PHP Laravel Basics Cheat Sheet
Covers Artisan CLI commands, routing and controllers, Eloquent ORM models, and core Laravel concepts like Blade and middleware.
2 PagesBeginnerMar 22, 2026
Artisan CLI
Common commands for scaffolding and running a Laravel app.
bash
composer create-project laravel/laravel myapp # Create new Laravel appphp artisan serve # Start dev server (localhost:8000)php artisan make:model Post -m # Model + migrationphp artisan make:controller PostController -r # Resource controllerphp artisan migrate # Run pending migrationsphp artisan migrate:rollback # Roll back last migration batchphp artisan tinker # Interactive REPL
Routes & Controllers
Resourceful routing and request validation.
php
// routes/web.phpuse App\Http\Controllers\PostController;Route::get('/', function () { return view('welcome');});Route::resource('posts', PostController::class);// generates index, create, store, show, edit, update, destroy// app/Http/Controllers/PostController.phpclass PostController extends Controller{ public function index() { $posts = Post::latest()->paginate(10); return view('posts.index', compact('posts')); } public function store(Request $request) { $validated = $request->validate([ 'title' => 'required|max:255', 'body' => 'required', ]); Post::create($validated); return redirect()->route('posts.index'); }}
Eloquent Models
Defining relationships and running queries.
php
// app/Models/Post.phpclass Post extends Model{ protected $fillable = ['title', 'body', 'user_id']; public function author() { return $this->belongsTo(User::class, 'user_id'); } public function comments() { return $this->hasMany(Comment::class); }}// Query examplesPost::where('published', true)->orderBy('created_at', 'desc')->get();Post::find(1);Post::create(['title' => 'Hello', 'body' => 'World']);$post->comments()->create(['body' => 'Nice!']);
Core Laravel Concepts
Key building blocks every Laravel app relies on.
- Blade- Laravel's templating engine; files end in .blade.php and use {{ $var }} plus @if/@foreach directives
- Middleware- Filters HTTP requests, e.g. auth and throttle; registered in app/Http/Kernel.php and applied via ->middleware('auth')
- Migrations- Version-controlled schema changes in database/migrations/, run with php artisan migrate
- Service Container- Laravel's IoC container that resolves class dependencies automatically via type-hinting
- Eloquent ORM- ActiveRecord-style ORM mapping model classes to database tables by convention (Post maps to posts)
- .env / config- Environment-specific settings loaded from .env and accessed via the config() or env() helpers
Form Request Validation
Extracting validation and authorization logic out of controllers into a dedicated request class.
php
// php artisan make:request StorePostRequestclass StorePostRequest extends FormRequest{ public function authorize(): bool { return $this->user()->can('create', Post::class); } public function rules(): array { return [ 'title' => ['required', 'string', 'max:255'], 'body' => ['required', 'string'], 'tags' => ['array'], 'tags.*' => ['exists:tags,id'], ]; }}// PostControllerpublic function store(StorePostRequest $request){ Post::create($request->validated()); return redirect()->route('posts.index');}
Eager Loading & Avoiding N+1
Loading relationships up front instead of firing a query per row.
php
// N+1: fires one query per post to fetch author$posts = Post::all();foreach ($posts as $post) { echo $post->author->name; }// Fixed: single extra query for all authors$posts = Post::with('author', 'comments')->get();// Nested + conditional eager loading$posts = Post::with(['comments' => function ($q) { $q->where('approved', true)->latest();}])->withCount('comments')->get();// Detect N+1 during development// Model::preventLazyLoading(! app()->isProduction());
Queues & Jobs
Deferring slow work (emails, image processing) to a background worker.
php
// php artisan make:job SendWelcomeEmailclass SendWelcomeEmail implements ShouldQueue{ use Dispatchable, InteractsWithQueue, Queueable, SerializesModels; public function __construct(public User $user) {} public function handle(): void { Mail::to($this->user)->send(new WelcomeMail($this->user)); } public $tries = 3; public $backoff = 30;}// DispatchingSendWelcomeEmail::dispatch($user)->onQueue('emails');// Worker (runs continuously in production, e.g. under Supervisor)// php artisan queue:work --tries=3 --backoff=30
Service Providers & Binding
Registering custom bindings so the container resolves an interface to a concrete implementation.
php
// app/Providers/PaymentServiceProvider.phpclass PaymentServiceProvider extends ServiceProvider{ public function register(): void { $this->app->bind(PaymentGateway::class, function ($app) { return new StripeGateway(config('services.stripe.secret')); }); $this->app->singleton(ReportCache::class); }}// Anywhere via constructor injectionclass CheckoutController extends Controller{ public function __construct(private PaymentGateway $gateway) {}}
Advanced Laravel Building Blocks
Framework features beyond basic CRUD, used once an app grows past a single controller.
- Policies- Class-based authorization tied to a model, checked via $this->authorize() or @can in Blade
- Route Model Binding- Route::get('/posts/{post}', ...) automatically resolves {post} to a Post model or 404s
- Task Scheduling- Cron-like jobs defined in routes/console.php and driven by a single 'php artisan schedule:run' cron entry
- Events & Listeners- Decouple side effects (e.g. UserRegistered -> SendWelcomeEmail) from the code that triggers them
- API Resources- Transform Eloquent models into consistent JSON shapes via php artisan make:resource
- Facades- Static-looking proxies (Cache::, Auth::) that resolve to container-bound singletons at call time
- Collections- Fluent wrapper around arrays returned by Eloquent, with map/filter/groupBy/reduce chains
Pro Tip
Always mass-assign through $fillable (or $guarded) on Eloquent models — leaving both empty and calling create() with raw request input opens mass-assignment vulnerabilities.
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