Introduction to Laravel

Why Choose Laravel?

Laravel is widely used because of its clean syntax, built-in features, and developer-friendly environment. Here are some key reasons why Laravel is a popular choice:
✅ Elegant Syntax – Makes coding easier and cleaner.
✅ Built-in Authentication – Simplifies user authentication and security.
✅ Eloquent ORM – Provides an easy way to work with databases.
✅ Blade Templating Engine – Helps create dynamic HTML pages.
✅ MVC Architecture – Organizes code properly for better maintainability.

Step-by-Step Guide to Laravel Introduction

Step 1: Understanding Laravel

Laravel was created by Taylor Otwell in 2011 and has since become one of the most popular PHP frameworks. It is built on PHP and provides a robust set of tools for web development.

🔹 Laravel uses PHP 8+ and Composer (a dependency manager) for installation.
🔹 It provides built-in support for routing, database management, authentication, and more.

Step 2: Installing Laravel

To start using Laravel, follow these steps:

1️⃣ Install Composer (Dependency Manager)

Download and install Composer from getcomposer.org.

2️⃣ Install Laravel via Composer
Open your terminal and run:

composer create-project --prefer-dist laravel/laravel my_project

This will install Laravel and set up the project.

3️⃣ Navigate to Your Project Folder

cd my_project

4️⃣ Start Laravel’s Development Server

php artisan serve

Step 3: Laravel Directory Structure

Once installed, Laravel’s project has a structured directory:

📂 app/ – Contains models, controllers, and middleware.
📂 routes/ – Stores all application routes (web.php, api.php).
📂 resources/views/ – Holds Blade templates for frontend views.
📂 database/ – Manages migrations and database seeding.
📂 public/ – Stores public assets like CSS, JavaScript, and images.

Step 4: Creating a Simple Route in Laravel

Laravel uses routes to define application URLs. You can define a basic route in routes/web.php:

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Route;

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

Step 5: Creating a Controller in Laravel

Instead of writing logic in routes, Laravel encourages using controllers.

1️⃣ Create a Controller
Run the following command to generate a new controller:

php artisan make:controller MyController

2️⃣ Define a Method in the Controller (app/Http/Controllers/MyController.php)

namespace App\Http\Controllers;

use Illuminate\Http\Request;

class MyController extends Controller
{
    public function welcome()
    {
        return "Welcome to Laravel!";
    }
}

3️⃣ Connect Controller to a Route (routes/web.php)

use App\Http\Controllers\MyController;

Route::get('/welcome', [MyController::class, 'welcome']);

4️⃣ Test in Browser: Visit http://127.0.0.1:8000/welcome, and you should see:
"Welcome to Laravel!"

Conclusion

Laravel is an efficient and powerful PHP framework that makes web development easier with built-in tools for routing, database management, authentication, and templating.

✅ Next Steps: Learn about Blade templating, database migrations, and Eloquent ORM for better Laravel development.

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