Laravel is one of the most preferred open-source PHP frameworks for web application development. Laravel development is easy to do, with some unparalleled benefits for developers. We asked five Laravel experts to discuss about Laravel and its features and benefits and they happily agreed to offer some insightful information and knowledge that you would love to have. Christoph Rumpel, Shawn McCool, Jason McCreary, Usama Hafeez and Irina Gataullina are here to offer you some informative tips and techniques for Laravel development. Dive into the ocean of knowledge.
Laravel Expert# 1: Christoph Rumpel
What is your number one tip for a Laravel Beginner?
Start slow. Laravel is a big framework that suits a lot of different needs. It comes with many features and additional multiple packages for authentication, queue monitoring, scaffolding, etc.
Suppose you try to check that all out in your first project; it will be overwhelming for sure. Instead, try to start simple and try out new things step by step with every new project.
What is more special in Laravel compared to other Frameworks?
There are two aspects of Laravel where it stands out. First, the documentation is just stunning. It’s just crazy how much of a difference good documentation can make.
Taylor Otwell spends two weeks every year reading through it all and improves it where needed. I admire this love of details, and it pays off.
Second, the Laravel community is one of its kind. It is so welcoming and friendly and therefore growing so fast. You immediately feel like you belong here.
You might think that a friendly community is nothing special, but sadly it is in the PHP world.
Your thoughts on the best parts of being a programmer.
For me, programming is like being an architect who can also bring his designs to reality. A programmer can code applications from scratch to finish on his own.
It gives you a lot of power, and I love the creativity it takes to build reliable and modern applications.
What do you enjoy the most about Laravel?
Laravel is excellent to build state-of-the-art applications fast and gives you the flexibility to make it suitable for all kinds of applications, from small to enterprise ones.
What are your must have Mobile Apps?
Currently, I enjoy Clubhouse a lot. I like how simple it is to use and that it only supports audio. A good alternative right now to all the video calls and chats I have to use for work.
Laravel Expert# 2: Shawn McCool
What is your number one tip for a Laravel beginner?My number one tip for beginners is to pay special attention to the idioms of media. With Laravel it’s possible to develop in any number of ways but the developer is guided down a few “paths of least resistance”. Developing “the Laravel way” is development in the idiom of Laravel. It’s not necessary to do so, but by observing the nature of the medium we can better understand our tools. The same concept can be applied to code that runs in the browser. The web is important and is a focal point for many technologies with many use cases. In a best case scenario, these technologies are developed in accordance with the idiom of the web. When we override the idiomatic web experience we can disrupt the important ecosystem of web consumers. It’s never too late to begin observing the idioms under our responsibility.
What is more special in Laravel compared to other Frameworks?
It may not be immediately obvious but Laravel is a content management system. Laravel eases the task of making applications at any level of complexity. But, encoded within its DNA is the ability to manipulate data types with such fluency and ease that the entire CMS agency industry has been rocked to its core.
Everyone is transitioning to Laravel as their preferred tooling for both basic content management and more complex applications. It’s undeniable that there are many aspects of Laravel with high appeal, including its aesthetic beauty. But, for my money, Laravel’s ability to empower significantly different kinds of organizations doing significantly different kinds of things is undeniably special.
Your thoughts on the best parts of being a programmer.
I love building new ways of interacting with my computer. My computer’s interface consists of hundreds of small tools that I’ve built over the past years. The interface is built for me and it’s unique in all the world. That isn’t something for business; it’s self-expression. Expressing myself through development will always be the largest motivator for me.
What do you enjoy the most about Laravel?
I spend a lot of time and focus on how I model my systems’ back end. I experiment with different architectures and approaches. My favorite part of Laravel is how it just.. gets out of my way and lets me focus on the thing that’s interesting at the time. Maybe a client needs some work done. Thanks to Laravel there’s so much that I don’t have to think about. I can just focus on what’s important to my client. When I want to start up an experiment I can do so without having to think about the normal web stuff because.. I know that Laravel has that covered. It’s the fact that I _don’t_ have to focus on everything that Laravel is doing for me that I love the most. It let’s me get to the fun part.
What are your must have Mobile Apps?
When it comes to mobile apps, I need LastPass and Telegram to survive. With LastPass I never have to log into web or mobile apps. I can’t imagine a life without password managers. Telegram is where my friends, family, and bots (for both work and personal) live. What I use Runkeeper for is obvious and it’s probably a bit underutilized. But the apps that I love the most are Kindle / Audible for stories and Through the Ages is my favorite game.
Laravel Expert# 3: Jason McCreary
What is your number one tip for a Laravel beginner?
**Don’t fight the framework.** Stick with the conventions. If you can’t find an example from the docs, try to reframe the problem. If you really can’t, check the first party packages. In 7 years of working with Laravel, I’ve always been able to use what the framework provides. Trust me, _future you_ will think you for following the conventions.
What is more special in Laravel compared to other Frameworks?
