Laravel Architecture¶

Laravel 11 is a PHP framework following the MVC pattern with a service container (IoC), service providers, facades, and Artisan CLI. Understanding the architecture is essential for working with laravel routing, laravel eloquent orm, laravel middleware, and all other framework components.

Key Facts¶

Laravel uses the service container (IoC container) for dependency injection and class resolution
Service providers bootstrap framework components; registered in bootstrap/providers.php (Laravel 11)
Facades provide static-like access to container bindings (Auth::check(), Route::get())
Artisan is the CLI for scaffolding, migrations, cache clearing, and custom commands
.env file stores environment-specific configuration (DB credentials, app key, debug mode)
config/ directory holds configuration files that read from .env via env() helper
Laravel 11 simplified the skeleton: fewer default files, bootstrap/app.php as the central config point
Request lifecycle: HTTP request -> public/index.php -> service container -> middleware -> router -> controller -> response

Patterns¶

Directory structure (Laravel 11)¶

project/
  app/
    Http/
      Controllers/          # request handlers
      Middleware/            # custom middleware
    Models/                  # Eloquent models
    Providers/               # service providers
  bootstrap/
    app.php                  # application bootstrap (middleware, routes, exceptions)
    providers.php            # registered service providers
  config/                    # configuration files
  database/
    migrations/              # database schema changes
    seeders/                 # test data seeders
  public/
    index.php                # entry point (all requests route here)
  resources/
    views/                   # Blade templates
  routes/
    web.php                  # web routes (session, CSRF)
    api.php                  # API routes (stateless)
  storage/                   # logs, cache, compiled views
  .env                       # environment variables
  composer.json              # dependencies
  artisan                    # CLI entry point

Environment configuration¶

# .env file
APP_NAME=MyApp
APP_ENV=local
APP_DEBUG=true
APP_URL=http://myapp.test

DB_CONNECTION=mysql
DB_HOST=127.0.0.1
DB_PORT=3306
DB_DATABASE=laravel_practice
DB_USERNAME=root
DB_PASSWORD=

<?php
// Accessing config values
$debug = config('app.debug');           // reads config/app.php
$dbHost = config('database.connections.mysql.host');
$appName = env('APP_NAME', 'Laravel');  // with default fallback

// NEVER use env() outside config files - values are cached in production

Artisan CLI¶

# Scaffolding
php artisan make:controller PostController
php artisan make:controller Admin/MainController  # subdirectory
php artisan make:model Post -m                     # model + migration
php artisan make:middleware AdminMiddleware
php artisan make:request StorePostRequest

# Database
php artisan migrate                    # run pending migrations
php artisan migrate:rollback           # undo last batch
php artisan migrate:fresh              # drop all tables + re-migrate
php artisan db:seed                    # run seeders

# Cache
php artisan config:cache               # cache config (production)
php artisan route:cache                # cache routes (production)
php artisan cache:clear                # clear application cache
php artisan view:clear                 # clear compiled views

# Maintenance
php artisan down                       # maintenance mode
php artisan up                         # exit maintenance mode

# Custom commands
php artisan make:command SendEmails

Service container basics¶

<?php
// Binding
app()->bind(PaymentGateway::class, StripeGateway::class);
app()->singleton(Logger::class, fn() => new FileLogger('/var/log'));

// Resolution
$gateway = app(PaymentGateway::class);
$gateway = resolve(PaymentGateway::class);

// Automatic injection in controllers
class OrderController extends Controller {
    public function store(Request $request, PaymentGateway $gateway) {
        // $gateway is automatically resolved from container
    }
}

Facades vs helper functions¶

<?php
// Facade
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Auth;
Auth::check();           // is user authenticated?
Auth::user();            // get current user object
Auth::attempt($creds);   // try to log in

// Equivalent helper function
auth()->check();
auth()->user();
auth()->attempt($creds);

// Both resolve the same underlying class from the container

Gotchas¶

Symptom	Cause	Fix
Config changes not reflected	Config is cached	Run `php artisan config:clear`
`env()` returns null in production	Config cache active, `env()` only works in config files	Use `config()` helper everywhere except `config/*.php`
Class not found after creating	Composer autoload not refreshed	Run `composer dump-autoload`
`Route [name] not defined`	Route name misspelled or route not registered	Check `php artisan route:list`
`.env` changes not applied	`.env` is not auto-reloaded	Restart server / clear config cache
CSRF token mismatch	Missing `@csrf` in form or session expired	Add `@csrf` blade directive to all POST forms