PHP needs maturity
In 2011 PHP is still dominated by procedural codebases, templates mixed with logic, dated frameworks (CodeIgniter, CakePHP, Zend Framework 1.x, Symfony 1.x). Missing is a framework that brings the ideas of Ruby on Rails (convention over configuration, eloquent ORM, CLI generator) into the PHP world.
The release
Laravel 1.0 is published on 9 June 2011 by Taylor Otwell, American developer. Initially born as an alternative to CodeIgniter. MIT licence.
Route::get('/users/{id}', function ($id) {
return User::find($id);
});Features
- Eloquent ORM — Active Record pattern, fluent relationships (
$user->posts) - Blade templates — template engine with
@if,@foreach, layout inheritance - Migrations — versioned DB schema with rollback
- Artisan CLI — generator, tasks, custom commands
- Routing — fluent route definitions with middleware
- Service Container — modern DI container
- Events, Queues, Jobs — asynchronous processing
- Authentication scaffolding — login/register out-of-box
- Validation — declarative rules on request
In the Italian context
Laravel is starting to spread in Italy among web agencies, freelancers and SMEs as a modern alternative to CodeIgniter and Zend 1.x. Eloquent and Blade’s simplicity, combined with a strong focus on Developer Experience, make it a promising choice for management systems, B2B portals and custom e-commerce.
References: Laravel 1.0 (9 June 2011). Taylor Otwell. MIT licence. Inspired by Ruby on Rails.