I’ve use a lot of PHP frameworks over the years. Even a few outside of PHP, like Rails and Express. I love with Laravel everything is included. You don’t have to reach for additional packages. It’s all right they’re ready to go, out of the box.
Your thoughts on the best parts of being a programmer.
I like the problem-solving. Sometimes for hard problems this can be a curse. You wake up in the middle of the night thinking about the problem. But in the end, solving it is incredibly rewarding.
What do you enjoy the most about Laravel?
The automated upgrades of course. Just kidding. No, what I enjoy most about Laravel is the community. It’s very active, inclusive, and productive. So much has come out of the community. It’s a game changer for sure.
What are your must have Mobile Apps?
I admittedly don’t have too many mobile apps on my iPhone. So my “must haves” are pretty basic: Notes, Twitter, and Robinhood.
Laravel Expert# 4: Usama Hafeez
What is your number one tip for a Laravel beginner?
For a Laravel beginner it is VERY easy to get overwhelmed as it is a little different from other frameworks out there. I’d recommend, don’t give up, stick with it, ideally use an IDE like PHPStorm. It will get easier very soon, and trust me you’ll be thankful you stayed the course. Laravel is beautiful! You can reach me at https://usamahafeez.com.
What is more special in Laravel compared to other Frameworks?
There are a number of awesome things about Laravel, ranging from Eloquent (eager loading etc) to its Collections to Service providers and more? However it’s not just these individual features, rather the fact that it is designed in a way that it feels like everything is in harmony, like you’re playing music. Oh wait, it IS built on top of “Symfony”
Your thoughts on the best parts of being a programmer.
To me, the best part of being a programmer is the satisfaction of building something that works perfectly, efficiently and beautifully. I find it exciting to obsess about the best way to implement something.
What do you enjoy the most about Laravel?
One of the things most enjoyable about Laravel is that working on an existing app is just as exciting as building something from scratch. The framework keeps everything organized so you’re not running away from a mess in PHP. Validation mechanism, Queues, Mailables, they are all in their own place. Your controllers can truly be thin!
What are your must have Mobile Apps?
Some interesting mobile apps on my phone: Todoist, Keep, Google Lens, Blinkist
Laravel Expert# 5: Irina Gataullina
What is your number one tip for a Laravel beginner?
Understanding the bigger picture, dig deeper iteratively.
Laravel includes tons of bells and whistles out of the box. It’s very easy to become overwhelmed with all sorts of things happening behind the scenes. So the best thing you can do is to get the general understanding of what Laravel helps you handle out of the box, and then start exploring its features one by one. When you’re getting started with Laravel, you can safely rely on some of its parts while figuring out the Laravel way of doing things. It can be true for both new to backend development programmers as well as for more experienced ones. Having good architecture, Laravel even may teach you it on its own. You may not need to know OOP in-depth as you can learn it by exploring how Laravel works behind the scenes when you get comfortable with the basic features.
What is more special in Laravel compared to other Frameworks?
Having included various tools out of the box, Laravel helps developers to build complex multilingual apps much quicker compared to other PHP frameworks. Its artisan console, Object-Oriented Libraries, elegant eloquent syntax, native multilanguage support, scaffolded authentication – everything makes the development process a breeze. Also, the community around Laravel is huge. Laravel is nearly everywhere in the world of backend development which makes the problem-solving and troubleshooting process easier in comparison to other frameworks. 
Your thoughts on the best parts of being a programmer.
It can be as complex or as simple as you want. Being a developer, you can decide to focus on more user-oriented and interactive frontend development, software engineering and complex algorithms, mobile or desktop apps development, etc. Possibilities are endless. You can work in a huge company or a small startup, or even launch your own web development business or a SaaS product. And you can work in nearly any industry you can imagine from science to making websites for small businesses.And all that with just a laptop and an internet connection. Also, programming is a very creative process in regard to approaching problems and finding solutions. As a programmer, you can develop nearly everything from nothing being the architect, the designer, and the actual builder.
What do you enjoy the most about Laravel?
How it changes the way you can think of PHP programming. Many people hate PHP because of its syntax, poor architecture, poor security, etc. Laravel eliminates most of the problems you may struggle with being a PHP developer. And not only it addresses all the pain points, but it does it elegantly, providing robust structure and reliable add-ons. It doesn’t even feel like a PHP-based programming language: writing Laravel code and writing PHP code are two completely different processes, not talking about its fluent and minimalistic templating language which is much readable in comparison to other templating languages out there like ejs, Handlebars, or jinja.
What are your must have Mobile Apps?
The first two are used by our development team to establish a smooth communication flow. Twitter, on the other hand, is because of its huge tech community. It’s a social network where you can not only promote your products and find people to get in touch and collaborate with but also learn from others fluently and elegantly.
Conclusion:
That is all. How was your experience reading these experts? I am sure you would have learnt some amazing tips and techniques for Laravel development. Keep these tips in mind while developing web applications with Laravel framework. If you want to hire Laravel developer, Elsner has a dedicated team of Laravel developers with the right skillset and expertise.
