What’s New in Laravel 9 - An In-Depth Look at the Most Recent Major Release

Laravel needs no introduction as it’s been the most popular framework over the years. It’s the first choice for new developers for app development. Its scalable, elegant, and one of the finest frameworks for development. 

It is the web application development framework for implementing simple or complex applications using the PHP programming language. Besides, it comes with built-in authentication and authorization support, which is a huge benefit. 

Laravel follows a simple MVC model and is often appreciated for its elegant syntax. It has been one of the most popular frameworks in recent years. You can build customized apps with Laravel. 

What is Laravel?

Laravel is an open-sourced PHP framework that is well known for its amazing syntax. It works on an MVC framework for building different applications using PHP, providing complete efficiency. Laravel always strives to improve its saved features, and that’s the reason it contributes to new functions and releases. 

Additionally, it has gone through several updates making it more efficient. The latest is the Laravel 9, which comes with several new features. The new update will simplify the task of the developers giving complete convenience. Let us further know about some more features of Laravel. 

Features of Laravel

Artisan CLI is the most vital aspect of Laravel. With the feature, you can modify or create a part of Laravel from the command line without having to navigate through files and folders. 

ORM is also called the Object-relational mapper, and it allows seamless integration with the data model and database of choice. It also abstracts hurdles involving different interactions and SQL queries to access the data from the database. 

The MVC architecture makes the language relatable and adaptable as it follows a prevalent web development pattern that includes ongoing significant improvements. 

Some added features of Laravel include – restful controllers, database seeding, migrations, source code hosted on Github, the ability to use new features as a part, a friendly online community, security, and reverse routing. Laravel also offers detailed documentation support and unit testing.

Why move from Laravel 8 to 9?

Laravel has migrated from Flystem 1.0 to 2.0, responsible for record manipulation strategies. You may need to make some relevant changes in the application, and you need to upgrade from Laravel 8 to 9. 

Swift mailer is being replaced by Symfony mailer, so the goal is to make the move as constant as possible. Ideally, you can review all the changes in your list to ensure that the application is fully compliant. 

The custom cast strategy was not involved in the previous release, and the cast attribute was set as null. In Laravel 9, the null feature is used as the value. In the new update, HTTP clients can include a default time of 30 seconds. Additionally, you can use the timeout method. 

The password rule helps to verify that the input value matches the user’s current password. You may know that the classes are offered throughout the framework, but it’s simple to perform the action based on the value. 

Additionally, the lang directory feature is also updated. The lang directory is located within the root project directory, and to publish the language and you should use the app()->langPath() and not the hard-coded path. 

Improved mutators and assessors are a single and non-pre fix way to declare a model prefix. By using the method, you can get a set of attributes. Moreover, the assessors will cache the object values in the customized cast classes. 

The controller route feature is adept at defining the common controller for the route included in the group. Additionally, it makes the route definition readable and clear. 

When using the MySQL feature, the new version of Laravel uses the full-text index to generate the full-text indexes. The method is transformed into the suitable SQL by underlying the database system. 

Rendering a blade string feature is now available in Laravel framework development. The feature approves the blade template string and an array of data, which helps provide the template. 

Additionally, the render component renders the class component. Also, the latest version of Laravel 9 features @selected and @checked blade components that help workout specified conditions. 

Laravel 9 now comes with the helper function that makes the basic process quite simple. It incorporates a global STR helper function. It means the function is easier to use than implementing the confusing string. 

Laravel 9 comes with a pagination view using bootstrap 5 in the Laravel app development process. Earlier the tailwind views were obtained by default, but this version lets you use the Bootstrap 5 method for pagination. 

What can you expect in the new Laravel 9?

Laravel as a framework relies on Symfony libraries, and the library is planning to release a new update that will provide better development. However, it is not easy to update the entire framework to the latest version of Symfony. 

Also, it will require a lot of monitoring and testing against the breaking changes before the version is released to the public. With the new update, there will be a release of subsequent LTS, which will give the Laravel team some added time after the Symfony is updated. Let’s know about some newly added features.

Newly added features of Laravel 9

Laravel 9 will now require Symfony 6 and will work on the minimum requirement of PHP 8. With Laravel 9, you will be able to set anonymous stub migration as the default behavior while running the new command. The feature will help to get rid of issues related to name collisions. You can expect a new query builder interface in this version. 

For the developers who depend on static analysis or code completion in IDE, the need for a shared interface between Eloquent\Relation and Query\BuilderEloquent\Builder will be complex. Moreover, this version will provide new PHP 8 string functions. String functions include use of str_contains(), str_starts_with()internally in the \Illuminate\Support\Str class

The new Laravel 9 features the refreshed ignition error page so that the development team can proceed quickly without breaks. The forced scoped building feature can be turned on, and developers can use the feature in route declaration in the simple method call. Additionally, it may add new clarity and intent to the Laravel framework development. 

Laravel has added the test coverage with the Xdebug feature that extends to include generating a code coverage report. Additionally, it has improved themes on an exceptional page, which lets you customize the available themes. 

How to install Laravel 9?

You can easily install Laravel 9 on your local device, and as stated above, it supports the PHP v8 engine only. But you will have to check your current version before installation and testing. Start by creating a Laravel project by naming it Laravel 9. To install the framework, run:

composer create-project –prefer-dist laravel/laravel laravel-9-dev-test-laravel9. 

If you have installed it as a global composer dependency, run:

laravel new laravel-9-dev test-laravel9

After you finish this step, enter a new directory and run the artisan command, but check the current version:

cd dev-laravel9

PHP artisan –version

Install Laravel 9 on Cloudways:

Cloudways comes with version 7.4 by default, but the new version requires a minimum of PHP 8.0 version. To install Laravel 9, you’ll need to update the PHP version on the Cloudways platform. 

Switching to the platform:

Move to the side menu, and select packages and settings. Here you can upgrade from PHP 7 to PHP 8. However, don’t use the update feature if your application is running on the Laravel system. 

This method works for new applications without the PHP system. Make an upgrade, but with caution. The update process may take some time, so you may have to wait. Besides, the server is updated without downtime. 

Conclusion

Laravel is the best PHP framework that is gaining more importance due to its updates. Besides, it’s the first one to follow a 12-month release cycle with updated features. It provides the best solution to users and developers.