Laravel 6 From Scratch

Series Episodes

1. Prerequisites (4)
   1. At a Glance

      2m 40s

      Before we dig into the nuts and bolts of Laravel, let's first zoom out and discuss what exactly happens when a request comes in.
   2. Install PHP, MySQL and Composer

      3m 33s

      Before we get started, you must first ensure that up-to-date versions of both PHP and MySQL are installed and available on your machine. In this episode, we'll review how to go about this. Once complete, we can then install Composer.
   3. The Laravel Installer

      3m 02s

      Now that we have Composer setup, we can pull in the Laravel installer and make it accessible globally on our machine. This allows you to run a single command to build a fresh Laravel installation: laravel new app.
   4. Laravel Valet Setup

      3m 18s

      If you're a Mac user, rather than running php artisan serve, you might instead choose to install Laravel Valet. Valet is a blazing fast development environment for Laravel that's a cinch to setup.
2. Routing (4)
   1. Basic Routing and Views

      3m 41s

      When I learn a new framework, the first thing I do is figure out how the framework's default splash page is loaded. Let's work through it together. Our first stop is routes/web.php.
   2. Pass Request Data to Views

      4m 11s

      The request() helper function can be used to fetch data from any GET or POST request. In this episode, we'll learn how to fetch data from the query-string, pass it to a view, and then encode it to protected against potential XSS attacks.
   3. Route Wildcards

      3m 42s

      Often, you'll need to construct a route that accepts a wildcard value. For example, when viewing a specific post, part of the URI will need to be unique. In these cases, we can reach for a route wildcard.
   4. Routing to Controllers

      3m 01s

      It's neat that we can provide a closure to handle any route's logic, however, you might find that for more sizable projects, you'll almost always reach for a dedicated controller instead. Let's learn how in this lesson.
3. Database Access (5)
   1. Setup a Database Connection

      6m 13s

      So far, we've been using a simple array as our data store. This isn't very realistic, so let's learn how to set up a database connection. In this episode, we'll discuss environment variables, configuration files, and the query builder.
   2. Hello Eloquent

      3m 45s

      In the previous episode, we used the query builder to fetch the relevant post from the database. However, there's a second option we should consider: Eloquent. Not only does an Eloquent class provide the same clean API for querying your database, but it's also the perfect place to store any appropriate business logic.
   3. Migrations 101

      5m 23s

      In a previous episode, we manually created a database table; however, this doesn't reflect the typical workflow you'll follow in your day-to-day coding. Instead, you'll more typically reach for migration classes. In this episode, we'll discuss what they are and why they're useful.
   4. Generate Multiple Files in a Single Command

      1m 26s

      It can quickly become tedious to generate all the various files you need. "Let's make a model, and now a migration, and now a controller." Instead, we can generate everything we need in a single command. I'll show you how in this episode.
   5. Business Logic

      7m 36s

      When possible, the code you write should reflect the manner in which you speak about the product in real life. For example, if you run a school and need a way for students to complete assignments, let's work those terms into the code. Perhaps you should have an Assignment model that includes a complete() method.
4. Views (7)
   1. Layout Pages

      4m 11s

      If you review the welcome view that ships with Laravel, it contains the full HTML structure all the way up to the doctype. This is fine for a demo page, but in real life, you'll instead reach for layout files.
   2. Integrate a Site Template

      4m 27s

      Using the techniques you've learned in the last several episodes, let's integrate a free site template into our Laravel project, called SimpleWork.
   3. Set an Active Menu Link

      2m 15s

      In this episode, you'll learn how to detect and highlight the current page in your navigation bar. We can use the Request facade for this.
   4. Asset Compilation with Laravel Mix and webpack

      7m 39s

      Laravel provides a useful tool called Mix - a wrapper around webpack - to assist with asset bundling and compilation. In this episode, I'll show you the basic workflow you'll follow when working on your frontend.
   5. Render Dynamic Data

