What is Laravel? Why should any PHP developer care about it?

A few days ago I had to present at a local PHP Meetup in Fullerton, CA. I spoke about Laravel framework and why it will be the future of PHP frameworks (and that future is already here).

Below I have that presentation from my talk and also the content of the slides typed up in text. Enjoy!

laravel

Clean and classy PHP framework

Presentation by Maks

What do I do

Breakdancer (4 years)

IT support (8 years)

Web Development (3 years)

Created Bootsnipp.com in 4 days with Laravel

WHY Another Framework?

Easy to start with
Free from spaghetti code
Eloquent syntax
Modularity (Bundles, now Composer)
Testability
Clean
Dependent
Eloquent ORM
Easy routing
Caching
Combines best of many worlds
Flexible MVC
MIT license

As @Rutger says

"With Laravel we can do it in one line."

Eloquent ORM

Uses prepared statements (SQL injection defense)

works with MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite, SQL Server

Example of actual usage:

class Company extends Eloquent {}

$company = Company::create(array(
           'address' => '155 Harbor Blvd',
           'city' => 'Fullerton'
));

$company = Company::find(1);

echo $company->address; // 155 Harbor Blvd

$company = Company::where('city', '=', "Fullerton")->first();

$companies = Company::order_by('city', 'desc')->take(10)->get();

Relationships

One to One

class Company extends Eloquent {
     public function phone()
     {
          return $this->has_one('Phone');
     }
}

$phone = Company::find(1)->phone;

Many to One

class Company extends Eloquent {
     public function customers()
     {
          return $this->has_many('Customer');
     }
}

$customers = Company::find(1)->customers;

Many to Many

Routing

Super easy

Route::get('/', function()
{
    return "Hello PHP!";
});

Route::post('user', function()
{
    //
});

Route::put('user/(:num)', function($id)
{
    //
});

Route::delete('user/(:num)', function($id)
{
    //
});

Routing #2

Controller Routing

      
Route::controller('company');

Route filters

Route::get('create', array('before' => 'auth|csrf', function()
{
    //
}));

Authentication

Out of the box

$credentials = array('username' => 'example@gmail.com', 'password' => 'secret');

if (Auth::attempt($credentials))
{
     return Redirect::to('user/profile');
}

Get user's info : 
return Auth::user()->email;

Logout:
Auth::logout();

Blade templating engine

Kinda like PHP-ied HTML, ex:

@if ($tags)
	<p class="lead">Tags matching the search:</p>
	<ul class='nav nav-list'>
@foreach ($tags as $tag)
	  <li><a href="{{action('tags@view', array($tag->slug))}}"><span class="label">{{$tag->snipps()->count()}} snipps</span> {{$tag->name}} </a></li>
@endforeach

Environments

$environments = array(
    'local'      => array('http://localhost*', '*.dev'),
    'staging'    => array('http://dev.mywebsite.com*'),
    'production' => array('http://mywebsite.com*'),
);

Then add environment specific config files under

application/config

application
  - config
     - staging
        - database.php
        - session.php
     - production
        - database.php
...

Done!

Bundles (now composer packages)

Don't reinvent the wheel...

Installation of bundles easy as :

php artisan bundle:install Mybundle

SOme cool packages:

Bootstrapper
Former
Oauth2 (12 service providers ready to go)
Mailgun
Mandrill
Hashids
Cartify (shopping cart ready to go)

Validation

$input = Input::all();

$rules = array(
	'name' => 'required|min:3|max:32|alpha',
	'age' => 'required|integer'
);

$v = Validator::make($input, $rules);

if( $v->fails() )
{
	// code for validation failure :(
}
else
{
	// code for validation success!
}

Artisan CLI

\# Application Configuration

key:generate        Generate a secure application key.

# Database Tables

session:table       Generate a migration for the sessions database table.

# Migrations

migrate:install     Create the Laravel migration table.
migrate:make        Create a migration.           
migrate             Run outstanding migrations.   
migrate:rollback    Roll back the most recent migration.
migrate:reset       Roll back all migrations.     

# Bundles

bundle:install      Install a bundle.             
bundle:upgrade      Upgrade a bundle.             
bundle:publish      Publish all bundles' assets.

Artisan CLI #2

\# Unit Testing

test                Run the application's tests.  

# Routing

route:call          Call a route.                 

# CLI Options

--env=              Set the Laravel environment.  
--database=         Set the default database connection.