blade. As a downside, support for third-party packages was removed in Laravel 2.[1]

Laravel 3 was released in February 2012 with a set of new features including the cmd command-line interface (CLI) named Artisan, built-in support for more database management systems, database migrations as a form of version control for database layouts, support for handling events, and a packaging system called Bundles. An increase of Laravel's userbase and popularity lined up with the release of Laravel 3.[1]

Laravel 4, codenamed Illuminate, was released in May 2013. It was made as a complete rewrite of the Laravel framework, migrating its layout into a set of separate packages distributed through Composer, which serves as an application-level package manager. Such a layout improved the extensibility of Laravel 4, which was paired with its official regular release schedule spanning six months between minor point releases. Other new features in the Laravel 4 release include database seeding for the initial population of databases, support for message queues, built-in support for sending different types of email, and support for delayed deletion of database records called soft deletion.[1][9]: 18–19 

Laravel 5 was released in February 2015 as a result of internal changes that ended up in renumbering the then-future Laravel 4.3 release. New features in the Laravel 5 release include support for scheduling periodically executed tasks through a package called Scheduler, an abstraction layer called Flysystem that allows remote storage to be used in the same way as local file systems, improved handling of package assets through Elixir, and simplified externally handled authentication through the optional Socialite package. Laravel 5 also introduced a new internal directory tree structure for developed applications.[5]: 13–14 [10]

Lumen 5.0 is the initial release of the Lumen framework, a light derivative of Laravel optimized for speed.[11] This initial release is based on the Laravel 5.x series of PHP components, and following versions reflect the Laravel versions with which it shares common infrastructure.[12] As of 2022, authors no longer recommend the use of Lumen for gaining these advantages, and promote Laravel Octane instead.[13]

Laravel 5.1, released in June 2015, was the first release of Laravel to receive long-term support (LTS). New LTS versions were planned for one every two years.[14]

Laravel 5.3 was released on August 23, 2016. The new features in 5.3 are focused on improving developer speed by adding additional out of the box improvements for common tasks.[15]

Laravel 5.4 was released on January 24, 2017, with many new features like Laravel Dusk, Laravel Mix, Blade Components and Slots, Markdown Emails, Automatic Facades, Route Improvements, Higher Order Messaging for Collections, and many others.[16]

Laravel 6 was released on September 3, 2019. It incorporated shift blueprint code generation, semantic versioning, compatibility with Laravel Vapor, improved authorization responses, improved job middleware, lazy collections, and sub-query improvements. The frontend scaffolding was removed from the main package and moved into the laravel/ui package.[17]

Laravel 7 was released on March 3, 2020, with new features like Laravel Sanctum, Custom Eloquent Casts, Blade Component Tags, Fluent String Operations and Route Model Binding Improvements.[18]

Laravel 8 was released on September 8, 2020, with new features like Laravel Jetstream, model factory classes, migration squashing, Tailwind CSS for pagination views and other usability improvements.[19]

Laravel 9 was released on February 8, 2022.[12]

Laravel 10 was released on February 14, 2023.[20]

Laravel's 11 update was released on March 12, 2024. It was announced on the Laravel Blog and Social Media, moreover, it was also discussed in detail in EU Laracon[21] which was organized in Amsterdam on 5–6 February by the owner and founder of Laravel Taylor Otwell. According to the details given by Laravel, it will take up to September 3, 2025, for bug fixes and up to March 12, 2026, to fix security-related issues. It is also announced that Laravel 11 will require a minimum of PHP version 8.2. Along with Laravel 11, a first-party websocket server called Laravel Reverb was released.

Release history[edit]

Versions designated LTS were supported with bug fixes for 2 years and security fixes for 3 years. Other releases were supported with bug fixes for 6 months and security fixes for 1 year.[22] As of version 8, major versions are released yearly, and the support timeline is: bug fixes for 18 months and security fixes for 2 years, for all releases. For additional libraries, only the latest major release receives bug fixes.[19]


