Convention Over Configuration
Laravel is referred to as a “full stack” framework because
it handles everything from web serving to
database management right down to HTML generation. A vertically
integrated web development environment can provide a better experience
for the developer.
The typical developer interacts with Laravel through a command-line
utility that generates and manages the Laravel project environment.
Laravel comes with an excellent command-line tool named Artisan
that can be used to generate skeleton code and database schema stubs.
Artisan handles everything from database schema migration to asset and
configuration management.
Convention Over Configuration
One of the interesting features of Laravel is that it imposes some
fairly serious constraints on how you structure your web applications.
Surprisingly, these constraints make it easier to create applications - a
lot easier. Let’s see why.
Laravel differs from other vertically integrated environments in its strong preference for convention over
configuration. Whereas some Java, Python or PHP frameworks
often require lots of XML configuration, Laravel requires almost none
(or perhaps only a few lines of PHP) to get started. This aversion to
configuration files makes for a very distinctive and recognizable code
structure that is the same across all Laravel apps.
One Project Structure To Rule Them All!
It comes as no surprise that all Laravel projects have essentially
the same directory structure - one in which every file has its
designated place. By gently forcing this directory structure upon
developers, Laravel ensures that your work is semi-automatically
organized the “Laravel way”.
Figure 1.1 shows what the Laravel project directory structure looks like:
As you can see, this standard directory structure consists of quite a
few subdirectories. This wealth of subdirectories can be overwhelming
at first, but we’ll explore them one by one. Most of your work will
happen in the app/ folder, but here’s a basic rundown on the function of each of the files and folders:
| Top-level Folders |
Purpose |
/app/ |
Contains the controllers, models, views and assets for your
application. This is where the majority of the code for your application
will live. You will be spending most of your time in this folder! |
/public/ |
The only folder seen to the world as-is. This is the directory
that you have to point your web server to. It contains the bootstrap
file index.php which jump-starts the Laravel framework
core. The public directory can also be used to hold any publicly
accessible static assets such as CSS, Javascript files, images and other
files. |
/vendor/ |
A place for all third-party code. In a typical Laravel
application, this includes the Laravel source code and its dependencies,
and plugins containing additional prepackaged functionality. |
As mentioned above, /app is where all the fun happens, so let’s have a deeper look at the structure of this directory.
Figure 1.2 shows the /app folder in detail:
| File/Folder |
Purpose |
/app/config/ |
Configure your application’s runtime rules, database, session
and more. Contains a number of config files for changing various aspects
of the framework. Most of the config files return associative PHP
arrays of options. |
/app/config/app.php |
Configuration for various application level settings, i.e. timezone, locale, debug mode and unique encryption key. |
/app/config/auth.php |
Configuration that controls how user authentication will be performed in the application, i.e. authentication driver |
/app/config/cache.php |
If the application utilizes caching to speed up response time, this is where you configure the feature. |
/app/config/database.php |
Contains relevant configuration information for the database, i.e. default database engine and connection information. |
/app/config/mail.php |
Configuration for e-mail sender engine, i.e. SMTP server, From: header |
/app/config/session.php |
Configuration that controls how user sessions are managed by Laravel, i.e. session driver, session lifetime. |
/app/config/view.php |
Misc. configuration settings for templating systems. |
/app/controllers |
Contains the controller classes that are used to provide basic
logic, interact with data models, and load view files for your
application. |
/app/database/migrations/ |
The migrations folder contains PHP classes which
allow Laravel to update the Schema of your current database while
keeping all versions of the database in sync. Migration files are
generated using the Artisan tool. |
/app/database/seeds/ |
The seeds folder contains PHP files which allow Artisan to populate database tables with reference data. |
/app/lang/ |
PHP files containing arrays of strings to enable easy localization of the application. By default the directory contains language lines for pagination and form validation for the English language. |
/app/models/ |
Models are classes that represent the information (data) of
the application and the rules to manipulate that data. In most cases,
each table in your database will correspond to one model in your
application. The bulk of your application’s business logic will be
concentrated in the models. |
/app/start/ |
Contains custom settings related to the artisan tool as well as global and local context. |
/app/storage/ |
The storage directory is used as temporary file store for
various Laravel services such as sessions, cache, compiled view
templates. This directory must be writable by the web server. This
directory is maintained by Laravel and you need not tinker with it. |
/app/tests/ |
The tests folder provides a convenient location
for you to keep your application Unit tests. If you are using PHPUnit,
you can execute all tests at once using the Laravel Artisan tool. |
/app/views/ |
The views directory contains your HTML template
files used by controllers or routes. Note that you should place only the
view template files in this location. Other static assests such as
stylesheet, javascript and image files should be placed in the /public folder instead. |
/app/routes.php |
This is your application’s routing file which
holds routing rules that tells Laravel how to connect incoming requests
to route handler closure functions, controllers and actions. This file
also contains declarations for several events including error pages, and
can be used to define view composers. |
/app/filters.php |
This file contains various application & route filter
methods that alter the outcome of your application. Laravel has some
pre-defined filters for access control and XSS protection. |
A lot of thought has gone into establishing and naming the
folders, and the result is an application with a well structured file
system.
Here is what you get:
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