Laravel Crash Course Notes

Course Overview

• Perfect starting point for those with decent knowledge of Object-Oriented Programming and PHP.
• Focus on learning and using Laravel to build a personal notes application.
• Features include:
  • Registering and verifying email addresses
  • User login
  • CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete) operations for personal notes

Course Contents

1. Environment Setup

   • PHP Installation
     • Recommended: XAMPP (includes MariaDB, PHP, and Apache)
   • Composer: PHP package manager
   • Node.js and npm: Required for Vite (asset bundler used by Laravel)
   • Git Bash: Recommended for terminal operations
   • VS Code: Development environment for the course

2. Installing Laravel

   • Command to create Laravel project:

     composer create-project laravel/laravel laravel-11-crash-course  
     

3. Deployment

   • Options for deploying Laravel applications:
     • Shared Hosting
     • VPS Hosting
     • Deployment using GitHub Actions and CI/CD pipelines
     • Hosting provider recommendation: Hostinger

4. Laravel File and Folder Structure

   • Key Directories:
     • app/: Contains application logic (Models, Controllers, etc.)
     • config/: Configuration files
     • database/: Migrations, seeders, factories
     • resources/: Views, CSS, JS
     • public/: Entry point for the web server
     • storage/: Logs, compiled views, and sessions
     • tests/: Contains unit tests
     • vendor/: Third-party packages

5. Artisan CLI

   • Commands for creating models, migrations, controllers, etc.
   • Example command to list available Artisan commands:

     php artisan list  
     

Creating Note Application

1. Database Setup

   • Create a Note model and corresponding migration:

     php artisan make:model Note -m  
     

   • Update migration file to create notes table with necessary fields.
   • Run migrations:

     php artisan migrate  
     

2. Seeding Data

   • Create a factory for generating fake data:

     php artisan make:factory NoteFactory --model=Note  
     

   • Create a seeder to populate the database with sample notes.
   • Run seeder:

     php artisan db:seed  
     

3. Controllers and Routes

   • Create a resource controller for notes:

     php artisan make:controller NoteController --resource  
     

   • Define routes in web.php using resource routes.
   • Implement CRUD operations in NoteController.

4. Views

   • Create views for listing, creating, editing, and showing notes.
   • Use Blade templating features for rendering views.

5. User Authentication

   • Install Laravel Breeze for user registration and authentication:

     composer require laravel/breeze --dev  
     php artisan breeze:install  
     

   • Implement email verification by modifying the User model to implement MustVerifyEmail interface.

6. Final Touches

   • Add necessary error handling and user feedback (session messages).
   • Style the application with Tailwind CSS.

Conclusion

• Covered key concepts of Laravel and built a functional notes application.
• Encouraged to explore further Laravel features and continue learning.