      6m 19s

      Let's next learn how to render dynamic data. The "about" page of the site template we're using contains a list of articles. Let's create a model for these, store some records in the database, and then render them dynamically on the page.
   6. Render Dynamic Data: Part 2

      5m 05s

      Let's finish up this exercise by creating a dedicated page for viewing a full article.
   7. Homework Solutions

      2m 45s

      Let's review the solution to the homework from the end of the previous episode. To display a list of articles, you'll need to create a matching route, a corresponding controller action, and the view to iterate over the articles and render them on the page.
5. Forms (5)
   1. The Seven Restful Controller Actions

      5m 03s

      There are seven restful controller actions that you should become familiar with. In this episode, we'll review their names and when you would reach for them.
   2. Restful Routing

      7m 37s

      Now that you're familiar with resourceful controllers, let's switch back to the routing layer and review a RESTful approach for constructing URIs and communicating intent.
   3. Form Handling

      7m 55s

      Now that you understand resourceful controllers and HTTP verbs, let's build a form to persist a new article.
   4. Forms That Submit PUT Requests

      6m 35s

      Browsers, at the time of this writing, only recognize GET and POST request types. No problem, though; we can get around this limitation by passing a hidden input along with our request that signals to Laravel which HTTP verb we actually want. Let's review the basic workflow in this episode.
   5. Form Validation Essentials

      8m 53s

      Before we move on to cleaning up the controller, let's first take a moment to review form validation. At the moment, our controller doesn't care what the user types into each input. We assign each provided value to a property and attempt to throw it in the database. You should never do this. Remember: when dealing with user-provided data, assume that they're being malicious.
6. Controller Techniques (3)
   1. Leverage Route Model Binding

      4m 56s

      So far. we've been manually fetching a record from the database using a wildcard from the URI. However, Laravel can perform this query for us automatically, thanks to route model binding.
   2. Reduce Duplication

      5m 40s

      Your next technique is to reduce duplication. If you review our currentArticlesController, we reference request keys in multiple places. Now as it turns out, there's a useful way to reduce this repetition considerably.
   3. Consider Named Routes

      3m 58s

      Named routes allow you to translate a URI into a variable. This way, if a route changes at some point down the road, all of your links will automatically update, due to the fact that they're referencing the named version of the route rather than the hardcoded path.
7. Eloquent (5)
   1. Basic Eloquent Relationships

      6m 07s

      Let's now switch back to Eloquent and begin discussing relationships. For example, if I have a $user instance, how might I fetch all projects that were created by that user? Or if I instead have a $project instance, how would I fetch the user who manages that project?
   2. Understanding Foreign Keys and Database Factories

      13m 31s

      Let's put our learning from the previous episode to the test. If an article is associated with a user, then we need to add the necessary foreign key and relationship methods. As part of this, though, we'll also quickly review database factories and how useful they can be during the development and testing phase.
   3. Many to Many Relationships With Linking Tables

      6m 16s

      Next up, we have the slightly more confusing "many to many" relationship type. To illustrate this, we'll use the common example of articles and tags. As we'll quickly realize, a third table is necessary in order to associate one article with many tags, and one tag with many articles.
   4. Display All Tags Under Each Article

      5m 04s

      Now that we've learned how to construct many-to-many relationships, we can finally display all tags for each article on the page. Additionally, we can now filter all articles by tag.
   5. Attach and Validate Many-to-Many Inserts

      12m 17s

      We now understand how to fetch and display records from a linking table. Let's next learn how to perform inserts. We can leverage the attach() and detach() methods to insert one or many records at once. However, we should also perform the necessary validation to ensure that a malicious user doesn't sneak an invalid id.
8. Authentication (2)
   1. Build a Registration System in Mere Minutes

      9m 26s

      Thanks to the first-party package, Laravel UI, you can easily scaffold a full registration system that includes sign ups, session handling, password resets, email confirmations, and more. And the best part is you can knock out this tedious and common requirement...in minutes.
   2. The Password Reset Flow

