laravel

Laravel - A Clean & Classy PHP Framework

Introduction

Laravel is a clean and classy framework for PHP web development. Freeing you from spaghetti code, Laravel helps you create wonderful applications using simple, expressive syntax. Development should be a creative experience that you enjoy, not something that is painful. Enjoy the fresh air.

Table Of Contents

Getting Started

• Requirements & Installation
• Basic Configuration
• Routes
• Views & Responses
• Generating URLs
• Generating HTML
• Errors & Logs

Input

• Retrieving Input
• Cookies
• Validation
• Building Forms

Database

• Configuration
• Usage
• Fluent Query Builder
• Eloquent ORM

Caching

• Configuration
• Usage

Sessions

• Configuration
• Usage

Authentication

• Configuration
• Usage

Other Topics

• Localization
• Encryption

Requirements & Installation

Requirements

• Apache, nginx, or another compatible web server.
• PHP 5.3+ (which supports namespaces, closures, etc.)

Installation

1. Download Laravel
2. Extract the Laravel archive and upload the contents to your web server.
3. Set the URL of your application in the application/config/application.php file.
4. Navigate to your application in a web browser.

If all is well, you should see a pretty Laravel splash page. Get ready, there is lots more to learn!

Extras

Installaing the following goodies will help you take full advantage of Laravel, but they are not required:

• SQLite, MySQL, or PostgreSQL PDO drivers.
• Memcached or APC.

Problems?

• Make sure the public directory is the document root of your web server.
• If you are using mod_rewrite, set the index option in application/config/application.php to an empty string.

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Basic Configuration

Quick Start

When starting a new project, you shouldn't be bombarded with loads of confusing configuration decisions. For that reason, Laravel is intelligently configured out of the box. The application/config/application.php file contains the basic configuration options for your application.

There is only one option that must be set when starting a new application. Laravel needs to know the URL you will use to access your application. Simply set the url in the application/config/application.php file:

'url' => 'http://localhost';

Note: If you are using mod_rewrite for cleaner URLs, you should set the index option to an empty string.

Cleaner URLs

Most likely, you do not want your application URLs to contain "index.php". You can remove it using HTTP rewrite rules. If you are using Apache to serve your application, make sure to enable mod_rewrite and create a .htaccess file like this one in your public directory:

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
     RewriteEngine on

     RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
     RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d

     RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php/$1 [L]
</IfModule>

Is the .htaccess file above not working for you? Try this one:

Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine on

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d

RewriteRule . index.php [L]

After setting up HTTP rewriting, you should set the index configuration option in application/config/application.php to an empty string.

Note: Each web server has a different method of doing HTTP rewrites, and may require a slightly different .htaccess file.

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Defining Routes

• The Basics
• Route URI Parameters
• Route Filters
• Named Routes
• Organizing Routes

The Basics

Unlike other PHP frameworks, Laravel places routes and their corresponding functions in one file: application/routes.php. This file contains the "definition", or public API, of your application. To add functionality to your application, you add to the array located in this file.

All you need to do is tell Laravel the request methods and URIs it should respond to. You define the behavior of the route using an anonymous method:

'GET /home' => function()
{
    // Handles GET requests to http://example.com/index.php/home
},

'PUT /user/update' => function()
{
    // Handles PUT requests to http://example.com/index.php/user/update
}

You can easily define a route to handle requests to more than one URI. Just use commas:

'POST /, POST /home' => function()
{
    // Handles POST requests to http://example.com and http://example.com/index.php/home
}

Note: The routes.php file replaces the "controllers" found in most frameworks. Have a fat model and keep this file light and clean. Thank us later.

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Route URI Parameters

Laravel makes passing URI parameters to your route functions a breeze. Check out this route:

'PUT /user/(:num)' => function($id) {}

Notice the (:num) parameter in the URI? This tells Laravel to allow any numeric value in the second segment of the URI, as well as to pass the segment into the method.

We can also use the (:any) parameter to match the segment to any value:

'DELETE /product/(:any)' => function($name) {}

Of course, you are not limited to one parameter:

'GET /post/(:num)/(:num)' => function($month, $day) {}

Sometimes you may wish to make a parameter optional. You can do so by placing a ? in parameter:

'GET /branch/(:any?)' => function($branch = 'master') {}

If you need more power and precision (or just want to be extra nerdy), you can even use regular expressions:

'GET /product/([0-9]+)' => function($id) {}

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