This blog consists of every single thing you need to learn about packages before actually shifting to Laravel. This guide will surely make you understand the Laravel specific package definition and use of every popular and useful package.
After reading this blog, you will get to know,
- What is Laravel package?
- Types of Laravel Packages
- List of top Laravel Packages
- How to install Laravel packages in Laravel?
What is Laravel package?
There is always certain lines of code which is common in all programs. Writing the same code over and over again in all programs isn’t a productive idea. So, they developed many packages for individual uses. In more ‘arranged’ words, a package is nothing but a collection of Laravel based PHP file bundled together to offer certain functionality like social login. By using packages, developers can write the minimum code for satisfying a complex task. Packages are actually guardian angels of the developers.
Anyone can create packages but responsible teams of Laravel publish packages after heavy testing. Which means, packages are really reliable.
Types of Laravel Packages
There are generally two types of Laravel Packages. One is Laravel specific Laravel Packages and other is Standard PHP packages. Here, it is worth mentioning that third-party contributors or open-source vendors develop and submit Laravel packages and Laravel developers can easily integrate those packages into web or mobile application development.
- Laravel Specific Laravel Packages
Laravel Specific Laravel Packages can only be used in Laravel applications. This type of packages extends the Laravel application as they come with Views/Routes/Controller. To develop Laravel specific Laravel packages, one can use the Laravel framework itself.
- Standard PHP Packages
Standard PHP packages are generally considered as Standalone packages. Unlike Laravel Specific Laravel Packages, standard PHP packages can work in any type of Laravel framework. Best examples of such type of packages are Carbon and Behat. If you want to use standard PHP packages in the Laravel, you can only use it along with composer.json file.
So, now when you know the concept of Laravel package and types of it, let’s study top Laravel packages and their uses to develop robust mobile and web applications quickly.
Top Laravel Packages
I am the CEO of an IT firm and so, I have selected those Laravel packages which are very popular in my company as well as in other companies. Meaning, you are getting a genius list, verified by the CEO himself!
- Laravel Socialite
If you will ever meet any Laravel Developer, I am encouraging you to ask him his favourite Laravel package. His answer would be Socialite!
Socialite is the most popular and useful Laravel package to authenticate the users. Using this package, developers can write the code for user authentication with OAuth authentication mechanism. Moreover, Socialite lets developers enable social login into web or mobile applications. It supports Google login, Facebook login, LinkedIn login, Twitter login, Github Login and BitBucket login.
To download it, click here.
- Laravel Debugbar
Laravel Debugbar package was created by Barry Vd. Thanks to this package, developers can debug the Laravel program very easily.
To download it, click here.
- Laravel Tinker
Laravel Tinker is a very powerful Laravel Package. With it, developers are not required to write complicated code to view the data of the database as Tinker offers a really convenient way to fetch data from the database. It takes an input, processes it and returns the result. Because of this nature, it is generally called Real-Eval-Print Loop or REPL.
To download it, click here.
- Laravel Zizaco
If there is a need for integrating role-based login or permission feature in the web or mobile app, developers have to write complicated code. But Laravel Zizaco or Entrust makes it happen with minimum efforts. It is a great package to use to define role-based permission in Laravel web or mobile applications.
Laravel Zizaco lets developers create different users with different roles and grant permission satisfying their roles. This type of scenario is very common when you are working on ERP projects.
To download it, click here.
- Laravel Backup
There has always been a need to create backup files of pages and activities of web and mobile applications. And like always, writing code for generating backup files is a tedious process.
But here is the alternative – Laravel Backup package is the easiest way to generate backup files. It generates a zip file which stores all files along with the dump of the database. To actualize the backup using Laravel Backup package, you just need to write the following code,
php artisan backup:run
To download it, click here.
- No Captcha
Spamming is the problem all sites and apps are facing and to limit spanning, they are using Google Recaptcha validation. But without using No Captcha Laravel package, it is the outcome of more than 100 lines of code compared to 10 lines of code using No Captcha package.
No Captcha package implements Google reCaptcha validation and protects forms from spammers. But you also need to satisfy a pre-requirement – getting an API key from reCaptcha.
To download it, click here.
- Laravel Bagisto
Laravel Bagisto is feature-packed open source Laravel eCommerce package, highly used in developing eCommerce app. With it, Laravel developers can write the code of user management, inventory management, and payment management without burning candles from both sides.
Since Laravel CMS package works with Laravel Bagisto package, it offers some more features like a faster way of adding multi-currency, localization and access control.
To download it, click here.
- Laravel tracker
App or site owners always want to know the traffic of his site and the behaviour of that traffic. Laravel tracker is a very useful package to satisfy such demand. It gathers data of users or visitors. This data includes session, page views, users, their devices, browsers, OSs and locations.
To download it, click here.
We are almost done – we will now understand the way to install and configure downloaded packages.
How to install Laravel packages?
Following are the 4 steps you must follow to install the Laravel packages.
Step 1:
First of all, you are required to modify the composer.json file. To achieve so, open the composer.jason file which is there under the root folder of your Laravel application. Once you open it, add the package name you are trying to install. In our case, we are installing a Socialite package.
“laravel/socialite”:”2.0.*@dev”
Step 2:
Give composer update command to download and install package. It will update the Laravel package in the configuration file of composer.json.
Step 3:
Till now, we have successfully installed the package. Now, we need to configure the package to make it usage-ready in Laravel applications. To configure it, all we need to do is add service provider in config/app.php.
‘provider’ =>[
Laravel\socialite\SocialiteServiceProvider;;class]
‘aliases’ => [
‘Socialite’=> Laravel\Socialite\Facades\Socialite;;class],
Step 4:
In the last step, we need to publish an installed and configured package. And to publish it, just write the following code.
php artisan vendor: publish
To know the installation process in detail, please watch this video.
Conclusion
Behind the popularity of the Laravel framework, its easy-to-use packages and large package directory are the main reasons. Laravel packages enable developers to develop mobile and web applications with minimum efforts. Since all Laravel packages are verified, developers will not regret using it. Not only developers but Laravel packages are helpful to site owners too. A site or app which is developed in Laravel is feature-packed and very easy to maintain. So, site owners can also derive many benefits.
About the AuthorVishal Virani: Vishal Virani is a Founder and CEO of Coruscate Solutions, a leading PHP app development company which offers hire Laravel developer service. He enjoys writing about the vital role of mobile apps for different industries, custom web development, and the latest technology trends.
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