No matter how many experts you talk to, everyone will say the same thing – there is nothing better than Laravel when it comes to PHP frameworks used to develop business-level web applications. This article focuses on the latest version of the framework and its features.
Laravel has long been one of the most popular and widely used PHP frameworks. In fact, Laravel has been holding on to its popularity for years. After all, it is scalable, beautiful, and currently one of the most popular frameworks among companies and developers working with PHP. The latest version of the framework popped up on 9th February 2022 – Laravel 9.
As it is a new version, it comes with many new features. For the past few years, Laravel has been releasing new versions every six months or so. This approach has caused many questions, as well as confusion and insensitive comments about the release process. With the release of Laravel 9 a few days ago, Laravel creators switched to a 12-month release cycle.
Now, you want to hire experienced Laravel developers for a PHP-specific project. Although you have nothing to do with the upgrade feature, you can benefit from learning as much as you can about Laravel and its latest version.
So, What Is Laravel About?
It is a PHP-based web framework and open source. It has a few distinct features, but Laravel’s most notable commercial site is probably the beauty of its syntax. This MVC framework is supposed to build straightforward and complex web applications in the PHP programming language. Other than that, Laravel adheres strictly to the MVC or model structure of the model controller.
Laravel 9 Release Date
The creators of Laravel had plans to release a new version in September 2021. However, they pushed it into January 2022 and then February 2022. Due to release delays, Laravel 9 became the first long-term support or LTS release of this framework.
Shortly thereafter, the creators of Laravel announced that they would follow a 12-month release cycle. This delay was the result of a number of factors. That are listed below.
- Once you hire Laravel developers, they will use several community-driven projects to work on your project. They will also need to use at least nine Symphony libraries. However, Symfony wanted to release version 6.0 by November 2021. This delay allowed the Laravel team to include the latest Symfony version as part of Laravel 9.
- Due to the late release, the creators of Laravel found enough time to play with Symfony to better understand it. It even provided them with a place to fix any bugs or broken changes.
- Finally, the delayed release of Laravel 9 has given its creators a better position to manage and publish new releases every year. Following the release of Symphony, Laravel received two months’ extra time to close things up.
As you can see, the delay in releasing Laravel 9 has been a blessing in disguise.
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What Is the New in Laravel 9?
Now that you have a deeper understanding of Laravel, it is time to take a look at the features of Laravel 9.
1. Minimum Requirements for PHP
The first and most important feature of Laravel 9 is that it requires PHP 8 to work properly. Also requires PHUnit 8 for application testing purposes. As mentioned above, Laravel 9 uses the latest version of Symfony and requires PHP 8.
PHP 8 shows improvements and a few notable features, from the builder’s build-up to the JIT integration system. It even allows developers to explore different benchmarks of PHP types and learn ways to upgrade to the new PHP 8.
2. Anonymous Stub Migration
Every Laravel development company like Moon Technolabs aims to make anonymous stub migration an automatic behavior when developers use a well-known migration command.
An unknown stub migration feature first appeared on Laravel 8.37 to solve the problem with GitHub. Just because several migrations with the same class name can cause problems for developers when they are trying to rebuild a website from scratch.
The latest stub migration system removes the name of the migration and related collisions phase. Starting with Laravel 8.37, the framework supports anonymous class migration files. For Laravel 9, it will be one of the default behaviors.
3. String Functions of PHP 8
As Laravel 9 pointed out in PHP 8, the creators of the framework chose to integrate this PR. This step suggested using the latest PHP 8 cable functions.
These functions include the use of “str_contains (),” “str_starts_with (),” and “str_ends_with ()” in the “\ Illuminate \ Support \ Str” class within.
4. The Latest Query Builder Interface
With the new version of Laravel, genre suggestions become more reliable in statistical analysis, refinement, and code completion in their IDEs. Mainly due to the lack of shared or inherited interaction between Query \ Builder, Eloquent \ Relation, and Eloquent \ Builder.
However, with Laravel 9, developers can now enjoy the visual interface of the latest developer quiz, standalone analysis, and genre suggestions.
This version even adds the new “Illuminate \ Contracts \ Database \ QueryBuilder Interface,” with the exception of the “Illuminate \ Database \ Eloquent \ Concerns \ DecoratesQueryBuilder” feature which uses the visual interface instead of the “_call” method.
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Why Laravel Is So Popular?
If you do not know why Laravel is so popular, this section will be helpful.
1. Artisan CLI
The command line or Artisan CLI is an important feature of Laravel. Allows developers to create or modify a Laravel component in the command line without having to navigate through files and folders. Artisan CLI even allows developers to interact with the site directly from the command line using Laravel Tinker.
2. Eloquent ORM
Eloquent is the name of the ORM or map related to the Laravel object. If you hire Laravel developers, they will be able to work with the database of their choice, as well as the data model.
The smart ORM allows Laravel to ignore all the barriers to communicating and writing complex SQL queries in order to gain access to data from the website.
3. Automatic Pagination
Developers who have to deal with fraud when designing applications may think about the value of having a design underpinned by a structured framework.
Laravel can solve this problem easily by creating automatic browsing out of the box. Of all the features of Laravel, this one is the most popular. Eliminates household chores related to solving pagan problems.
4. MVC Architecture
Laravel has MVC structures, and this type of frame makes it flexible and connected. After all, it adheres to a common web development pattern with continuous, critical development.
It forces developers to learn and understand the MVC architecture pattern. It is popular and part of a few other frameworks, including ASP.NET MVC from C # and AdonisJS from JavaScript.
5. Security
It is very important to analyze the security measures of the web applications you want to use. If you do not, you may lose some money. Or, cybercriminals can hijack your products or websites.
Fortunately, Laravel has a few safety precautions as it adheres to OWASP safety standards. Laravel has a built-in security solution for almost everything, including SQL injection, site application fraud, and more.
Laravel 9 Installation Process
Often, small business owners cannot afford an internal team of developers. If you are one of them, you will probably want to offer a job building digital products at a Laravel development company.
However, if you have an internal development team, you will need to learn a little bit about the Laravel 9 installation process.
As you know, Laravel 9 supports PHP 8. If you have to check the framework first, remember to check the current version of PHP. You may need to use a new installation if you do not have one.
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Conclusion
It is safe to say that there are not as many compelling PHP frameworks as Laravel, and it is gaining more attention among developers from all over the world. These updated versions will make the job easier and faster for developers and companies.
