Laravel is a web application framework with expressive, elegant syntax. At LuminFire, we use Laravel to build brilliant custom web applications that can stand alone or complement our Claris FileMaker solutions. BrilliantPortal is one example of this incredible technology in action.
Laracon is the premier annual conference for Laravel developers. Last year LuminFire attended Laracon Nashville 2023, and this year we headed to Dallas to learn alongside around 1,000 other developers. Laracon helps LuminFire stay on top of the ever-changing technology landscape and develop best practices based on the experience of the world’s top developers. Laracon is one of the events that provides LuminFire with the insights and technical knowledge we use to provide the greatest value custom software to businesses.
Andy and Andrew represented our team at Laracon 2024
What’s New with Laravel
The big announcement at the conference was Laravel Cloud: a fully-managed infrastructure as a service (IaaS) platform that helps developers and teams “just ship” software. Taylor Otwell, the creator of Laravel, presented a live demonstration of setting up a new project and deploying to a live site in just 25 seconds: no need to create servers, set up permissions, etc.
This new platform promises to make it simpler to get started using Laravel, as well as streamline processes with features like branch previews, auto-scaling, and more. In the end, this means that developers can focus on building new features that directly impact your business instead of spending time on items required to create functioning software.
Other notable announcements include:
- Flux: the official Livewire UI component library, with impressive attention to detail and the potential to improve efficiency by reusing components vs building from scratch
- First-party VS Code extension supported by Laravel
- Pest v3: developer-focused features that will improve efficiency and code quality
- Inertia 2.0: many features for even better performance for Laravel apps using Vue.js, React, Svelte, or any other Javascript SPA approach
Several of the talks were more technical in nature, introducing attendees to new or alternate approaches to handling common problems:
- Laravel Octane: improved performance and reduced costs
- Verbs for Laravel: an event-sourcing package that allows developers to reach “back in time” and replay previous events to fix bugs, add new features, or solve new problems
- Scaling Laravel at Square: a presentation from a major payments provider on how they have improved performance on their Laravel applications
- Laravel and AI: a demonstration of an LLM assisting users searching documentation, and a ChatGPT-powered chatbot with custom tools for retrieving information that ChatGPT is unable to access
- Analytical Databases: how Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) databases can massively improve performance for certain types of reporting use cases
- Laravel Reverb: a websockets server that can handle many thousands of connections per second, and can even be used to control and receive live video from a drone
A couple of the other talks were less technical, highlighting how the Laravel community in particular is welcoming and friendly to newcomers, ensuring that it will remain vibrant for years to come. Compared to some other conferences, there is a palpable sense of cooperation, rather than competition at Laracon: most people are thrilled to be able to help each other think through challenges and try new approaches.
The Future of Laravel
Laravel as a platform has a bright future that you can count on. They just raised $57 million to continue expanding the open-source community and their new Laravel Cloud product. Attendance at this year’s Laracon increased by 250% over last year, demonstrating the growth trajectory and strength of the Laravel community. Laravel is on the move and is here for the long haul. Whether you need a customer portal or other custom web application solution, you can be confident in the business case for using Laravel to build it.
Learn More About What Laravel Can Do for You
Overall, Laracon 2024 was an amazing event that built even more excitement in the community and at LuminFire, igniting new ideas for what we can do for your business using this innovative platform. If you think your business might be ready to take advantage of the cost savings and power of Laravel in a custom app, let’s talk.
Tim Cimbura – CEO, CFO and Software Engineer
Tim is an expert in creating custom business solutions that make businesses more effective, productive, and profitable. He specializes in rapid application development with the Claris platform including FileMaker and WordPress. He also knows Apple macOS technology inside and out.