Why should you upgrade to Laravel 9?

What Is Laravel?

Laravel is an open-source PHP web application framework known for its expressive and elegant syntax. It strictly follows the MVC (model–view–controller) architectural pattern for building simple to complex web applications using the PHP programming language. Laravel brings new releases every six months to ensure optimized performance and enhanced security for its users. Whilst maintaining its streak, Laravel released moved to a 12-month major release cycle to release its latest version Laravel 9, in February 2022.

Laravel 9 - Worth an Upgrade

Laravel 9 comes with a pack of new & exciting features. We have curated some of the best Laravel features to better understand the major release and why it is worth an upgrade.

1. Symfony Mailer

Laravel 9 comes with a new library called Symfony mailer to send emails. It replaces the SwiftMailer as the internal mail library and is one of the biggest changes in Laravel’s latest version.

SwiftMailer, which is used to send mail, isn’t going to be updated after 2021, so this is a major reason for upgrading your application to Laravel 9.

It is imperative to check for the following changes to make sure compatibility of your application.

Requirement of symfony/mailgun-mailer and Symfony/http-client composer packages.
Switching of wildbit/swiftmailer-postmark with symfony/postmark-mailer and symfony/http-client
Access Symfony\Component\Mailer\SentMessage via getSymfonySentMessage
Different undocumented SwiftMailer documents are renamed to their Symfony Mailer counterparts.
Symfony Mailer will automatically create a Message ID based on the sender instead of using mime.idgenerator.idright configuration option.
Transport reconnections will not be forced. Symfony Mailer will automatically attempt to reconnect.
Symfony Mailer will require you to define the appropriate options directly within the configuration if they are supported.
Codes relying on missing methods proxied to SwiftMailer in the Laravel version 8 should now be updated with their corresponding Symfony Mailer counterparts.

2. Flysystem 3. x

The Laravel latest version 9. x, has migrated from Flysystem 1. x to 3. x powers file manipulation methods. The updated Laravel version will make the Laravel development process seamless. Take a look at the application changes mentioned below:

Write operations will now automatically overwrite the existing files.
If the write operation fails, it will no longer throw an exception.
As cached adapters are no longer supported, the cache key within the disk configuration could be removed.

3. Improved Accessors/Mutators

In Laravel 9 you can now use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Casts\Attribute to define accessors and mutators.

This is a single and non-prefixed method to declare a model prefix, and using this single method, you can now get as well as set the attributes. Moreover, defining accessors will cache object values like in custom cast classes.

4. Controller Route Groups

The controller method is used to create a common controller for every route in the group.

This will make it easier to read and understand the route definitions.

5. Full-Text Indexes/ Where Clauses

The controller method is now used to define a common controller for every route included in the group.

This will make route definition clear to be readable and easy.

6. Scout Database Engine

Laravel Scout is a driver-based solution for performing a full-text search on your Eloquent models. Previously, you required Laravel Development services like Algolia or MeiliSearch to perform and execute the indexing and search. For this to work, you need to be using either MySQL or PostgreSQL.

While using Laravel Scout, it will default to the model’s toArray() method. With this new database to search, there is no traditional indexing required that was required with Algolia.

7. Rendering a Blade String

Laravel 9 now provides the ability to render a blade string into its HTML equivalent. The render method approves the blade template string and an optional array of data to provide the template.

The render component method is used to render a given class component bypassing the component instance to the method.

Along with these, the latest version of Laravel has added @checked and @selected blade components for working out in the specified condition only.

8. Bootstrap 5 Pagination Views

Laravel 9 has now included a pagination view using Bootstrap 5. Previously, the tailwind views were obtained by default, but with Laravel 9 upgrade, you can now use the useBootstrapFive method for pagination.

9. New Helper Functions

Although the likelihood of impact is much low for this new feature, it makes the basic work quite easy.

Laravel 9.x now incorporates a global str helper function. This means that it is now pretty easy to use the function rather than implementing the confusing string helper function that PHP used to provide.

In the previous release of Laravel, for any closure passing, when or unless methods were always evaluated to be true. In Laravel 9.x, the returned value will be considered a boolean value when passing through when and unless methods.

10. Implicit Route Bindings with Enums

Enum was first supported by PHP version 8.1. In laravel 9. x, the ability to type-hint an Enum is added to your route definition. The framework will only invoke the route only if it has a valid Enum value in the URI. If not, then HTTP 404 response will return automatically.

Wrap Up

Laravel 9.x is the first PHP framework that will follow a 12-month release cycle. And the main aim of the creators is to bring out the best solutions for their users.

The latest version of Laravel will make it convenient to develop web apps. In case you want to have a go-to partner for your web app designing, you can hire Laravel developers from Nodesol Corp.

Want to upgrade your project to Laravel 9?

Connect with our Laravel experts NOW!

Here’s a quick guide on how to upgrade to Laravel 9

You can quickly upgrade to Laravel 9 and run the latest Laravel version on your local device.

Remember that Laravel 9. x will require a PHP 8.1 + version to run. Therefore, removing the previous version and starting a new installation is better.

Execute the following command to deploy Laravel 9 utilizing composer:
Test your current version using the following command:
Bingo! You are good to go with Laravel 9!

List of server requirements for Laravel 9. X:

PHP >= 8.0
BCMath
PHP Extension
Ctype PHP Extension
CURL PHP Extension
DOM PHP Extension
Fileinfo PHP Extension
JSON PHP Extension
Mbstring PHP Extension
OpenSSL PHP Extension
PCRE PHP Extension
PDO PHP Extension
Tokenizer PHP Extension
XML PHP Extension

Conclusion

Laravel is a strong PHP framework that's gaining popularity among developers. The first PHP framework to release a new version each year is Laravel 9.x. The designers aim to provide users with the greatest experiences and solutions. Web app development will be simpler with Laravel's most recent release.

You can hire Laravel 9 developers from Nodesol if you need assistance creating a web application. Our team has working experience with Laravel clients across the world. Let's talk if you wish to discuss an idea you have. Nodesol can help you upgrade to Laravel 9, book a free call now.