What's New in Laravel 11: Streamlined Application

Marked as March 12, 2024

Laravel 11 has arrived with a leaner and more efficient codebase, shedding approximately 69 files compared to its predecessor.

Let's summarize the main features and changes:

• Slim Skeleton

  Laravel 11 introduces a more minimalistic application skeleton, with changes in the folder structure. Notable changes include the removal of folders like app/Console, app/Exceptions, and app/Http/Middleware. Changes have been made so that routes, middlewares, and exceptions are now registered in the bootstrap/app.php file.

• Config Changes

  Several config files have been removed from the config/ folder, but you can manually publish them using the php artisan config:publish command. Additionally, some config values have been removed in favor of automation within the framework.

• Welcome Page

  Laravel 11 with a new welcome page, featuring light and dark mode options which have vibrant backgrounds, clean icons, and four main sections/links for documentation, Laravel News, Laracasts, and prominent ecosystem links.

• Casts Method

  Casts are now declared within the casts() method instead of the $casts property in models, offering improved organization and flexibility.

• Artisan Commands

  Laravel 11 introduces a new make: artisan commands for creating enum, interface, trait, and class and providing more versatility in code generation.

• Health Endpoint

  A new health check route, /up, is now registered in Laravel 11, offering insight into application response times.

• Dumpable Trait

  A new Dumpable trait is introduced, designed to simplify code debugging by replacing traditional methods like dd() and dump().

• Once() method

  Introduces a new memoization function called once() to ensure a callable is only called once.

• Route Changes

  Laravel 11 does not include routes/api.php by default, and Sanctum isn't installed automatically. You can use php artisan install:api and php artisan install:broadcast commands to set up the API scaffolding and broadcasting.

• APP_KEY Rotation

  Laravel 11 introduces graceful rotation so  APP_KEY that changes to the key do not disrupt database operations, mitigating the risk of data corruption.

• Limit Eager Load

  Laravel 11 enables the native limiting of eagerly loaded records without the need for external packages, streamlining data retrieval processes.

• Prompt Validation

  The integration of Prompt Validator brings user-friendly forms to command-line applications, boasting browser-like features such as placeholder text and validation support.

• Minimum PHP 8.2

  Laravel 11 mandates a minimum PHP version of 8.2, dropping support for PHP 8.1.