How To Create A Functional Website With Laravel Framework

To create a functional website using the Laravel framework, you can follow these steps:

Install Laravel: Start by installing Laravel on your local development environment. You’ll need PHP and Composer installed on your machine.

You can follow the official Laravel documentation for detailed installation instructions.

Set up a new Laravel project: Once Laravel is installed, use the Laravel CLI tool to create a new project.

Open your terminal and navigate to the directory where you want to create your project, then run the following command:

composer create-project --prefer-dist laravel/laravel project-name

Replace “project-name” with the desired name of your project. This command will create a new Laravel project in the specified directory.

Configure the database: Laravel uses an underlying database to store and retrieve data. Open the .env file in the root directory of your project and configure your database settings such as DB_HOST, DB_PORT, DB_DATABASE, DB_USERNAME, and DB_PASSWORD.

Create and migrate the database tables: Laravel provides a migration system that allows you to create and modify database tables using PHP code. To create a new migration file, run the following command:

php artisan make:migration create_table_name

Replace “table_name” with the desired name for your table. This command will create a new migration file in the database/migrations directory.

Open the migration file and define the table schema using Laravel’s fluent API or the Schema builder.

Once the migration file is created, run the migration command to create the table in the database:

php artisan migrate

Create routes: Laravel uses routes to handle incoming HTTP requests and map them to appropriate actions. Open the routes/web.php file and define your routes.

For example, you can create a route that maps to a controller method:

Route::get('/example', 'ExampleController@index');

This route will map the /example URL to the index method of the ExampleController.

Create controllers: Controllers handle the logic behind your application’s routes. Create a new controller by running the following command:

php artisan make:controller ExampleController

This command will generate a new controller file in the app/Http/Controllers directory. Open the controller file and define the desired methods to handle your routes.

Create views: Views are responsible for displaying the HTML content of your website. By convention, Laravel uses the Blade templating engine.

Create a new view file in the resources/views directory with the .blade.php extension. You can use Blade’s syntax to embed PHP code and display dynamic content.

Link routes, controllers, and views: Connect your routes to the corresponding controller methods and views. In your controller method, return the view you created earlier using the view() helper function.

For example:

public function index()
{
    return view('example');
}

This code will return the example.blade.php view when the corresponding route is accessed.

Start the development server: To see your Laravel application in action, start the development server by running the following command:

php artisan serve

This will start a local development server, and you can access your website by visiting http://localhost:8000 in your browser.

These steps provide a basic overview of creating a functional website using the Laravel framework. As you progress, you can explore additional features of Laravel, such as authentication, database querying, form handling, and more, to enhance your website further.