Version Release date Bug Fixes Until
Security Fixes Until
PHP version
Old version, no longer maintained: 1.0 June 2011
Old version, no longer maintained: 2.0 September 2011
Old version, no longer maintained: 3.0 February 22, 2012
Old version, no longer maintained: 3.1 March 27, 2012
Old version, no longer maintained: 3.2 May 22, 2012
Old version, no longer maintained: 4.0 May 28, 2013 ≥ 5.3.0
Old version, no longer maintained: 4.1 December 12, 2013 ≥ 5.3.0
Old version, no longer maintained: 4.2 June 1, 2014 ≥ 5.4.0
Old version, no longer maintained: 5.0 February 4, 2015 ≥ 5.4.0
Old version, no longer maintained: 5.1 LTS June 9, 2015 ≥ 5.5.9
Old version, no longer maintained: 5.2 December 21, 2015 ≥ 5.5.9
Old version, no longer maintained: 5.3 August 23, 2016 ≥ 5.6.4
Old version, no longer maintained: 5.4 January 24, 2017 ≥ 5.6.4
Old version, no longer maintained: 5.5 LTS August 30, 2017 ≥ 7.0.0
Old version, no longer maintained: 5.6 February 7, 2018 ≥ 7.1.3
Old version, no longer maintained: 5.7 September 4, 2018 ≥ 7.1.3
Old version, no longer maintained: 5.8 February 26, 2019 ≥ 7.1.3
Old version, no longer maintained: 6 LTS September 3, 2019 7.2 – 8.0[23]
Old version, no longer maintained: 7 March 3, 2020[24] 7.2 – 8.0[19]
Old version, no longer maintained: 8 September 8, 2020 7.3 – 8.1[25]
Old version, no longer maintained: 9 February 8, 2022[23] August 8th, 2023[26] February 6th, 2024[26] 8.0 – 8.2[23]
Current stable version: 10 February 14, 2023 August 6th, 2024[26] February 4th, 2025[26] 8.1 - 8.3[20]
Current stable version: 11 March 12, 2024 March 12th, 2024[26] September 3rd, 2025[26] ≥ 8.2[27]
Future release: 12 Q1 2025 Q3, 2026[26] Q1, 2027[26] ≥ 8.2[27]
Legend:
Old version
Older version, still maintained
Latest version
Latest preview version
Future release

Source: Laravel[19][28]

Features[edit]

Laravel boasts a variety of features that make it a comprehensive framework for web development:

  1. Eloquent ORM: Laravel's object-relational mapping (ORM) tool, Eloquent, allows developers to interact with databases in a more expressive syntax. It supports CRUD operations and provides an active record implementation for working with database models.
  2. Routing: Laravel offers a simple and intuitive routing mechanism, enabling developers to define application routes in a straightforward manner. This feature includes support for route groups, named routes, and route model binding.
  3. Blade Templating Engine: Laravel's Blade is a powerful templating engine that allows the use of plain PHP code in views. It provides features such as template inheritance, sections, and conditional statements, facilitating the creation of dynamic content.
  4. Middleware: Middleware allows filtering of HTTP requests entering the application. It can be used for various tasks such as authentication, logging, and CORS headers management.
  5. Queue System: Laravel includes a unified API for different queue backends, such as Beanstalkd, Amazon SQS, and Redis. This system helps in managing tasks like sending emails or processing data in the background, enhancing application performance.
  6. Broadcasting: This feature allows real-time data broadcasting using WebSockets. It helps in building real-time applications such as chat apps and notifications.
  7. Task Scheduling: The built-in task scheduling feature enables the execution of scheduled tasks within the application. It simplifies the management of cron jobs by allowing them to be defined in the Laravel application itself.
  8. Security: Laravel includes several security features out of the box, such as CSRF protection, password hashing, and encryption. It also provides easy methods for validating and sanitizing user input.

Ecosystem[edit]

Laravel has a vibrant ecosystem that includes a variety of tools and services designed to enhance the development process:

  1. Laravel Forge: A server management and deployment service for PHP applications. Forge helps in setting up servers, deploying code, configuring SSL, and monitoring server health.
  2. Laravel Vapor: A serverless deployment platform for Laravel, powered by AWS. Vapor handles scaling, database backups, and deployments, making it easy to run Laravel applications in a serverless environment.
  3. Laravel Mix: A configuration layer on top of Webpack, Mix provides a fluent API for defining Webpack build steps for your application. It simplifies tasks like CSS and JavaScript compilation, minification, and versioning.
  4. Laravel Nova: A beautifully designed administration panel for Laravel. Nova allows developers to easily manage the data in their application using a sleek, intuitive interface.
  5. Laravel Echo: A JavaScript library that makes it easy to work with WebSockets. Echo simplifies the process of subscribing to channels and listening for events broadcast by the Laravel application.

