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PHP frameworks such as Laravel have been a popular choice for years. Elegant, scalable, it's now often called the de facto framework for companies and developers who work with PHP. The latest version, Laravel 9, has many new features.
Laravel used to release new versions every six months, which caused questions, harsh comments, and confusion about the new release process. Following the release of Laravel 9 in February 2022, the framework will now release major updates every 12 months.
In this article, we examine the key features of Laravel 9. In addition to that, we'll cover how to upgrade to Laravel 9 and begin developing web applications.
Several community-developed packages are incorporated into the framework along with nine Symfony components. A new version of Symfony will be released in November. Due to this delay, Laravel 9.0 will not be released until 2022.
Due to the delay, our underlying Symfony components will be able be upgraded to Symfony 6.0 without having to wait until September 2022. Furthermore, we will always follow Symfony's annual releases by two months, which puts us in a better position for future releases.
Below are the tentative dates of upcoming releases, taken from the releases support policy documentation:
Version PHP (*) Release Until Bug Fixes Up to now: security fixes
6 (LTS) 7.2 - 8.0 September 3rd, 2019 January 25th, 2022 September 6th, 2022
7 7.2 - 8.0 March 3rd, 2020 October 6th, 2020 March 3rd, 2021
8 7.3 - 8.1 September 8th, 2020 July 26th, 2022 January 24th, 2023
9 (LTS) 8.0 - 8.1 February 8th, 2022 February 8th, 2024 February 8th, 2025
10 8.0 - 8.1 February 7th, 2023 August 7th, 2024 February 7th, 2025
Long-term support for Laravel 9 will continue through February 2024, and security fixes will last through February 2025.
Our guide to Laravel features will help you understand it better if you're new to it.
There are separate lists of features for Laravel such as "Automatic pagination" and "Support for database migration.โ
Eloquent ORM
Object-relational mapping (ORM) for Laravel is called Eloquent, and it's one of the best aspects of Laravel, as it provides seamless connections with data models and databases.
Laravel's eloquent abstraction lets you interact with your database without having to write complex SQL queries.
Artisan CLI
Another key component of Laravel is its command line. The command line allows you to create or modify any part of Laravel without going through any files or folders.
Laravel Tinker, which comes with Artisan, lets you interact directly with your database โ all without installing a database client.
An MVC-Based Architecture
Laravel's architecture follows a common web development pattern and is continually improving, making it a relatable and adaptable language.
With Laravel, you'll have to learn and master the MVC architectural pattern, which is popular in almost every framework, such as AdonisJS from JavaScript and ASP.NET MVC from C#.
Using Automatic Pagination
You understand the value of a built-in framework for pagination if you have ever struggled with it in your applications.
Automatic pagination is built into Laravel right out of the box, so you don't have to worry about it. It eliminates the need to deal with the pagination mystery on your own, and it is one of the company's most popular features.
Security
If you're considering using a web application, you should thoroughly research the security measures, as a lack of due diligence can lead to the loss of funds or the hijacking of your site or product.
Because of its adherence to the OWASP security principles, Laravel comes with many security measures. Laravel has built-in solutions for CSRF and SQL injection, among other security issues.
There are a number of new features in Laravel 9 you might be wondering about, so here is a quick list.
Laravel 9 now provides route lists, which were much needed in previous versions. The console had a hard time managing large routes.
Migrations that use anonymous stubs default in Laravel's latest version.
A new theme in Laravel 9 makes an exceptional page. The exponential option allows you to customize or choose available themes according to your preference.
Developers can work more efficiently with Laravel 9 thanks to the New Query Builder Interface.
With Laravel 9, a number of features required by Laravel 8 have been added, such as support for Symfony 6.0. With Flysystem 3.0, the performance has been improved over previous versions.
Laravel 9 has been designed in an effort to solve the bugs and usability issues encountered in the past.
Originally scheduled to be released by September 2021, Laravel 9 is the first Long Term Support (LTS) release in a 12-month cycle. This release has been pushed back to January 2022.
Accordingly, the release date was pushed forward due to the factors listed below: due to these factors, the release date was pushed forward.
In addition to community-oriented and Symfony libraries, Laravel relies on v6.0 from Symfony, so the Laravel team delayed the release of Laravel 9.
In addition to testing and monitoring against any breaking changes before release, upgrading Laravel to Symfony will take some time and a considerable amount of testing.
