Introduction to Laravel

Last modified on: September 2, 2025

<h2 data-start="695" data-end="715">🌟 Introduction</h2>
<p data-start="717" data-end="1133">When it comes to web development with PHP, <strong data-start="760" data-end="771">Laravel</strong> is the most popular and developer-friendly framework. Launched in 2011 by <strong data-start="846" data-end="863">Taylor Otwell</strong>, Laravel has grown into one of the most powerful open-source PHP frameworks in the world. It is designed to make development faster, easier, and more enjoyable by providing built-in tools for everyday tasks like routing, database queries, authentication, and caching.</p>
<p data-start="1135" data-end="1473">This guide will walk you through a <strong data-start="1170" data-end="1206">detailed introduction to Laravel</strong>. We&rsquo;ll cover <strong data-start="1220" data-end="1318">what it is, why it&rsquo;s useful, its key features, real-world examples, and hands-on code snippets</strong> to get you started. Whether you are a beginner or switching from another PHP framework, this tutorial will help you build a solid foundation in Laravel.</p>
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<h2 data-start="1480" data-end="1504">🔹 What is Laravel?</h2>
<p data-start="1506" data-end="1740">Laravel is an open-source <strong data-start="1532" data-end="1549">PHP framework</strong> built to develop modern, scalable, and secure web applications. It is based on the <strong data-start="1633" data-end="1664">MVC (Model&ndash;View&ndash;Controller)</strong> architectural pattern, separating logic, presentation, and data handling.</p>
<p data-start="1742" data-end="1819">Think of Laravel as a <strong data-start="1764" data-end="1775">toolbox</strong> filled with everything a developer needs:</p>
<ul data-start="1820" data-end="2055">
<li data-start="1820" data-end="1857">
<p data-start="1822" data-end="1857"><strong data-start="1822" data-end="1840">Routing system</strong> for clean URLs</p>
</li>
<li data-start="1858" data-end="1909">
<p data-start="1860" data-end="1909"><strong data-start="1860" data-end="1887">Blade templating engine</strong> for beautiful views</p>
</li>
<li data-start="1910" data-end="1957">
<p data-start="1912" data-end="1957"><strong data-start="1912" data-end="1928">Eloquent ORM</strong> for easy database handling</p>
</li>
<li data-start="1958" data-end="2004">
<p data-start="1960" data-end="2004"><strong data-start="1960" data-end="1978">Authentication</strong> for user login/register</p>
</li>
<li data-start="2005" data-end="2055">
<p data-start="2007" data-end="2055"><strong data-start="2007" data-end="2026">Testing support</strong> for building reliable apps</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p data-start="2057" data-end="2209">With Laravel, developers can build anything from small websites to <strong data-start="2124" data-end="2157">enterprise-level applications</strong>, <strong data-start="2159" data-end="2172">REST APIs</strong>, and even <strong data-start="2183" data-end="2206">full SaaS platforms</strong>.</p>
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<h2 data-start="2216" data-end="2243">🔹 Why Choose Laravel?</h2>
<p data-start="2245" data-end="2316">There are many PHP frameworks, but Laravel stands out because of its:</p>
<ol data-start="2318" data-end="2740">
<li data-start="2318" data-end="2392">
<p data-start="2321" data-end="2392"><strong data-start="2321" data-end="2339">Elegant Syntax</strong> &ndash; Writing code in Laravel feels natural and clean.</p>
</li>
<li data-start="2393" data-end="2487">
<p data-start="2396" data-end="2487"><strong data-start="2396" data-end="2412">Productivity</strong> &ndash; Comes with ready-to-use features like authentication, queues, caching.</p>
</li>
<li data-start="2488" data-end="2577">
<p data-start="2491" data-end="2577"><strong data-start="2491" data-end="2503">Security</strong> &ndash; Protection from common vulnerabilities like SQL injection, XSS, CSRF.</p>
</li>
<li data-start="2578" data-end="2661">
<p data-start="2581" data-end="2661"><strong data-start="2581" data-end="2594">Community</strong> &ndash; A massive community provides tutorials, packages, and support.</p>
</li>
<li data-start="2662" data-end="2740">
<p data-start="2665" data-end="2740"><strong data-start="2665" data-end="2680">Scalability</strong> &ndash; Perfect for small blogs or apps with millions of users.</p>
</li>
</ol>
<p data-start="2742" data-end="2780">👉 <strong data-start="2745" data-end="2778">Example Use Cases of Laravel:</strong></p>
<ul data-start="2781" data-end="2943">
<li data-start="2781" data-end="2826">
<p data-start="2783" data-end="2826">A blog or CMS (Content Management System)</p>
</li>
<li data-start="2827" data-end="2859">
<p data-start="2829" data-end="2859">RESTful APIs for mobile apps</p>
</li>
<li data-start="2860" data-end="2881">
<p data-start="2862" data-end="2881">E-commerce stores</p>
</li>
<li data-start="2882" data-end="2919">
<p data-start="2884" data-end="2919">Customer management systems (CRM)</p>
</li>
<li data-start="2920" data-end="2943">
<p data-start="2922" data-end="2943">Real-time chat apps</p>
</li>
</ul>
<hr data-start="2945" data-end="2948" />
<h2 data-start="2950" data-end="2981">🔹 Key Features of Laravel</h2>
<p data-start="2983" data-end="3119">Laravel comes packed with features that make development easier. Let&rsquo;s go deeper into its most important features with short examples.</p>
<h3 data-start="3121" data-end="3141">1. <strong data-start="3128" data-end="3139">Routing</strong></h3>
<p data-start="3142" data-end="3206">Laravel provides a simple and expressive way to define routes.</p>
<pre class="language-php"><code>Route::get('/about', function () {
    return "About Page";
});</code></pre>
<h3 data-start="3283" data-end="3312">2. <strong data-start="3290" data-end="3310">Blade Templating</strong></h3>
<p data-start="3313" data-end="3356">The built-in templating engine for views.</p>
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<pre class="language-php"><code>&lt;h1&gt;Welcome, {{ $name }}&lt;/h1&gt;
@if($age &gt; 18)
    &lt;p&gt;You are eligible.&lt;/p&gt;
@endif</code></pre>
<code class="whitespace-pre! language-blade">
</code></div>
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<h3 data-start="3452" data-end="3477">3. <strong data-start="3459" data-end="3475">Eloquent ORM</strong></h3>
<p data-start="3478" data-end="3519">Database handling becomes super simple.</p>
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<pre class="language-php"><code>// Fetch all posts
$posts = Post::all();