Community and Support[edit]

Laravel boasts a large and active community that contributes to its growth and support:

  1. Forums and Discussion Boards: The Laravel community is active on various forums, including the Laravel.io community forum, Stack Overflow, and Reddit, where developers can ask questions, share solutions, and discuss best practices.
  2. Documentation and Tutorials: Laravel's official documentation is comprehensive and regularly updated. There are also numerous tutorials, blog posts, and video series available online to help developers learn and master Laravel.
  3. Packages and Extensions: The Laravel community has created a plethora of packages and extensions that extend the framework's capabilities. These packages are available on Packagist and can be easily integrated into Laravel projects.
  4. GitHub Repository: The source code for Laravel is hosted on GitHub, where developers can contribute to the project, report issues, and request features. The repository includes detailed instructions on how to contribute and follow the development process.

Awards and Recognition[edit]

Laravel has received several awards and recognitions over the years, highlighting its impact on the PHP community and web development industry:

  1. Best PHP Framework: Laravel has been consistently recognized as one of the best PHP frameworks in various surveys and polls conducted by the PHP community and industry experts.
  2. GitHub Stars: Laravel's GitHub repository has garnered a significant number of stars, indicating its popularity and widespread adoption among developers.
  3. Industry Adoption: Many companies and organizations use Laravel for their web development needs, further demonstrating its reliability and effectiveness as a web framework.

Books and Learning Resources[edit]

Several books and learning resources are available for developers looking to deepen their understanding of Laravel:

  1. Books: Titles such as "Laravel Up and Running" by Matt Stauffer and "Laravel: From Apprentice To Artisan" by Taylor Otwell provide in-depth knowledge and practical guidance for mastering Laravel.
  2. Online Courses: Platforms like Laracasts, Udemy, and Coursera offer comprehensive online courses and tutorials that cover various aspects of Laravel development.
  3. Conferences and Workshops: In addition to Laracon, numerous workshops and smaller conferences are held worldwide, providing opportunities for hands-on learning and networking with other Laravel developers.

Design Philosophy[edit]

Laravel is designed with the philosophy of providing a framework that is both simple and elegant while enabling developers to write expressive, clear, and maintainable code. Some key principles underlying Laravel’s design include:

  1. Convention Over Configuration: Laravel promotes the use of sensible defaults and conventions, reducing the need for extensive configuration files. This approach allows developers to focus more on building their applications rather than setting up configurations.
  2. Modularity and Reusability: Laravel encourages modular development by promoting the use of packages. This allows developers to easily share and reuse code across multiple projects, enhancing productivity and maintainability.
  3. Syntactic Sugar: Laravel aims to make common tasks simple and expressive. This is achieved through the use of intuitive and concise syntax, making the code easier to read and write.
  4. Extensibility: Laravel is built to be extensible. Developers can easily extend or replace core components without modifying the framework’s source code, allowing for greater flexibility and customization.

Performance[edit]

Performance is a critical aspect of any web application, and Laravel includes several features and tools to optimize performance:

  1. Caching: Laravel provides a robust caching system that supports various backends like Memcached, Redis, and file-based caching. Caching can significantly improve the performance of an application by reducing the load on the database.
  2. Optimization Commands: Laravel includes several Artisan commands to optimize the framework's performance. These commands can be used to cache configuration files, routes, and views, reducing the overhead during runtime.
  3. Queue Management: By offloading time-consuming tasks to background queues, Laravel helps improve the responsiveness of applications. The queue system supports multiple queue backends, making it versatile and scalable.
  4. Database Optimization: Laravel’s Eloquent ORM includes features like lazy loading, eager loading, and query caching, which help optimize database queries and improve performance.

Testing[edit]

Laravel provides extensive support for testing, ensuring that applications are reliable and maintainable:

  1. Unit Testing: Laravel includes PHPUnit, a popular PHP testing framework, by default. It provides various testing tools and assertions to facilitate unit testing of application components.
  2. Feature Testing: Laravel allows developers to write feature tests that simulate user interactions and test the application’s behavior from the user's perspective. This ensures that the application works as expected.
  3. Mocking: Laravel integrates with Mockery, a mocking library, to allow developers to create mock objects and define expectations for testing dependencies and interactions.
  4. Browser Testing: Laravel Dusk provides a browser automation and testing API for end-to-end testing. It allows developers to test the entire application in a real browser environment.

