Welcome, developers! Laravel 11 is released on March 12th, 2024, packed with exciting updates to supercharge your web development journey. In this blog, we’ll explore the latest features and enhancements in Laravel 11, ensuring you’re equipped to build powerful and efficient applications with ease. Ready to dive in? Let’s discover what Laravel 11 has to offer!
Before exploring the exciting features of Laravel 11, it’s essential to ensure that your development environment meets the prerequisites for seamless integration and optimal performance.
Let’s take a look at the pre-requirements for Laravel 11:
PHP 8.2 Minimum Support:
Laravel 11 mandates a minimum PHP version of 8.2. If your project relies on an older PHP version, an upgrade is necessary to take advantage of the advancements offered by Laravel 11.
SQLite 3.35.0+ Required:
For users leveraging SQLite databases, Laravel 11 necessitates a minimum version of 3.35.0 for compatibility and seamless integration with the latest Laravel release.
Laravel Support Policy:
Adhere to Laravel’s support policy, which entails bug fixes for 18 months and security fixes for 2 years. Staying abreast of the latest releases ensures ongoing support and maintenance for your Laravel applications.
Let’s dive into the details of what’s new in this latest Laravel 11 version:
1. Laravel Reverb:
Introducing Laravel Reverb, a first-party WebSocket server tailored for Laravel applications.
Features of Laravel Reverb:
Blazing Fast: Supports thousands of connections with minimal delay, thanks to WebSocket technology.
Seamless Integration: Easily deploy Reverb with Laravel Forge integration and monitor it using Pulse.
Built for Scale: Horizontal scaling is supported using Redis, enabling efficient connection management across multiple servers.
Pusher Protocol: Utilizes the Pusher protocol for WebSockets, ensuring compatibility with Laravel Broadcasting and Laravel Echo.
2. Streamlined Directory Structure
Laravel 11 introduces a refined directory structure, enhancing organizational clarity and reducing superfluous files. While existing projects retain their directory layout, new projects benefit from a more organized framework.
Notable changes:
- Controllers no longer extending default classes
- No more middleware directory. Middleware customization relocated to the App/ServiceProvider.
3. New Once Method
A notable addition in Laravel 11 is the introduction of the once helper method, designed to ensure consistent execution of a method irrespective of the number of invocations. This feature is particularly useful when enforcing code execution only once within a given context.
4. New Health Route
Enhancing application monitoring capabilities, Laravel 11 introduces a new /up health route triggering a DiagnosingHealthEvent. This facilitates seamless integration with uptime monitoring tools, allowing for proactive application health and performance monitoring.
5. APP_KEY Rotation
In Laravel 11, APP_KEY rotation undergoes a graceful transition to prevent data integrity issues associated with key changes. Leveraging an APP_PREVIOUS_KEYS environment variable, Laravel ensures a seamless transition to new encryption keys without compromising existing encrypted data.
6. Eagerly Loaded Limit
Laravel 11 introduces native support for limiting the number of eagerly loaded results per parent, improving application performance and efficiency.
Let’s say, for example, that you want to paginate users but also eagerly load three blog posts for each user:
User::with([
‘posts’ => fn ($query) => $query->limit(3)
])->paginate();
7. New Artisan Commands
Facilitating streamlined development workflows, Laravel 11 introduces new Artisan commands for rapid class, enum, interface, and trait creation, bolstering developer productivity and code generation capabilities.
php artisan make:class
php artisan make:enum
php artisan make:interface
php artisan make:trait
8. Routes Changes
Redefining route management, Laravel 11 simplifies the default route structure to include only essential files: console.php and web.php.
API routes will now become opt-in via php artisan install:api, giving you the API routes file and Laravel Sanctum.
The same with websocket broadcasting, php artisan install:broadcasting.
Upgrade to Laravel 11 Now!:
In conclusion, Laravel 11 represents a significant evolution in the Laravel ecosystem, offering various features and improvements to enhance developer experience and application performance. Whether you’re a seasoned Laravel developer or embarking on your Laravel journey, embracing Laravel 11 promises to elevate your development endeavors to new heights. Connect with our Laravel developers to upgrade to the latest laravel 11!
Upgrade to Laravel 11
