While writing a web application in PHP, you have the option to choose from a wide range of PHP frameworks. Usage statistics published on various websites suggest that Laravel is currently more popular than other PHP frameworks. But the savviest web developers never choose a PHP framework based on its popularity or market share. You need to weigh the pros and cons of Laravel in order to choose the PHP framework that perfectly meets all the needs of the project. As an open source PHP framework, Laravel helps you reduce the cost of developing web applications.
It further speeds up custom web application development by providing a number of robust tools and features. At the same time, Laravel has constantly evolved to meet emerging trends in web development. In September, Laravel 5.5 was released with a variety of new features: resource classes, automatic package discovery, time-based job attempts, on-demand notifications, and new interface presets. You need to understand the important features and tools provided by Laravel to decide if the PHP framework meets the needs of your project.
12 Reasons Why You Should Choose Laravel For Your Next Web Development Project
1) Intuitive syntax rules
Laravel’s syntax rules are simple and easy to understand. You can learn Laravel syntax without spending extra time or effort. Syntax rules will make it easy for you to maintain and update your Laravel application by writing clean code. Also, Laravel’s syntax allows you to focus on the functionality and performance of a web application instead of its source code.
2) To compose
While using Laravel, you can improve web application functionality and user experience by using third-party packages. Laravel also helps you manage external packages efficiently through a robust dependency management tool like Composer. You can even install and run Composer without issue by running Artisan-specific commands. But Composer will help you setup Laravel projects without downloading zip files and cloning packages from Github. You even have the option to make changes to the composer.json file to install required packages quickly.
3) Craftsman
Laravel allows you to perform common web development tasks through a command line interface: Artisan. You can run Artisan commands to perform common web development tasks and optimize the performance of Laravel applications. At the same time, Laravel allows you to create custom commands based on your precise needs. You even have the option to create a new custom command by running an existing Artisan command – make:command.
4) Eloquent ORM
Laravel comes with a built-in object-relational mapper (ORM) system: Eloquent. You can use Eloquent ORM to work with multiple databases and perform common database operations. While using Eloquent ORM, you can work with multiple databases efficiently through the ActiveRecord implementation. Similarly, you can take advantage of models to perform common database operations without having to write lengthy SQL queries. The database migration tool provided by Laravel further simplifies the process of synchronizing multiple databases running on different systems.
5) Sheet Template Engine
Because Laravel supports the Model-View-Controller (MVC) programming paradigm, you can quickly develop complex web applications by keeping your user interface and business logic layers separate. At the same time, the Blade templating engine will help you compile all views into PHP code, include PHP code in the views, and cache the PHP code until the views remain unchanged. You can even take advantage of the Blade templating engine to display data and extend layouts without affecting the performance of your Laravel application.
6) RESTful routing
In addition to simplifying web application development, Laravel makes web service development easier by supporting RESTful routing. You can use the PHP framework to create web services based on the REST architecture. The feature allows you to make the web application interact with other applications and services through an open protocol such as HTTP. Additionally, you can simplify web service development by taking advantage of HTTP methods such as GET, POST, PUT, and DELETE.
7) unit exam
While using Laravel, you can perform unit tests with PHPUnit. PHPUnit makes it easy for you to test specific features or functionality of your web application by performing unit tests throughout the development process. At the same time, Laravel allows you to perform unit tests simply by writing test cases and defining custom test methods. Therefore, you can easily write and execute test cases based on specific test requirements.
8) authentication library
The authentication library provided by Laravel helps you keep web applications secure by implementing a variety of authentication. You can even control and manage individual authentication services simply by making changes to the authentication configuration file. In addition, you can take advantage of the security features provided by the authentication library to encrypt data, create login pages, and prevent Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF).
9) caching system
In addition to providing a basic caching system, Laravel also supports widely used caching systems such as Redis, Memcached, and APC. You can take advantage of basic caching to store objects in a database or a file. Additionally, you can run Artisan-specific commands to cache both configuration and paths. At the same time, you can easily speed up your Laravel application by replacing the basic caching system with a robust third-party caching system like Redis or Memcached.
10) multiple file system
Laravel version 5 came with native support for multiple file systems. You can use third-party packages to work with multiple filesystems without problems. Laravel even allows you to customize the configuration through different options: config.php and filesystem.php. You even have the option to customize settings via local and cloud-based storage. Native support for multiple file systems makes it easy for you to keep your APIs consistent when choosing the right drive.
eleven) API development
The latest version of Laravel simplifies API development by resource classes. While writing APIs, you can take advantage of resource classes to bind Eloquent models and JSON requests without creating an additional transformation layer. Resource classes also allow you to convert models and collections of models to JSON without the need for an additional transformation layer.
12) on-demand notifications
Laravel 5.5 allows you to send on-demand notifications to people who access your web application without signing up. These people typically access the web application without logging in as a user. Laravel developers can call the Notification::route method to send on-demand notifications through the web application to such users simply by defining custom ad-hoc notification routing information.
The robust features and tools provided by Laravel make it easy to build custom web applications according to different business requirements. Additional features often negatively affect the performance of Laravel applications. Therefore, you should implement a number of performance optimization techniques to increase application speed and user experience. But Laravel has constantly evolved to meet emerging web application development trends. You can always speed up the development of custom web applications by taking advantage of the new features and improvements included in the latest version of Laravel.