// Insert new post
Post::create(['title' =&gt; 'First Post', 'content' =&gt; 'Hello World!']);</code></pre>
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<h3 data-start="3663" data-end="3687">4. <strong data-start="3670" data-end="3685">Artisan CLI</strong></h3>
<p data-start="3688" data-end="3734">A command-line tool to speed up development.</p>
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<pre class="language-php"><code>php artisan make:controller PostController
php artisan migrate</code></pre>
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<h3 data-start="3811" data-end="3838">5. <strong data-start="3818" data-end="3836">Authentication</strong></h3>
<p data-start="3839" data-end="3907">Laravel makes login &amp; registration easy with built-in scaffolding.</p>
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<pre class="language-php"><code>composer require laravel/breeze --dev
php artisan breeze:install</code></pre>
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</div>
</div>
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<hr data-start="3986" data-end="3989" />
<h2 data-start="3991" data-end="4025">🔹 Laravel Architecture (MVC)</h2>
<p data-start="4027" data-end="4065">Laravel follows the <strong data-start="4047" data-end="4062">MVC pattern</strong>:</p>
<ul data-start="4067" data-end="4241">
<li data-start="4067" data-end="4115">
<p data-start="4069" data-end="4115"><strong data-start="4069" data-end="4078">Model</strong> &ndash; Handles database (Eloquent ORM).</p>
</li>
<li data-start="4116" data-end="4170">
<p data-start="4118" data-end="4170"><strong data-start="4118" data-end="4126">View</strong> &ndash; Manages presentation (Blade templates).</p>
</li>
<li data-start="4171" data-end="4241">
<p data-start="4173" data-end="4241"><strong data-start="4173" data-end="4187">Controller</strong> &ndash; Processes user requests and links Models &amp; Views.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p data-start="4243" data-end="4289">👉 Example:<br data-start="4254" data-end="4257" />When a user visits <strong data-start="4276" data-end="4286">/posts</strong>:</p>
<ol data-start="4290" data-end="4451">
<li data-start="4290" data-end="4330">
<p data-start="4293" data-end="4330"><code data-start="4293" data-end="4309">routes/web.php</code> defines the route.</p>
</li>
<li data-start="4331" data-end="4388">
<p data-start="4334" data-end="4388"><code data-start="4334" data-end="4350">PostController</code> fetches data from the <code data-start="4373" data-end="4379">Post</code> model.</p>
</li>
<li data-start="4389" data-end="4451">
<p data-start="4392" data-end="4451">Data is sent to a Blade <code data-start="4416" data-end="4422">view</code> to display on the browser.</p>
</li>
</ol>
<hr data-start="4453" data-end="4456" />
<h2 data-start="4458" data-end="4495">🔹 Example Project &ndash; Simple Blog</h2>
<p data-start="4497" data-end="4542">Let&rsquo;s build a <strong data-start="4511" data-end="4528">mini-blog app</strong> in Laravel:</p>
<h3 data-start="4544" data-end="4578">Step 1: Create a new project</h3>
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<pre class="language-php"><code>composer create-project laravel/laravel blog
cd blog
php artisan serve</code></pre>
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<h3 data-start="4663" data-end="4708">Step 2: Create a Post model &amp; migration</h3>
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<pre class="language-php"><code>php artisan make:model Post -m</code></pre>
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<p data-start="4753" data-end="4816">Migration (<code data-start="4764" data-end="4812">database/migrations/..._create_posts_table.php</code>):</p>
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<pre class="language-php"><code>Schema::create('posts', function (Blueprint $table) {
    $table-&gt;id();
    $table-&gt;string('title');
    $table-&gt;text('content');
    $table-&gt;timestamps();
});</code></pre>
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<p data-start="4988" data-end="5004">Run migration:</p>
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<pre class="language-php"><code>php artisan migrate</code></pre>
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<h3 data-start="5038" data-end="5072">Step 3: Controller for posts</h3>
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<pre class="language-php"><code>php artisan make:controller PostController</code></pre>
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<p data-start="5129" data-end="5159">Inside <code data-start="5136" data-end="5156">PostController.php</code>:</p>
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<pre class="language-php"><code>use App\Models\Post;

