Since its launch in the 2011s, Laravel rapidly grew in popularity and usage. Today Laravel is one of the most used PHP frameworks. One of the biggest reasons for this meteoric rise is the flexibility offered by the framework.
An experienced Laravel developer can create anything from a complex API to a simple dynamic website. But all this flexibility, usability, and popularity comes at a cost.
If clear attention is not paid to the development cycle of a web app, it can lead to delays and roadblocks. Therefore in this article, we look at ways to optimize Laravel web apps.
Top Tips For A Laravel Developer
Laravel is an extremely prevalent development tool in the web application development community. Laravel, just like many other near-perfect systems, is great but not infallible.
Web apps/websites made through Laravel may hit many roadblocks. A Laravel developer must acquire new tactics that enable an optimized workflow.
Therefore, here are the top four tips to enhance the performance and inject new synergy into a web app created through Laravel:
#1 Laravel Developers Should Adopt New Compilation Practices
Computers naturally do not possess the capability to understand PHP code on their own. To run a PHP code on general computers, you need to use an interpreter that translates PHP code. E.g. Zend Engine
But this process of interpreting and compiling PHP C routines on computers through a third-party is slow. The speed of development is sometimes essential for the success of a project.
Therefore a Laravel developer should start using a JIT compiler. Just-In-Time or JIT is a method where the PHP code’s execution and compilation happen simultaneously. HHVM developed Facebook is one of the best JIT compilers for PHP in the market today.
#2 Laravel Developers Should Review Your Libraries
Laravel is an extremely popular PHP framework used for creating web apps and dynamic websites. This popularity is due to the ease of use and functionality that Laravel offers to web application developers.
Due to such wide-spread use in the development community, finding libraries for a Laravel project is extremely easy. Even though libraries make the development cycle easier, it has a negative side.
Web applications made through the extensive use of libraries can experience increased amounts of drag. Thus to create snappy web apps, a Laravel developer must carefully review the use of libraries.
#3 Profile Your SQL Queries
A website or web application made from Laravel will have to deal with a magnitude of queries from users. If not handled properly, an increase in the number of queries can create potential bottlenecks in a database.
A Laravel developer must incorporate a profiler package into their web app/website to avoid such inconveniences. A profiler package will help you in evaluating the performance of individual SQL queries.
By simulating each query’s execution before it happens, you reduce the chances of code congestion. Profiling each query separately enables you to increase the performance of your SQL database.
#4 Rapid Delivery Of Static Assets
The access and delivery of static assets on a website or web application is a major point primed for optimization. The speed of access and delivery of content to a visitor is critical to the user-engagement of your web app.
Therefore, optimizing the delivery of static assets should be a top priority of a Laravel developer. To speed up the process of content delivery, web application developers should use an independent CDN server.
CDN or Content Delivery Network acts as a bridge between your static assets and client queries. Whenever a visitor requests access to any information on your web app/website, the information gets delivered from the nearest CDN server. Due to the use of proxy CDN servers, your content loads faster, which in turn loads your web app/website faster.
Our Take
Laravel is an important aspect of designing and developing robust web applications. Due to the prominence of Laravel, many web application developers need to optimize the framework.
Thus web application design company that uses Laravel to power its software, apps, websites, etc. must adopt the above-mentioned tips. A business that wants to leverage the power of Laravel should partner with skilled Laravel developers to achieve their goals.
