If you’re stepping into the world of modern PHP development, there’s no better place to start than with Laravel. Laravel is one of the most popular PHP frameworks today because of its elegant syntax, robust features, and supportive community. In this detailed tutorial, we’ll take you step by step from installation to building a basic web application with Laravel.
Whether you’re new to PHP frameworks or just exploring Laravel for the first time, this laravel basics guide is written like a professional tutorial script. By the end, you’ll have a clear understanding of Laravel’s core concepts and the confidence to build your own projects.
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Laravel is an open-source PHP web framework created by Taylor Otwell. It follows the MVC (Model-View-Controller) architectural pattern and makes PHP development enjoyable, readable, and efficient. Its syntax is expressive, and it provides tools for routing, authentication, database management, and much more.
Before diving into Laravel basics, let’s understand why Laravel stands out compared to other frameworks:
To get started with Laravel, you’ll need to set up your development environment. Laravel requires PHP, Composer, and a database (like MySQL).
Ensure you have PHP 8.x installed. Run the following command to check:
php -vComposer is PHP’s dependency manager. Laravel relies on Composer to manage its dependencies.
composer -VYou can use MySQL, MariaDB, or PostgreSQL. For simplicity, let’s use MySQL. Install MySQL and start the server.
Once PHP and Composer are ready, you can install Laravel in two ways: via Composer’s create-project command or Laravel Installer.
composer create-project laravel/laravel laravel-basicscomposer global require laravel/installer
laravel new laravel-basicsNavigate to your project folder:
cd laravel-basics
php artisan serveOpen http://127.0.0.1:8000 to see your Laravel welcome page.
Laravel comes with a pre-built folder structure that organizes code neatly:
| Folder | Purpose |
|---|---|
app/ | Contains models, controllers, and core logic. |
routes/ | Holds route definitions (web.php, api.php). |
resources/views | Blade templates (UI files). |
database/ | Migrations, seeders, and factories. |
public/ | Frontend assets like CSS, JS, and images. |
Routes define how requests are handled. They live inside routes/web.php.
// routes/web.php
Route::get('/hello', function () {
return 'Hello, Laravel!';
});
// routes/web.php
use App\Http\Controllers\HomeController;
Route::get('/home', [HomeController::class, 'index']);
Controllers organize your request handling logic.
php artisan make:controller HomeController
// app/Http/Controllers/HomeController.php
namespace App\Http\Controllers;
use Illuminate\Http\Request;
class HomeController extends Controller
{
public function index() {
return view('home');
}
}
Blade templates allow you to write dynamic HTML with ease.
<!-- resources/views/home.blade.php -->
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>Home Page</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1>{{ $title }}</h1>
<p>Welcome to Laravel!</p>
</body>
</html>Laravel migrations allow you to define your database schema in code.
php artisan make:migration create_posts_table --create=posts
// database/migrations/xxxx_xx_xx_create_posts_table.php
public function up()
{
Schema::create('posts', function (Blueprint $table) {
$table->id();
$table->string('title');
$table->text('content');
$table->timestamps();
});
}
Database seeders populate tables with dummy data.
php artisan make:seeder PostsTableSeeder
// database/seeders/PostsTableSeeder.php
use Illuminate\Database\Seeder;
use App\Models\Post;
class PostsTableSeeder extends Seeder
{
public function run()
{
Post::create([
'title' => 'First Post',
'content' => 'This is a seeded post.'
]);
}
}
Eloquent ORM lets you interact with the database using models.
php artisan make:model Post
use App\Models\Post;
$posts = Post::all();
Let’s build a CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete) application for posts.
Route::resource('posts', PostController::class);
php artisan make:controller PostController --resourceCreate Blade templates for index, create, edit, and show.
Artisan is Laravel’s command-line interface. Some useful commands:
| Command | Purpose |
|---|---|
php artisan serve | Start development server |
php artisan migrate | Run migrations |
php artisan make:model | Create a model |
php artisan route:list | View all routes |
Congratulations! You’ve taken your first step into modern PHP development with Laravel. From installing Laravel to creating routes, controllers, Blade templates, migrations, and a CRUD application, you’ve learned the foundation of building Laravel applications.
Next, you can explore advanced topics like authentication, middleware, APIs, queues, and testing in Laravel. As you continue learning, the Laravel documentation and community will be your best resources.
Happy coding with Laravel!
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