Laravel framework was one of the most widely used PHP frameworks for a long time. It’s sophisticated and scalable and has established itself as one of the standard frameworks for PHP developers and businesses.
The upcoming Laravel 9 will include a ton of new features. New releases occurred every six months, leading to many inquiries, critical remarks, and misunderstandings regarding Laravel’s new release process. Laravel 9 marked the framework’s transition to a 12-month major release cycle.
Laravel: What Is It?
The open-source Laravel PHP web application framework is renowned for its beautiful syntax. It is an MVC framework that adheres to the model-view-controller architectural paradigm and is used to create simple to sophisticated web applications using the PHP programming language. The next LTS version, Laravel 9, will get bug fixes until February 2024 and security fixes through February 2025.
Here are some of the critical elements that we will discuss in-depth,
Key Elements of Laravel:
We’ve chosen a few of the top Laravel features to help you get a better knowledge of this framework if you’re new to it.
1. Minimum PHP Requirement:
With relation to Laravel 9 features, many additional requirements will be stated in the future. The requirements are PHP 8, PHPUnit 9, and others. The Laravel framework requires Symfony 9 and some community-driven libraries. Laravel has to postpone the release of version 9 since Symfony intended to deliver v6.0 by November 2021.
The most recent version of Symfony, v6.0, which depends on PHP 8, is the only component on which Laravel 9 depends. PHP version benchmarks make it possible to see the improvements and features of PHP 8, including function Object() property promotion and the Just-In-Time compiler (JIT).
2. Classes in Anonymous Migration:
When you use the well-known migration command, Laravel is set to introduce anonymous stub migration as the default behaviour. The anonymous stub migration function in Laravel 8.37 addresses the Github issue.
When reconstructing the complete database, problems arise from having several migrations with the same class name. This problem is solved with stub migrations. The default action of the well-known migration command in Laravel is anonymous stub migration. The stub migration feature eliminates collisions in migration class names.
3. New Helper Activities:
Type hinting will be more trustworthy for code completion, static analysis, and refactoring in Laravel 9. Eloquent/Builder, Eloquent/Relation, and Query/Builder do not share any interfaces or inheritances. Developers may utilize a new query builder interface with Laravel 9 to employ type hints, refactoring, and static analysis.
4. The ignition error page has been updated:
Ignition is a gorgeously designed, scalable error page for Laravel apps. The Ignition team has updated Laravel’s error page. To address frequent problems, the team can offer recommendations and documentation. Ignition comes pre-installed in Laravel versions six and above.
Ignition may be installed using Composer for older versions (5.5 and above). All Laravel-specific debug information is presented when you need to go deep. You can openly admit your mistakes if you still want assistance.
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5. Construct a Blade String:
The next addition isn’t something you use frequently, but it is available when you do. Now, a method call may transform a Blade-formatted string to HTML. Laravel Templating engine, Blade, is a potent and attractive tool.
But the blade engine will only compile files prepared with templates. Usually, this is not a significant restriction, but you never know when you might need to compile a string.
6. Obligatory Scope Bindings:
With a straightforward function call, Laravel’s latest version enables you to enforce scope bindings in route declarations. It should improve intent and clarity.
7. Using XDebug, test the coverage:
A PHP Artisan test command has just been introduced by Laravel to launch the suite. Now, this tool’s capability includes the ability to provide code coverage reports.
8. Scout Database Engine for Laravel:
Laravel Scout’s initial target was Algolia. There have, however, been several alternatives created over time. Laravel 9’s new database engine is suitable for small to medium-sized apps.
9. Indexing of all text:
Full-text indexing for MySQL and PostgreSQL is also included in Laravel 9. On your Eloquent builder, new migrations will include the full text() and where full text() methods.
10. Casting Enum Attribute:
Due to PHP 8’s native support for enums, insightful attribute casting to and from enums is now part of Laravel 9.
11. Accessors Mutators Simplified:
Although the get attribute and set attribute APIs provided by Laravel for defining accessors and mutators will not change, a more straightforward method is advised moving forward.
12. String functions for PHP 8:
Because Laravel 9 is compatible with PHP 8, Laravel merged this PR and advised employing PHP 8’s new string capabilities. The methods contain (), str starts with(), and str ends with are used by the class /Illuminate/Support/Str ().
13. Redesigned Query Builder Interface:
Type hinting support for refactoring, static analysis, and code completion is included in Laravel 9’s IDE. There is neither an interface nor an inheritance between Query/Builder, Eloquent/Builder, and Eloquent/Relation. The new query builder interface will still be available to developers using Laravel 9 for type hints, refactoring, and static analysis.
14. Views Per Pagination for Bootstrap 5:
If you’ve ever worked with pagination in your projects, the framework makes it simple to handle it. Manual pagination is no longer necessary, thanks to Laravel’s automated pagination. However, this procedure is made even simpler by Laravel 9.0.
Jared Lewis supplied the pagination views for Bootstrap 5. Bootstrap 5 will be used by Laravel 9 for its pagination view. It has to be invoked in your AppServiceProvider class’s boot function for AppProviders.
15. Selected/Checked Blade Directives:
Ashley Allen and Taylor Otwell provided, reviewed, and chose Blade guidelines. A specific condition had to be entered for the checkbox and dropdown to be selected in the earlier version. To choose data, Laravel’s version 9 has included the @checked and @selected blade components, and it will only do so if a specific condition is satisfied.
16. CLI output:
Another noteworthy aspect of Laravel is its command-line interface (CLI). Without having to go through files and folders, Laravel allows you to build or edit anything. You may communicate with databases through command-line interfaces as well. Version 9 improved it by introducing a new route list design in the command line interface.
Why Upgrade to Laravel 9?
Laravel 8 new features upgraded the laravel framework to build applications more efficiently, but the introduction of the latest version of the framework has the upper hand over Laravel 8. Let’s find out the reasons to choose laravel 9 over laravel 8.
☛ 2.0 Flysystem:
In Laravel 9. x, Flysystem 1. x has been superseded by Flysystem 2. x. All of Capacity’s record modification techniques are the work of Flysystem. As a result, you might need to modify your application.
☛ Syntax Mailer:
Symfony Mailer is replacing SwiftMailer with Laravel 9. x. Laravel aimed to make this change as uniform as possible for your apps. Therefore, it would be excellent if you carefully examined each modification on the list below to ensure your application complies with all requirements.
☛ Null and custom casting:
In earlier versions of Laravel, if the casting property was set to null, the set strategy of custom cast classes was not called. This behaviour conflicts with Laravel documentation. The $value parameter in the set strategy of the casting course in Laravel 9. x is null.
☛ HTTP Client Timeout in Default:
The timeout for HTTP clients is set to 30 seconds by default. An exception will be raised if the server does not respond within 30 seconds. The HTTP client does not yet have a default timeout length, which causes queries to occasionally “hang” forever.
☛ Language Directory:
The resources/lang directory is located in the root project directory of Laravel 9. x apps (lang). Use the app()->langPath() instead of a hard-coded path to publish language files in this directory.
☛ The Password Law:
The password rule has been changed to the current password, which checks to see if the input value corresponds to the confirmed user’s current password. As you may know, different classes throughout the framework include when and unless methods. With these techniques, you can take action contingent upon the result of the first argument.
Conclusion
To give its users the most incredible experience possible, the developers of Laravel 9 consistently work to develop new updated versions each year. They waited two years to introduce Laravel 9, though. You may quickly create web apps with this latest version’s Laravel 9 new features. Take advantage of top-notch Laravel development services if you need help upgrading your application from Laravel 8 to Laravel 9.