Lastly, delaying the release of Laravel 9 until January 2022 will better position the Laravel team for rolling out subsequent LTS annually, giving them two months to do so after Symfony releases its LTS. Let's look at the new Laravel v9 before it's released in January 2022, knowing now the reasons for the changes.
What we can expect from Laravel v9 by January 2022 is the following new features and improvements:
An absolute minimum requirement for PHP
Because Laravel 9 will require Symfony 6.0, which has a minimum PHP 8 requirement, it will carry the same limitations.
Redesign of routes: list
The routes: list command has been in Laravel for a while, and it can sometimes be a bit of a hassle to view the routes in the console if they are huge and complex.
Migration of anonymous stubs
The popular migration command in Laravel 9 now supports defaulting to anonymous stub migrations. Laravel 8.37 introduced this useful feature, aimed at solving the GITHUB issue.
In what way does this issue arise? Multiple migrations with the same class name can cause problems when creating a database from scratch. This feature eliminates all problems associated with class name collisions on the fly.
Thanks to Laravel 8.37, migration files for anonymous classes are now supported. When Laravel 9 launches and PHP artisan make: migration is executed, the same behavior will be observed as well.
Synatx:
use Illuminate\Database\Migrations\Migration;
use Illuminate\Database\Schema\Blueprint;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Schema;
return new class extends Migration {
/**
* Run the migrations.
*
* @return void
*/
public function up()
{
Schema::table('users', function (Blueprint $table)
$table->string('first_name')->nullable();
});
}
};
Interface for the Query Builder
The Query Builder Interface is being enhanced in Laravel 9, and you can read more about it at this merged PR.
The need for a shared interface or legacy among Query/Builder, Eloquent/Builder, and Eloquent/Relation can be problematic for developers who rely on sort insights for static analysis, refactoring, or code completion in their IDE.
Synatx :
return Model::query()
->whereNotExists(function($query) {
// $query is a Query\Builder
})
->whereHas('relation', function($query) {
// $query is an Eloquent\Builder
->with('relation', function($query) {
// $query is an Eloquent\Relation
With this version, Illuminate added a new Illuminate/Contracts/Database/QueryBuilder interface. In place of the old __call magic method, the trait Illuminate/Database/Eloquent/Concerns/DecoratesQueryBuilder implements the new interface.
String Functions in PHP 8
/Illuminate/Support/Str class uses str_contains(), str_starts_with(), and str_ends_with() functions internally due to PHP 8 being the least supported. Tom Schlick acknowledged that a PR had been submitted to move to this approach in the upcoming PHP 8 release.
Above are a few of the features and improvements in Laravel 9. Many bugs will be fixed, as well as new features and, of course, many breaking changes.
Symfony Mailer Replaces Swift Mailer
The Symfony Mailer was deprecated in Laravel 9 and replaced with the Symfony Mailer. The PR includes more information about the breaking changes as a result.
Installation Guide for Laravel 9!!!
Using your local device, you can easily install and run Laravel 9 for development and testing purposes. PHP v8 is the only engine Laravel supports. Before installation or testing, make sure your PHP version is up-to-date. It is easier to cleanly remove the existing version and begin a new installation.
If you execute the above command, you can create a new Laravel project named laravel-9-dev, which will use the latest version of Laravel 9, which is still under development. Installation is as follows:
Command:
composer create-project --prefer-dist laravel/laravel laravel-9-dev test-laravel9
The Laravel Installer can also be added as a global composer dependency:
laravel new laravel-9-dev test-laravel9
Using the artisan command, you can check the current version of Laravel 9 after you install it in the new directory.
cd dev-laravel9
PHP artisan --version
Having the best solution for your users is the ultimate goal of Laravel 9's creators, which is why they always come up with new updated versions every year. It took them two years for Laravel 9. You can easily develop web apps with the new features in Laravel 9 in this version. We can assist you in upgrading your Laravel 8 application to Laravel 9 if you hire us as a Laravel developer and utilize our top-of-the-line Laravel app development services. For all further questions, hire the best laravel developer in India - Orion Infosolutions from one of the top-rated laravel development company India.
DC Kumawat is the CEO of Orion InfoSolutions, a leading provider of IT solutions to businesses of all sizes. He has over 14+ years of experience in the IT industry. He is a passionate advocate for the use of technology to improve business performance.