Getting Started with Laravel

Tutorial 1 of 5

Getting Started with Laravel Tutorial

1. Introduction

In this tutorial, we are going to learn how to get started with Laravel, a popular PHP framework for web development. Laravel offers clean, elegant syntax which simplifies tasks such as routing, authentication, sessions, and caching, making the development process more enjoyable and creative.

By the end of this tutorial, you will be able to:
- Install Laravel on your local development environment
- Understand the structure of a Laravel application
- Create basic routes and views

Prerequisites:
- Basic understanding of PHP
- Composer installed on your system (you can download it here)

2. Step-by-Step Guide

Installing Laravel

Firstly, we need to install Laravel. This can be done using Composer, a tool for dependency management in PHP. Open your terminal and type the following command:

composer global require laravel/installer

Creating a New Laravel Project

After installing Laravel, you can create a new Laravel project using the following command:

laravel new projectname

Replace "projectname" with the name you want for your project.

Understanding the Laravel Structure

A Laravel application's directory structure is designed to be familiar to users of other popular PHP frameworks. Here is a brief overview of the structure:

app/ This directory contains the core code of your application.
bootstrap/ This directory contains the scripts that Laravel uses to boot up.
config/ This directory contains all of your application's configuration files.
database/ This directory contains your database migration and seeds.
public/ This directory contains the front-end assets of your application.
resources/ This directory contains your views and localization files.
routes/ This directory contains all of the route definitions for your application.
storage/ This directory contains compiled Blade templates, file caches, and files generated for sessions.
tests/ This directory contains your automated tests.
vendor/ This directory contains your Composer dependencies.

3. Code Examples

Creating a Route

In Laravel, the simplest route is a route to a closure. Below is an example:

Route::get('/', function () {
    return 'Hello, World!';
});

This code tells Laravel to respond with 'Hello, World!' when a user visits the application's root URL.

Creating a View

Views in Laravel are stored in the resources/views directory. Here's an example of a view:

<!-- Stored in resources/views/greeting.blade.php -->
<html>
    <body>
        <h1>Hello, {{ $name }}</h1>
    </body>
</html>

In this view, {{ $name }} is a placeholder for a variable that will be passed from a controller or route.

Returning a View from a Route

Here's how you can return a view from a route:

Route::get('/', function () {
    return view('greeting', ['name' => 'James']);
});

This code will display the 'greeting' view and pass the variable 'name' with the value 'James' to the view.

4. Summary

In this tutorial, we have:

Installed Laravel using Composer
Created a new Laravel project
Explored the Laravel application structure
Created basic routes and views

Next, you may want to learn about controllers, models, and how to interact with a database using Laravel's Eloquent ORM.

5. Practice Exercises

Set up a new Laravel project called 'PracticeProject'.
Create a route '/hello' that returns the text "Hello, Laravel!".
Create a view 'welcome' that displays "Welcome, NAME!", where NAME is a variable passed from the route '/welcome/{name}'.

Solutions

laravel new PracticeProject

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

<!-- Stored in resources/views/welcome.blade.php -->
<html>
    <body>
        <h1>Welcome, {{ $name }}!</h1>
    </body>
</html>

Route::get('/welcome/{name}', function ($name) {
    return view('welcome', ['name' => $name]);
});

Keep practicing and exploring more features of Laravel. Happy coding!