public function index() {
    $posts = Post::all();
    return view('posts.index', compact('posts'));
}</code></pre>
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<h3 data-start="5298" data-end="5317">Step 4: Route</h3>
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<pre class="language-php"><code>Route::get('/posts', [PostController::class, 'index']);</code></pre>
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<h3 data-start="5386" data-end="5456">Step 5: Blade Template (<code data-start="5414" data-end="5453">resources/views/posts/index.blade.php</code>)</h3>
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<pre class="language-php"><code>&lt;h1&gt;All Posts&lt;/h1&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
@foreach($posts as $post)
    &lt;li&gt;{{ $post-&gt;title }} - {{ $post-&gt;content }}&lt;/li&gt;
@endforeach
&lt;/ul&gt;</code></pre>
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<p data-start="5594" data-end="5667">🎉 Now you have a working blog page that lists posts from the database!</p>
<hr data-start="5669" data-end="5672" />
<h2 data-start="5674" data-end="5703">🔹 Advantages of Laravel</h2>
<p data-start="5705" data-end="5927">✔ Faster development with built-in features<br data-start="5748" data-end="5751" />✔ Highly secure (CSRF, hashing, middleware)<br data-start="5794" data-end="5797" />✔ Clean MVC structure<br data-start="5818" data-end="5821" />✔ Flexible &ndash; supports APIs, microservices, monolith apps<br data-start="5877" data-end="5880" />✔ Active community with thousands of packages</p>
<hr data-start="5929" data-end="5932" />
<h2 data-start="5934" data-end="5959">🔹 Laravel Ecosystem</h2>
<p data-start="5961" data-end="5999">Laravel has an impressive ecosystem:</p>
<ul data-start="6001" data-end="6270">
<li data-start="6001" data-end="6065">
<p data-start="6003" data-end="6065"><strong data-start="6003" data-end="6033">Laravel Breeze / Jetstream</strong> &ndash; Authentication scaffolding.</p>
</li>
<li data-start="6066" data-end="6101">
<p data-start="6068" data-end="6101"><strong data-start="6068" data-end="6079">Horizon</strong> &ndash; Queue monitoring.</p>
</li>
<li data-start="6102" data-end="6134">
<p data-start="6104" data-end="6134"><strong data-start="6104" data-end="6112">Echo</strong> &ndash; Real-time events.</p>
</li>
<li data-start="6135" data-end="6182">
<p data-start="6137" data-end="6182"><strong data-start="6137" data-end="6146">Forge</strong> &ndash; Server management &amp; deployment.</p>
</li>
<li data-start="6183" data-end="6225">
<p data-start="6185" data-end="6225"><strong data-start="6185" data-end="6194">Vapor</strong> &ndash; Serverless Laravel on AWS.</p>
</li>
<li data-start="6226" data-end="6270">
<p data-start="6228" data-end="6270"><strong data-start="6228" data-end="6236">Nova</strong> &ndash; Admin panel for Laravel apps.</p>
</li>
</ul>

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