What Is Laravel?
Laravel is a PHP framework for building web applications with a clear structure and reusable tools. It includes routing, a dependency injection container, database migrations, Eloquent ORM, validation, queues, caching, authentication options, and a templating engine called Blade.
This guide introduces the core workflow for a new Laravel 13 project. Before following commands, check the official Laravel 13 documentation for the current PHP requirement and installation instructions, because framework requirements can change between releases.
Create and Run a Laravel Project
Install a supported PHP version, Composer, and the required PHP extensions for your operating system. Then use the Laravel installer or Composer command recommended by the official documentation to create a new application. Move into the project directory, configure the environment file, and set a valid database connection before running migrations.
Start the local development server using the command provided by your Laravel setup. Open the local address shown in the terminal. Keep local credentials in the environment file and never commit real secrets to Git.
Understand the Project Structure
The app directory contains application code such as models, providers, and business logic. The routes directory defines URL endpoints. The resources directory contains Blade views and front-end source assets. The database directory contains migrations, factories, and seeders. The config directory stores application configuration, while public is the web server's document root.
Knowing where code belongs makes a project easier to maintain. Keep controllers focused on handling HTTP requests and move complex business rules into appropriate services or domain classes when the application grows.
Create a Route, Controller and Blade View
Routes connect a URL and HTTP method to application behavior. For a simple page, define a GET route in routes/web.php and return a Blade view. For larger features, generate a controller and point the route to a controller method. Use named routes so links can refer to route names instead of hard-coded paths.
Blade supports layouts, reusable components, conditionals, loops, and escaped output. Prefer escaped Blade output for user-provided text. Avoid rendering untrusted input as raw HTML.
Work with Migrations and Eloquent
Migrations describe database schema changes in version-controlled PHP files. Create a migration for a table, define its columns and constraints, and run the migration in your development environment. Use seeders or factories to create repeatable sample data for development and tests.
Eloquent models represent database records and provide relationships such as hasMany and belongsTo. Define relationships explicitly, validate incoming data, and protect models from unintended mass assignment. Use eager loading when listing related records to avoid unnecessary query repetition.
Validate Requests and Test Your Application
Validate incoming form data on the server, even when browser-side validation is present. For larger forms, use dedicated Form Request classes to keep validation and authorization rules organized. Return clear validation errors and handle exceptional cases consistently.
Write feature tests for important user journeys: successful submissions, invalid data, unauthenticated requests, and users who lack permission. Run tests before merging changes. Also review logs and browser/network responses while developing.
What to Learn Next
After the fundamentals, explore authentication, authorization policies, API resources, queues, events, caching, file storage, notifications, and deployment. Learn Git workflows and basic database indexing as your projects become more complex.
Use the official Laravel documentation as the source of truth for version-specific behavior. Build a small project such as a task manager or inventory app to practice the complete cycle from database design to deployment.
