The free and open-source PHP framework, Laravel was initially introduced as an advanced alternative to the CodeIgniter framework. The Laravel framework featured handy features like built-in support for user authorization and authentication. Such features were absent in the CodeIgniter framework, which made the process of web development quite hard.
The inclusion of such innovative and useful features considerably increased the popularity of the Laravel framework. In fact, several developers firmly believe that Laravel is the most popular and best PHP frameworks out there and they also use Bootstrap Laravel templates when building complex web apps. Let us take a quick look at some of the integral features of the Laravel
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MVC
The Laravel PHP frameworks support the MVC Architecture. Another PHP framework that follows the Model View and Controlled based architectural pattern is Symphony.
The MVC architecture comes with several built-in functionalities and it also helps developers to boost the performance of their web apps. Moreover, the MVC also ensures better documentation.
Object-Oriented Libraries
Laravel features an excellent collection of Object Oriented Libraries along with several pre-installed libraries like Authentication Library. These kind of Object Oriented Libraries are not present in Symphony, CodeIgniter, or any other popular PHP frameworks.
The Authentication Library of Laravel is packed with a wide variety of advanced features. Some of the most noticeable ones are password reset, Bcrypt hashing, Cross-site Request Forgery encryption and protection, and checking active users.
Artisan
The Laravel PHP framework has its own dedicated command line interface, named as Artisan. This command line interface serves a number of crucial processes such as database migration managing and package asset publishing. In addition, Artisan even generates boilerplate code for new migrations, models, and controllers.
Since the command line interface, Artisan takes care of such processes, developers will be able to save plenty of their time and effort. This is because Artisan will automatically complete a number of tedious and repetitive tasks that are essential in any web development project.
Blade Templating Engine
Another interesting aspect of Laravel is that it has an innovative in-built template engine, Blade. The smooth and robust Blade templating engine was originally introduced in Laravel 5.1. The highlight of Blade is that it doesn’t prevent developers from using plain PHP code in views. The designed blade views will be automatically cached and compiled within the framework until you decide to modify them. In some cases, removing or modifying a statement may seem like a daunting task when working on complex projects. This is where Blade comes into play, as it can easily help you to remove or even modify any statement with ease.
Security
It is critical to ensure that your web application is safe and secure. The Laravel PHP framework is capable of offering great security to web applications. The passwords will never get saved as plain texts within the framework if you are using this framework. This is because Laravel uses the hashed password.
Laravel is also the way to go if you wish to prevent yourself from injection attacks. The use of SQL statements by Laravel reduces the chance of such attacks. It comes with several security features that include HTTP Basic Authentications, Encryption, Protecting Routes, and more.
Responsible Interface
Most of us will agree with us when we claim that installing packaged was not that easy in Laravel until they rolled out its 5.5 version. When the 5.5 version of the Laravel PHP framework was introduced, a new feature was added to the framework. The intuitive new feature was called Automatic Package Discovery.
The Automatic Package Discovery feature of the Laravel framework was capable of automatically identify the packaged that has to be installed. As a result, developers will be able to easily install packages. However, you could even disable the Automatic Package Discovery if necessary.
Multiple File Systems
The Laravel PHP framework also offers built-in support for Rackspace Cloud Storage, Amazon S3, and the local cloud storage system. Switching between these cloud storage systems will be a fairly simple task, as the API of all these systems are the same.
As a result, developers will be able to make use of all these three cloud storage systems within a single application. So, they will be able to easily and quickly serve files from different locations without any issues.
Conclusion
The above-mentioned features of the Laravel PHP framework give us a clear idea of why it has gained widespread popularity among developers. So, if you have not used the Laravel PHP framework, then give it a try, as it will surely save you a valuable amount of your time and effort.