      8m 40s

      In this episode, we'll discuss the basic password reset flow. If a user forgets their password, a series of actions need to take place: they request a reset; we prepare a unique token and associate it with their account; we fire off an email to the user that contains a link back to our site; once clicked, we validate the token in the link against what is stored in the database; we allow the user to set a new password. Luckily, Laravel can handle this entire workflow for us automatically.
9. Core Concepts (6)
   1. Collections

      11m 21s

      Our first core concept is collection chaining. As you've surely learned by now, when fetching multiple records from a database, a Collection instance is returned. Not only does this object serve as a wrapper around your result set, but it also provides dozens upon dozens of useful manipulation methods that you'll reach for in every project you build.
   2. CSRF Attacks, With Examples

      9m 13s

      Laravel provides Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) protection out of the box, but you still may not know exactly what that means. In this lesson, I'll show you a few examples of how a CSRF attack is executed, as well as how Laravel protects your application against them.
   3. Service Container Fundamentals

      5m 15s

      Laravel's service container is one of the core pillars of the entire framework. Before we review the real implementation, let's first take a few moments to build a simple service container from scratch. This will give you an instant understanding of what happens under the hood when you bind and resolve keys.
   4. Automatically Resolve Dependencies

      11m 04s

      Now that you understand the basics of a service container, let's switch over to Laravel's implementation. As you'll see, in addition to the basics, it can also, in some cases, automatically construct objects for you. This means you can "ask" for what you need, and Laravel will do its best - using PHP's reflection API - to read the dependency graph and construct what you need!
   5. Laravel Facades Demystified

      13m 55s

      Now that you have a basic understanding of the service container, we can finally move on to Laravel facades, which provide a convenient static interface to all of the framework's underlying components. In this lesson, we'll review the basic structure, how to track down the underlying class, and when you might choose not to use them.
   6. Service Providers are the Missing Piece

      11m 18s

      We've spent the last two episodes reviewing Laravel's service container and facades. All of that work is about to pay off, as we move on to service providers. A service provider is a location to register bindings into the container and to configure your application in general.
10. Mail (5)
    1. Send Raw Mail

       6m 50s

       The easiest way to send an email in Laravel is with the Mail::raw() method. In this lesson, we'll learn how to submit a form, read a provided email address from the request, and then fire off an email to the person.
    2. Simulate an Inbox using Mailtrap

       1m 07s

       It's useful to view a log of any mail that is sent while in development mode, but let's switch over to using Mailtrap. This will allow us to simulate a real-life email inbox, which will be especially useful once we begin sending HTML email.
    3. Send HTML Emails Using Mailable Classes

       4m 40s

       So far, we've only managed to send a basic plain-text email. Let's upgrade to a full HTML-driven email by leveraging Laravel's mailable classes.
    4. Send Email Using Markdown Templates

       8m 52s

       We can alternatively write emails using Markdown! In this lesson, you'll learn how to send nicely formatted emails constructed by the framework. For the cases when you need to tweak the underlying HTML structure, we'll also publish the mailable assets and review how to create custom themes.
    5. Notifications Versus Mailables

       8m 02s

       So far in this chapter, we've exclusively reached for Mailable classes to send emails; however, there's an alternative approach that you might consider as well. A Notification class can be used to notify a user in response to some action they took on your website. The difference is in how the user is notified. Sure, we can send them an email, but we could also notify them via a text message, or Slack notification, or even as a physical post card!
11. Notifications (2)
    1. Database Notifications

       13m 21s

       A notification may be dispatched through any number of "channels." Perhaps a particular notification should alert the user via email and through the website. Sure, no problem! Let's learn how in this episode.
    2. Send SMS Notifications in 5 Minutes

       5m 40s

       Here's a fun exercise. For this next notification channel, we'll choose one that I've personally never used: SMS messaging. As you'll see, even with no prior experience, it's still laughably simple to conditionally fire off text messages to the users of your application.
12. Events (1)
    1. Eventing Pros and Cons

       14m 35s

       Events offer a way for one part of your application to make an announcement that ripples through the entire system. In this episode, we'll not only review the essentials, but we'll also discuss the pros and cons to this particular approach to structuring an application.
13. Authorization (5)
    1. Limit Access to Authorized Users

