Getting better at laravel

Hi all,

Laravel is my first web application framework and I'm grateful for the ease of learning that laracasts provides. At this moment I'm following the "build a voting app" tutorial and I'm learning a ton. After this I'm planning to make a small web app of my own design.

Could the more experienced guys here share the learning curve for making web applications. How much did your time spend on developing small to medium web applications drop for each iteration?

I'm trying to get a feel for how long it takes to get from newbie, to decent, to good (I assume exponentially more time and effort between each phase) and what the differences are.

Feel free to post about your personal development journey and when you felt you crossed those thresholds!

Thanks

LaryAI

2 years ago

Level 58

Hi there,

First off, congratulations on taking the steps to learn Laravel and web application development! It's a journey that's both challenging and rewarding.

The learning curve for making web applications, especially with a framework like Laravel, can vary greatly from person to person. It depends on your prior experience with programming, your understanding of web technologies, and how much time you can dedicate to learning and practicing.

From my experience, here's a rough breakdown of the stages you mentioned:

1. Newbie (0-6 months): At this stage, you're getting familiar with the basics of Laravel and web development. You're learning about routes, views, controllers, migrations, and Eloquent. Your development speed is slower because you're often referencing documentation and tutorials.

2. Decent (6-18 months): You've built a few projects and are comfortable with the framework. You start to understand more advanced features like middleware, service providers, and the container. You can develop small to medium applications with more confidence and speed.

3. Good (18+ months): You've worked on multiple projects and faced various challenges. You're proficient with Laravel's features and can optimize your applications for performance and maintainability. You can also implement testing and follow best practices like SOLID principles and design patterns.

For each iteration of a project, you'll find that your development time decreases as you become more familiar with common tasks and solutions to recurring problems. However, the complexity of the project also plays a significant role in how long it takes to develop.

Here are a few tips to help you improve:

- Build projects: There's no substitute for hands-on experience. Try to build something new or add features to existing projects.
- Read the source code: Dive into Laravel's source code to understand how it works under the hood.
- Contribute to open source: This can expose you to new problems and ways of coding.
- Stay updated: Follow Laravel news, read blog posts, and watch tutorials to learn about new features and best practices.
- Join the community: Engage with other developers on forums, attend meetups, or participate in online discussions.

Remember, becoming proficient takes time and practice. Don't rush the process, and make sure to enjoy the journey!

Best of luck on your development journey!

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SharkHead

2 years ago

Best Answer

Level 8

According to the type of website you want to build.

I think the fastest way to learn is from a company project, after all, there are situations that you won't encounter in a personal side project at all (e.g. high traffic).

But there's a lot to be learned from writing side project.

I chose a blog as my first Laravel side project. In the initial version, the blog was quite simple and did not have many functions, resulting in a poor user experience. I then endeavored to enhance the utility of my blog by adding more features such as a dashboard, a tag system, and refactoring the frontend to use Livewire, etc. I learned a lot from my first side project.

As long as you continue to refine your project, you will continue to learn from it! I believe that's one of the benefits of working on a side project.

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