Despite today’s era is JavaScript frameworks, but the PHP framework, namely, Laravel Framework, is still on boom among the developer’s community for the Laravel web application development. So, Laravel Best Practices is required for the best web development. Laravel framework is one of the popular PHP frameworks used for web development. Laravel framework is a full-fledge package of easier and faster built-in features for the web development world. Due to the immense number of features like authentication, MVC pattern, routing, sessions, etc., PHP framework, Laravel is getting famous day by day. In a nutshell,

Laravel is a free, open-source, and popular PHP framework based on model-view-controller architecture used for web application development. Some popular websites that are built using the Laravel Framework are Laravel Tricks, Laravel Snippets.

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Laravel Development Trends

If you analyze the popularity of the Laravel framework, then according to the SimilarTech statistics, 124,830 websites are built using this technology, and this number is increasing very quickly. More interestingly, the highest number of websites are used by the residents of the United States. Check out the trend of Laravel on Google Trends:

Well, we all know the best part of the Laravel PHP frameworks. But to enhance the performance and productivity of Laravel websites and web applications, we need to apply the best coding practices. So, our today’s topic is focused on Laravel Best Practices. Here, we will discuss how the use of accurate coding convention help you to get better results.

What is Laravel and Why it is used?

Laravel is a free, open-source, and PHP based framework used for web app development. Laravel Framework is extensively used by the developers to improve productivity and speed up the development process.

Is Laravel a Programming Language?

No, Laravel is not a programming language. In fact, it is a framework used for the development of websites and web applications. Laravel Framework is one of the most popular and favorite frameworks of web developers.

Laravel is a Frontend or Backend Framework?

As we all know, Laravel is a PHP based framework and PHP is a server-side programming language. Thus, Laravel is a backend framework used for web app development.

Best Practices to Follow for Laravel Web Application Development

Using the Laravel best practices in the coding can make the Laravel web application development faster and smoothly. Even it helps to enhance the developer’s productivity. Before starting with Laravel Best Practices, it thinks is the most important step to use the latest and stable Laravel version for the Laravel web development.

Use the Latest and Stable Laravel Version

It is always recommended for developers and beginners to use the latest and stable version of the Laravel framework. If you have a stable and latest laravel version, it will help developers speed up the development process and productivity. Now, the latest stable Laravel version is Larvel 6.0(LTS). You can use this Laravel version for the website and web app development.

Follow the Coding Standards

Whether it is a Laravel framework or any other programming language, coding standardization plays an important role. It is one of the biggest mistakes of the Laravel developers to ignore the coding standards, which I think is one of the biggest reasons for the decline in developer’s productivity. Just like the PHP programming language, Laravel follows the internal code development pattern. For instance, in the Laravel framework, there would be no restriction from the Laravel side, as long as you maintain variable compatibility with the composers. Although the Laravel does not show any restrictions, still the use of PSR-2 and PSR-4 is recommended by the expert Laravel developers.

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Appropriate Use of Laravel Naming Conventions

Basically, Laravel follows the PHP Framework Interop Group, for the naming conventions. We will now discuss some of the Laravel naming conventions followed by the Laravel developers for Laravel web application development.

Class names should be declared using the Studly Caps.
Constants should be declared using underscore separators in the upper case.
Methods should be declared using camelCase.
There is no specific rule for the declaration of property names and function arguments. But it is suggested to use the camelCase.
Variable names should be declared using the camelCase.
Controllers must be in the singular case, no space between words, and end with “Controller”—for instance: it should be like AuthController.
Laravel Database tables must be in lower case, with underscores—for instance, project_tasks.
Models must be in singular, without spacing, and capitalization—for instance: ForumThread.
Traits should be declared using the adjective words—for instance: Dispactable.

Use of Artisan CLI(Command-Line-Interface)

You will be glad to know that Laravel has its own CLI, which is known as Artisan CLI. It utilizes a Symfony Console. The use of Artisan CLI enhances the developer’s productivity in a real sense. In addition to this, it also provides helpful commands to boost the Laravel web application development process’s speed. The most interesting point about the Artisan CLI is that it helps task scheduling and triggering actions. Here is an example of the Artisan CLI commands:

Route::get('/foo', function()
{
$exitCode = Artisan::call('command:name', ['--option' => 'foo']);
});

Here is the list of the Artisan CLI commands, which are considered one of the most helpful commands for the Laravel web application development.

php artisan config:cache
php artisan route:cache
php artisan optimize
php artisan make: controller
php artisan make: model
php artisan make: migration
php artisan make: exception

And, this list of Laravel artisan CLI is quite long. These are some of the best and helpful CLI commands that are mostly required by the Laravel developers.

Appropriate Use of the Plugins

No doubt, having an accurate number of plugins in your Laravel Web Application Development is a good thing, but keeping the unnecessary plugins in Laravel makes your work a great mess. So, the Laravel developers should remove the unnecessary plugins. Since it is advisable for the developers to disable the plugins that are not required at the moment. Following the step of disabling the unnecessary plugins would make the development process more smooth and fast.

Laravel Database Migration

Yeah, Database Migration is an incredible feature of Laravel application development, But, without the use of relevant conventions for database migration, it will become a tough task for you. You can perform the Laravel Database Migration by using artisan command make: migration. The new migration will be saved in your database/migrations directory. Interestingly, a timestamp is the best feature of Laravel database migration to determine the migration order. You should use the database queries by using the –table and –create options

php artisan make:migration create_users_table --create=users
php artisan make:migration add_votes_to_users_table --table=users

Use of Eloquent ORM

Eloquent ORM is used in Laravel for the interaction with the database using the ‘Model’ methods. The Eloquent ORM is used to interact with the tables in the database. Using the Eloquent ORM will lessen the burden of using complex queries in the Database of Laravel web application development. And this Eloquent ORM is directly connected to the naming conventions. Thus it is necessary to be careful while using the naming conventions. Generally, Eloquent ORM is used to extract the data from the database just using a single query.

In a few words

The use of the Laravel best practices is not necessarily important for the Laravel framework; in fact, using the best practices is a must for all the programming languages for better results and productivity. According to the Laravel experts, applying the best practices makes the web app solutions credible and authentic in nature. Apart from having the knowledge of Laravel best practices, it is mandatory to have the technical knowledge to make the Laravel web application development successful without any errors and bugs. If you are looking for the best laravel web app development, then contact the best Laravel Web Application development company, Tekki Web Solutions Inc.