Course Introduction 0:00Hi there, welcome to the early 2019 edition of LaravelFromScratch.com. This will cover Laravel 5.7 and up. Now I know you're excited, you want to dig in, you want to get coding, you want to figure this out. But if you don't mind, let me give you the 60-second sell on why I think Laravel is the right choice for you. First, take a look at the website. It's clean, simple, and beautiful. You're going to find the same thing when you review the underlying source code. But of course, there's always other choices. Laravel Popularity and Community 0:40You're going to find the same thing when you review the underlying source code. But of course, there's always other choices. You might consider Symfony, you might consider CakePHP, you might consider CodeIgniter, and you might consider Zend. All of them have very large user bases. However, if you take a look at recent trends, you'll find, especially in the last several years, Laravel has skyrocketed in popularity. Now one benefit to that popularity is the massive community that surrounds Laravel. Of course, you have Laracasts, seriously over a thousand lessons dedicated to web development, specializing in PHP and Laravel. Community Resources and Jobs 1:09Of course, you have Laracasts, seriously over a thousand lessons dedicated to web development, specializing in PHP and Laravel. But you also have sites like LaravelNews.com, a one-stop shop for everything current in the Laravel community. You can even get a newsletter every Sunday. Or if you need a job, you could go to larajobs.com. Or what about once you've built an application and you're ready to deploy it, but you're not quite comfortable in that area well enough to build up your own server? Well, you can use first-party tools like Laravel Forge, which is built by the creator of Laravel, Taylor Otwell, and also Envoyer, which can help you with zero-downtime deployments. First-Party Tools and Packages 1:37Well, you can use first-party tools like Laravel Forge, which is built by the creator of Laravel, Taylor Otwell, and also Envoyer, which can help you with zero-downtime deployments. Very cool. You can use additional first-party packages like Laravel Spark. Think of this as a way to quickly whip up a product that you're going to sell, accept payments, even accept subscriptions. Very cool. Or Laravel Nova. And again, all of these are first-party tools and packages and services. Nova is a top-class admin panel. Learning Resources and Wrap-Up 2:02And again, all of these are first-party tools and packages and services. Nova is a top-class admin panel. But on top of that, if we switch back to education, you don't just have Laracasts. You have countless resources, like testdrivenlaravel.com or serversforhackers.com. This focuses on servers, but you're going to find tons of overlap with Laravel and how you might deploy and optimize your product. And finally, but not least, of course, there's no shortage of books on the subject. So when we consider the elegance of Laravel, the ease of use, the popularity, the resources, the services, the first-party packages and tools, it's a no-brainer, and I hope you agree. So in the next episode, let's dive right in.the services, the first-party packages and tools, it's a no-brainer, and I hope you agree. So in the next episode, let's dive right in.
