Glossary
Laravel glossary
The words that turn up in quotations and status reports, briefly explained. For anyone who wants to follow the conversation without writing the code.
The terms are sorted by their role rather than alphabetically. If you want to know what a Laravel application is made of, that is the first block. If you want to look up a product name from a quotation, the second. The third collects what appears in every software project and takes a particular shape in Laravel.
Building blocks
What a Laravel application is made of
The parts that show up in almost every project and get talked about in status reports.
Blade
Laravel's template system for HTML pages generated on the server.
Controller
The part of the program that takes a call, sets what is needed in motion and returns an answer.
Eloquent
Laravel's way of addressing database tables as objects instead of writing SQL by hand.
Events and listeners
A mechanism by which one process announces that something has happened and other parts react to it.
Middleware
Code every request passes before it reaches its destination, for signing in, permissions or logging.
Migration (database)
A versioned description of a change to the database structure that can be applied repeatably.
Queue
A mechanism for taking time-consuming tasks out of the request and having them worked off later.
Routing
The mapping that decides which address in the browser calls which part of the application.
Scheduler
Laravel's way of running tasks regularly, a nightly import or a report on the first of the month.
Service container
The mechanism that supplies classes with what they depend on, instead of each one seeing to it itself.
Validation
The rules deciding which input an application accepts and which it turns away.
Tools
Products and tools around Laravel
Names that turn up in quotations. What they do and when they are worth it.
Artisan
The command-line tool that ships with Laravel, for recurring tasks, maintenance and scripts of your own.
Composer
The tool that installs third-party PHP packages, keeps them current and resolves their dependencies on each other.
Docker
A way of running the application and the services it needs in sealed environments that are the same everywhere.
Horizon
An interface showing what is happening in the queues of a Laravel application right now.
Inertia
A connecting layer that attaches a JavaScript front end to Laravel without an API of its own having to exist.
Livewire
An extension that lets parts of a page update without a second project in JavaScript coming into being.
Octane
A way of running the application permanently instead of starting it fresh for every request.
Sanctum
Laravel's slim way of signing in apps and interfaces without running a full OAuth server.
Telescope
A tool that records the requests, database queries, emails and errors of a Laravel application.
Concepts
Concepts and practices
Not specific to Laravel, but present in every project. Here is what they actually mean.
Automated tests
Programs that check other programs, so that a fault shows up before it meets somebody in production.
Cache
A store for results that are expensive to work out and rarely change.
CI/CD
A process in which every change is checked automatically and, if it passes, shipped.
CSRF
An attack in which another site triggers an action in the name of a signed-in user.
Dependency Injection
A principle in which a part of the program is given what it needs instead of fetching it itself.
MVC
An ordering principle that keeps data access, presentation and flow control apart.
FAQ
Questions about the glossary
Who is the glossary for?
Why are some terms not specific to Laravel at all?
How detailed are the explanations?
A term missing?
Write and tell us which one. We will add it if it comes up often enough.