Since its first introduction by Taylor Otwell in the year 2011, Laravel has gained tremendous popularity over the years as a free, open-source PHP web framework to develop business-related applications, including Business Information Management Systems (BIMS) and e-commerce platforms. While the framework is already very powerful and comes loaded with various groundbreaking features to create strong codes with minimal efforts, there are still many ways Laravel development companies can speed up applications’ performance. Here are 5 important tips on how Laravel applications can be finetuned: -

  •  Route Caching – For apps with a lot of routes and configuration, route caching is an amazing optimization feature and Laravel application developers should definitely use it. Route caching significantly decreases the amount of time it takes to register all routes of the application. For route caching, run the command:
php artisan route:cache
Now, the cached routes file will load on every request instead of loading routes from routes/web.php. Remember to generate a fresh route cache every time config or the routes files are changed. To clear cache, use the command:

php artisan route:clear

  • Config Caching - The basic usage of Laravel’s Artisan Cache Config command is:
php artisan config:cache
Once you cache the config, the changes you make do not have any effect. If you want to refresh the config, you can just run the above command once again. The command to clear the config cache is:

php artisan config:clear
Laravel development company wishing to optimize the application further, can use OPcache. It caches the PHP code and there is no need to recompile it.

  • Eager Loading – Laravel provides Laravel application developers with a great ORM known as Eloquent, to deal with all CRUD operations in PHP. When it uses eager loading, Eloquent retrieves all associated object models in response to the initial query. Eager loading query will look like:
1.    $books = App\Book::with('author')->get();
2.   
3.    foreach ($books as $book) {
4.   
5.    echo $book->author->name;
6.   
7.    }

  • Precompiling Assets
Laravel development companies can distribute code into separate files for application tuning. Although this step does not contribute to efficient production as such, it surely keeps the code clean and manageable. A simple command for this is:
1.    php artisan optimize
2.   
3.    php artisan config:cache
4.   
5.    php artisan route:cache

  • Limiting Included libraries
Although a huge number of libraries is a big plus point of Laravel, its downside is the high level of drag that slows down the overall performance. Therefore, it is crucial to review all the libraries within the code. If you feel that you can do without a library, it is better to remove it from the config/app.php in order to speed up the Laravel app.

So, these were some of the tips on how to speed up Laravel applications. Looking to hire a Laravel developer? Partner with Resourcifi – a technology-based company specializing in managed remote staff augmentation, SEO, website & application development services.