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Time and again, statistics have placed Laravel framework as the most popular framework for PHP.
This popularity is only reflective of the PHP developers’ choice when it comes to choosing an ideal framework. So why are Laravel developers finding this framework so popular when there are so many other frameworks to choose from? A one-point answer to this would certainly be hard given the numerous factors that make Laravel a trending framework. Also, newer versions of Laravel have been making the web application development task of the developers much easier, and thereby contributing to its higher acceptance. The latest version of the framework is Laravel 5.1. All that said, it would be more appropriate for us to take a comprehensive approach in knowing more of about Laravel, its trends, its future and why it is the best PHP framework.
Laravel framework, its features
It’s a web application framework that is free and an open source. It enables development of web applications following the Model-View-Controller (MVC) architectural pattern, which helps in effectively relating the user interface to data models. As Laravel offers a great written and tested functionality, cleaner syntax, form model binding, powerful object-relational mapping(ORM) and integrated URLs, it rose to such a heightened popularity..
Speaking of the syntax part of Laravel CSRF token would be added to forms, form can be auto filled in an easy manner, and the code stays consistent. Beyond this, plenty of features in Laravel contribute in making Laravel a very famous PHP framework. While the Bundles offer a modular packaging system, Query builder presents a direct database access.
Likewise, Application logic, reverse routing, restful controllers, view composers, class autoloading, blade templating engine, migrations and database seeding perform their respective tasks in an extremely efficient manner. While some, or even many, of the mentioned features do exist in other frameworks, but in comparison, it is Laravel that wins the race.
How does Laravel fare when compared to other frameworks?
Many of the Laravel development services owe their interest in Laravel to its strengths when compared to other frameworks. Be it the highly helpful official documentation, its solid conceptual design, its easy learning curve, easy process of creating RESTful APIs, a large community support, its reliability, good learning resources – all make it the most sought after framework.
Any Laravel developer will find it awesome when writing the code. With Laravel’s support of user authentication, stack trace, asset management and templating, the documentation process is further made easier.
Is Laravel a secure framework?
It is a common knowledge that any web application developed has to be secure enough. It is important to tackle various attacks including the SQL injection, used to attack data-driven applications. So is Laravel equipped enough to handle this? Of course, Yes! Laravel addresses this security concerns by the following means.
The framework uses hashed passwords. It puts to use Bcrypt hashing algorithm and, therefore, the passwords are encrypted. Injection attacks are prevented by using the prepared SQL statements. Added to this, Laravel community continues to be highly responsive to any reports in relation to bugs. Numerous other security issues are addressed using various procedures like configuration, user authentication and manually logging in users. Some of the other security processes include protecting routes, HTTP basic authentication, password reminders and resets, etc.
Future of Laravel
The future of Laravel can only be said to be promising. With the release of new versions, continuing its popularity among Laravel developers is easier for Laravel framework and its contributors. The latest version is Laravel 5.1, which is set to support PSR-2 coding style.
To the delight of the PHP community, this new version gets an upgraded built-in testing capabilities, event broadcasting, middleware parameters, artisan command improvements, a better way to handle folder structures, and so on. These new improvements made to the existing Laravel 5.0 will only add to its popularity.
