Laravel 11 is now available!

Laravel 11Launched on March 12, 2024, it marks a significant update to the Laravel framework, introducing a number of new features and enhancements aimed at improving the development experience and application performance. Focused on efficiency, security and real-time web application development, Laravel 11 introduces several key improvements and introduces Laravel ReverbA new WebSocket server for real-time communication.

Laravel Support Policy

Laravel’s support policy ensures that developers receive timely updates, bug fixes, and security patches for their applications. As per policy, Laravel provides 18 months of bug fix support and 2 years of security fix support for each major release. This structured approach to version support allows developers to efficiently plan upgrade paths that keep their applications secure and up-to-date.

Laravel 9 has reached end of life

PHP 8.2 requirement for Laravel 11 With the release of Laravel 11, a significant change has been made to the PHP version requirement. Laravel 11 mandate PHP 8.2

As a minimal version, it aligns the framework with the latest features, performance improvements, and security enhancements offered by PHP 8.2. This decision underscores Laravel’s commitment to using the most modern and powerful technologies that enable developers to create highly efficient, secure and innovative applications.

PHP 8.2 introduces a number of new features and optimizations that can greatly benefit Laravel applications. These include improvements to object-oriented programming, new types and attributes that promote better coding practices, and performance improvements that can lead to faster application performance. By requiring PHP 8.2, Laravel ensures that all applications built on this version will take advantage of these improvements, resulting in more reliable and efficient web solutions.

Developers planning to upgrade to Laravel 11 or start new projects with it should ensure that their server environment is updated to PHP 8.2. This update not only promotes compatibility with Laravel 11, but also positions applications to benefit from active PHP support, including security fixes and performance optimizations.

Simplified directory structure Kernel.php Laravel 11 simplifies its directory structure, reducing initial complexity for developers. It is worth noting bootstrap/app.php The files have been removed and the middleware can now be added directly

<?php

use Illuminate\Foundation\Application;
use Illuminate\Foundation\Configuration\Exceptions;
use Illuminate\Foundation\Configuration\Middleware;

return Application::configure(basePath: dirname(__DIR__))
    ->withRouting(
        web: __DIR__.'/../routes/web.php',
        commands: __DIR__.'/../routes/console.php',
        health: '/up',
    )
    ->withMiddleware(function (Middleware $middleware) {
        //
    })
    ->withExceptions(function (Exceptions $exceptions) {
        //
    })->create();

app.php config The

• config/broadcasting.php
• config/cors.php
• config/hashing.php
• config/sanctum.php
• config/view.php

The directory has been shrunk by removing some files that were previously included in Laravel 10, such as: routes The

• routes/api.php
• routes/channel.php
• routes/console.php

The directory was also cleaned up a bit by deleting:

Eager Load Limit

class User extends Model
{
    public function posts()
    {
        return $this->hasMany(Post::class);
    }
}

class Post extends Model
{
    // ...
}

$users = User::with(['posts' => function ($query) {
    $query->latest()->limit(10); 
}])->get();

Introducing an optional load limit feature allows developers to efficiently query related models without overloading the system with unnecessary data. This feature optimizes the data loading process, making it possible to limit the number of loaded records, which improves the performance of the application. In previous versions of Laravel, you needed to install a separate package for eager load limit.

Model casts as methods

use App\Enums\UserOption;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Casts\AsEnumCollection;
 
// ...
 
/**
 * Get the attributes that should be cast.
 *
 * @return array<string, string>
 */
protected function casts(): array
{
    return [
        'email_verified_at' => 'datetime',
        'password' => 'hashed',
        'options' => AsEnumCollection::of(UserOption::class),
    ];
}

Laravel 11 allows defining casts as methods in model classes, offering more flexibility in how data is cast when retrieving or storing data in the database. This method-based approach provides a clearer and more dynamic way of passing data, which enhances the overall readability and maintainability of the code. $cast By comparison, in Laravel 10 the role of this model was defined using

protected $casts = [
    'options' => AsEnumCollection::class.':'.UserOption::class,
];

array property, but you won’t be able to call static methods.

Laravel Reverb: Real-Time Communication Laravel Reverb

It stands out as one of the most interesting additions in Laravel 11, offering a first-party WebSocket server that facilitates real-time communication between the client and the server. Reverb is designed for high performance, capable of supporting thousands of simultaneous connections without the inefficiencies of HTTP requests. It seamlessly integrates with Laravel’s existing broadcast capabilities and is designed for scalability with support for horizontal scaling using Redis. This makes it a solid solution for developers looking to incorporate real-time features into their apps, such as live chat, notifications, and dynamic content updates.

Reverb is optimized for speed and seamlessly integrates with Laravel Forge for deployment, offering built-in monitoring support with Pulse. Using the Pusher protocol provides compatibility with Laravel Broadcast and Laravel Echo, making it easier to develop interesting and interactive web applications.

Practical implementation and scaling

Implementing Laravel Reverb involves installing the package, configuring it according to your project requirements, and integrating its optimizations to improve your application. Testing and validating these integrations is critical to ensuring that real-time features perform as expected. It is also recommended to monitor application performance post-deployment to identify and resolve any potential bottlenecks.

New Craftsman Orders

Laravel 11’s new Artisan commands are a boon to developer productivity, greatly reducing the boilerplate code required when adding new application components. With commands to generate classes, enumerations, interfaces, and properties, developers can now build new parts of their application with minimal effort. These commands are designed to simplify the development process, allowing for faster setup and structuring of application logic and data representation. By using these commands, developers can follow best practices in code organization and maintenance, ensuring their code base is clean and well-structured. php artisan make:enum For example, implementation php artisan make:interface Simplifies the creation of enums, which are useful for defining sets of named constants. Enums can make your code more readable and less error-prone by limiting the values ​​of a variable. similarly, php artisan make:trait and

Commands support SOLID principles by encouraging the use of interfaces to define contracts within an application and sharing methods across classes.

Health route and APP_KEY rotation /up The

The health route and APP_KEY rotation function are critical to maintaining the security and reliability of Laravel applications. A health route provides an easy way to verify that your application is working and responsive, making it invaluable for uptime monitoring and alerting systems. By integrating this route, developers can easily set up health checks that monitor the application’s status, quickly detect and respond to any outages. APP_KEY The APP_KEY rotation feature addresses a common security problem by allowing secure rotation of an application’s encryption key without risking data loss. In previous versions of Laravel, it changes APP_PREVIOUS_KEYS Could result in inaccessible data due to encryption dependencies on this key. Laravel 11 introduces a more flexible approach that allows the decryption of old data specified in previous keys

An environment variable with the current key when encrypting new data. This feature is necessary to maintain high security standards, as regularly rotating keys can protect against certain types of cryptographic attacks without losing access to encrypted data.

Install Laravel 11

If you are looking to install a fresh Laravel 11 installation, simply follow the normal procedures for installing Laravel manually or via Softaculous.

How to upgrade to Laravel 11 There are two routes you can take to upgrade to Laravel 11. You can update manually with the following Laravel Upgrade Guide or pay Laravel Shift

To automate the upgrade process.

conclusion

Laravel Hosting