       19m 51s

       For any typical web application, some actions should be limited to authorized users. Perhaps only the creator of a conversation may select which reply best answered their question. If this is the case, we'll need to write the necessary authorization logic. I'll show you how in this lesson!
    2. Authorization Filters

       3m 55s

       There will almost certainly be users in your application who should receive special privileges and access. As examples, consider a forum moderator or site administrator. In these cases, we can declare before and after authorizations filters before the intended policy ability is tested.
    3. Guessing the Ability Name

       2m 22s

       Here's an optional feature that you might consider. If you exclude the ability name when authorizing from your controllers, Laravel will do it's best to guess the appropriate policy method to call. It does so by creating a map for the typical restful controller actions and their associated policy methods.
    4. Middleware-Based Authorization

       2m 22s

       If you'd prefer not to execute authorization from within your controller actions, you can instead handle it as a route-specific middleware. I'll show you how in this episode.
    5. Roles and Abilities

       21m 32s

       Let's take things up a notch. Beginning with a fresh Laravel installation, let's build a full role-based authorization system that allows us to dynamically grant and revoke various abilities on a per-user basis.
14. Final Project (14)
    1. Twitter Clone Setup

       4m 01s

       You've reached the final project for "Laravel From Scratch." Great job making it this far! To put your skills to the test, our final task is to build a Twitter clone, called "Tweety." We'll need to build the design, and add the necessary functionality to login, follow friends, view a timeline, and favorite posts that we like.
    2. Design the Timeline

       16m 41s

       Before we can dive into writing the core logic, let's first set aside fifteen minutes or so to design the main timeline page, using Tailwind.
    3. Make the Timeline Dynamic

       12m 21s

       Now that we have a nice - but static - layout in place, we can begin making the different sections dynamic. We'll begin with the core of our application: tweets!
    4. Build a Following

       5m 29s

       It wouldn't be much of a Twitter-clone if we didn't allow users to follow one another. Let's begin implementing that functionality now.
    5. Expanding the Timeline

       6m 10s

       Now that we have the necessary functionality to follow other Tweety users, we can fully expand the timeline to include all relevant posts.
    6. Construct the Profile Page

       20m 24s

       Let's move on and implement a profile page for each user. This page should show their avatar, a short bio, and then a timeline their tweets. This lesson will give us the chance to flex our Tailwind chops!
    7. Nested Layout Files with Components

       5m 59s

       When building your own applications, you'll likely run into situations where you require nested layout files. Let's leverage Blade components to make the whole process a cinch.
    8. Build the Follow Form

       19m 10s

       Let's build a "Follow Me" form for the profile page. This should toggle the follow status for the given user. To implement this, we'll discuss a few different approaches that you might consider.
    9. Profile Authorization Logic

       7m 30s

       Before we build a form to edit a user's profile, we must first ensure that the proper authorization is in place.
    10. File Storage and Custom Avatars

        16m 10s

        As part of creating a form to edit a user's profile, let's also finally add support for custom avatars. This will give us a chance to review Laravel's file storage functionality.
    11. Build the Explore Users Page

        10m 14s

        There's currently no way to browse all of the users. Let's add an "Explore" page to solve this.
    12. Clean Up

        12m 55s

        Here's the deal, most applications require hundreds of hours worth of work. We, on the other hand, have about three. With that in mind, we'll begin wrapping up this final project over the next two episodes. Let's begin the final stretch with a general sweep through the code-base, as we search for things to tweak or fix.
    13. Build a Like/Dislike System

        28m 31s

        While there's naturally so much more we could implement, we unfortunately need to wrap up. We'll finish with a full review of how to implement a like/dislike system for tweets.
    14. Goodbye and Next Steps

        2m 43s

        We've sadly reached the end of this series; however, if you'd like to continue working on the final project, I've included a list of recommended next steps within the GitHub repository's readme file. Feel free to fork and improve this toy project as much as you wish.