Deployment[edit]

Laravel offers tools and services to simplify the deployment process:

  1. Laravel Forge: A server management and deployment service specifically designed for Laravel applications. It automates the process of provisioning servers, deploying code, and managing configurations.
  2. Laravel Envoyer: A zero-downtime deployment service for PHP and Laravel applications. Envoyer handles deployment hooks, notifications, and health checks to ensure smooth and reliable deployments.
  3. Docker Support: Laravel supports Docker through Laravel Sail, a lightweight command-line interface for interacting with Docker. Sail provides a simple way to run Laravel applications in a containerized environment.

Security[edit]

Laravel takes security seriously and includes several features to help developers secure their applications:

  1. CSRF Protection: Laravel automatically generates and verifies CSRF tokens for form submissions, protecting against cross-site request forgery attacks.
  2. Authentication and Authorization: Laravel provides built-in authentication services, including user registration, login, and password reset. It also offers simple and flexible authorization mechanisms to manage user permissions and roles.
  3. Encryption: Laravel uses the AES-256 and AES-128 encryption standards to provide secure encryption and decryption of data. The framework includes built-in helpers for encrypting and decrypting strings.
  4. Validation: Laravel’s validation system allows developers to easily validate user inputs and protect against malicious data. It includes a variety of validation rules and supports custom validation logic.

Future Developments[edit]

Laravel continues to evolve, with new features and improvements regularly introduced. Some areas of ongoing and future development include:

  1. Improved Performance: Ongoing efforts to enhance the performance of the framework, particularly in handling large-scale applications and complex operations.
  2. New Tools and Packages: Development of new tools and first-party packages to extend Laravel’s capabilities and streamline the development process.
  3. Community Contributions: Encouraging contributions from the community to improve the framework, fix bugs, and add new features.
  4. Official Integrations: Expanding official integrations with third-party services and platforms to provide developers with more options and flexibility in their projects.

Laravel's command-line interface (CLI), called Artisan, was initially introduced in Laravel 3 with a limited set of capabilities. Laravel's later migration to a Composer-based architecture allowed Artisan to incorporate different components from the Symfony framework, resulting in the availability of additional Artisan features in Laravel 4.

The features of Artisan are mapped to different subcommands of the Artisan command-line utility, providing functionality that aids in managing and building Laravel-based applications. Common uses of Artisan include managing database migrations and seeding, publishing package assets, and generating boilerplate code for new controllers and migrations; the latter frees the developer from creating proper code skeletons. The functionality and capabilities of Artisan can also be expanded by implementing new custom commands, which, for example, may be used to automate application-specific recurring tasks.

Conferences[edit]

Laracon is the official Laravel conference centered around the Laravel framework, covering its development, uses, and related general software development topics. Laracon has taken place in the United States, Europe and online in the past.[29][30] Typically, the conference happens in the United States and Europe every year. 2017 was the first year a Laracon was held as an online event only. 2018 was the first year a Laracon was held in Australia. Each year the conference has a different variety of sponsors and organizers, but Laravel, Laravel News and UserScape are usually the primary organizers.

While the numerous Laracon conferences are officially run, a number of other conferences are run under the name of Laravel Live. Currently, there are yearly held Laravel Live UK, Laravel Live Denmark and Laravel Live India conferences.[31][32][33] While these are not officially run, they have the permission of Taylor Otwell to use the name Laravel.

