Laravel 12 Beginner's Guide: Build Your First Application

What Laravel gives you

Laravel combines expressive PHP syntax with a mature ecosystem for routing, databases, queues, mail, authentication, and testing. Its conventions help you move from an idea to a maintainable application quickly.

Create the foundation

Install PHP, Composer, Node, and a database, then create a project with the Laravel installer. Configure the application key and environment values, run migrations, and keep secrets out of version control.

Build a first feature

1. Define a named route and point it to a controller.
2. Create a migration and model for your data.
3. Use a form request for validation and clear error messages.
4. Render a Blade view with reusable layout components.

Quality and deployment

Write feature tests for important user journeys, run formatting and static checks, and use queues for slow work. In production, cache configuration and routes, serve through HTTPS, and monitor logs.