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d e Maks Surguy (July 27, 2013). "History of the Laravel PHP framework, Eloquence emerging". maxoffsky.com. Archived from the original on November 27, 2020. Retrieved May 10, 2015.
  2. ^ "Release 11.0.9". May 21, 2024. Retrieved May 23, 2024.
  3. ^ "Laravel Introduction: A PHP Framework for Building High-End Web Applications". www.w3schools.in. Retrieved March 27, 2024.
  4. ^ Daniel Gafitescu (June 6, 2013). "Goodbye CodeIgniter, Hello Laravel". sitepoint.com. Archived from the original on November 30, 2020. Retrieved December 21, 2013.
  5. ^ a b Martin Bean (April 2015). Laravel 5 Essentials. Packt. ISBN 978-1785283017. Archived from the original on February 19, 2023. Retrieved September 2, 2015.
  6. ^ "Laravel Documentation (versions 3.0–3.2.14)". three.laravel.com. Archived from the original on August 26, 2014. Retrieved August 30, 2014.
  7. ^ "Laravel Documentation (version 4.2)". laravel.com. Archived from the original on September 20, 2014. Retrieved August 30, 2014.
  8. ^ "laravel/framework: The Laravel Framework". github.com. Archived from the original on January 16, 2023. Retrieved January 17, 2023.
  9. ^ Raphaël Saunier (January 2014). Getting Started with Laravel 4. Packt. ISBN 978-1783287031. OCLC 868960968.
  10. ^ Eric Barnes (January 30, 2015). "Laravel 5". laravel-news.com. Archived from the original on November 11, 2016. Retrieved May 10, 2015.
  11. ^ "Introducing Lumen from Laravel". Matt Stauffer. Archived from the original on August 18, 2022. Retrieved July 25, 2022.
  12. ^ a b "Release Notes - Laravel - The PHP Framework For Web Artisans". laravel.com. Archived from the original on February 10, 2022. Retrieved February 12, 2022.
  13. ^ Sorgner, Stefan Lorenz (November 4, 2021), "The End as a New Beginning", We Have Always Been Cyborgs, Policy Press, pp. 185–187, doi:10.1332/policypress/9781529219203.003.0005, ISBN 9781529219203, archived from the original on February 19, 2023, retrieved July 25, 2022
  14. ^ Eric L. Barnes (June 9, 2015). "Laravel 5.1 is released". laravel-news.com. Archived from the original on May 12, 2016. Retrieved June 14, 2015.
  15. ^ Eric L. Barnes (August 23, 2016). "Laravel  5.3 is now released". laravel-news.com. Archived from the original on August 28, 2016. Retrieved August 23, 2016.
  16. ^ "Laravel 5.4 Is Now Released". Laravel News. January 24, 2017. Archived from the original on November 25, 2020. Retrieved February 21, 2017.
  17. ^ "Laravel 6 release notes". Laravel. Archived from the original on January 30, 2021. Retrieved November 1, 2019.
  18. ^ "Release Notes - Laravel - The PHP Framework For Web Artisans". laravel.com. Archived from the original on March 10, 2020. Retrieved March 9, 2020.
  19. ^ a b c d "Release Notes - Laravel - The PHP Framework For Web Artisans". laravel.com. Archived from the original on July 21, 2021. Retrieved May 9, 2020.
  20. ^ a b "Laravel 10 is released". laravel-news.com. Archived from the original on February 14, 2023. Retrieved February 13, 2023.
  21. ^ LARACON EU 2024 // TAYLOR OTWELL :: LARAVEL UPDATE, retrieved March 19, 2024
  22. ^ "Laravel Documentation: Releases". Laravel. Archived from the original on November 23, 2020. Retrieved February 26, 2017.
  23. ^ a b c "Laravel 9 is Now Released". February 8, 2022. Archived from the original on February 17, 2022. Retrieved February 9, 2022.
  24. ^ @laravelphp (February 12, 2020). "We are aiming to release Laravel 7.x..." (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  25. ^ "Laravel: PHP 8 Support". Laravel. November 26, 2020. Archived from the original on July 23, 2021. Retrieved August 6, 2021.
  26. ^ a b c d e f g h "Laravel - The PHP Framework For Web Artisans". laravel.com. Retrieved May 25, 2024.
  27. ^ a b "Laravel - The PHP Framework For Web Artisans". laravel.com. Retrieved March 13, 2024.
  28. ^ "Github Repository Release Notes - Laravel". Laravel. Archived from the original on March 3, 2019. Retrieved November 2, 2019.
  29. ^ "Laracon Online | The official worldwide Laravel online conference". laracon.net. Archived from the original on December 16, 2020. Retrieved March 24, 2017.
  30. ^ "Search Results". laravel-news.com. Archived from the original on May 29, 2020. Retrieved March 24, 2017.
  31. ^ "Laravel Live UK | Home". laravellive.uk. Archived from the original on August 14, 2020. Retrieved August 5, 2020.
  32. ^ "Laravel Live Denmark 2024".
  33. ^ "Laravel Live India Community". Laravel Live India Community. Archived from the original on August 10, 2020. Retrieved August 5, 2020.

Further reading[edit]

  • Laravel Design Patterns and Best Practices, Packt, ISBN 978-1783287987, July 2014, by Arda Kılıçdağı and H. İbrahim Yilmaz

External links[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Laravel.
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