Hello Laravel community! 👋
The Laracon US 2024 keynote by Taylor Otwell just wrapped up, and there are some exciting new features coming to the Laravel ecosystem. Let's break down the key announcements!
You can watch the video here if you prefer too:
1. Laravel Cloud ☁️
Laravel Cloud is set to change how we deploy Laravel applications:
- 🚀 Deploy from GitHub to a live URL in under a minute
- 🔄 Automatic scaling and load balancing
- 🐘 Serverless PostgreSQL databases that auto-scale
- 💤 App and database hibernation to reduce costs
- 🌿 Branch-based preview environments
- 🧑🔧 Integrated queue workers and job processing
This platform aims to make deployment fast and worry-free for Laravel developers.
Larave Forge which we all love, will still remain if this is your thing!
2. Inertia 2.0 ✨
Inertia.js is getting a major upgrade with version 2.0:
- 🏎️ Async requests for better performance
- 🔄 Easy data polling
- 👀 "When visible" lazy loading
- 🛝 Helpers for infinite scrolling
- 🏃♂️ Page prefetching for faster navigation
- 🚚 Deferred props to optimize initial page loads
These features will help create more responsive and faster-loading applications with Inertia.
3. Official VS Code Extension 💻
I don't know about you but this is a huge thing for me! I wrote a post on the VS Code extensions that I am using and it will be great to update that post and just include that official VS Code extension!
Laravel is releasing an official Visual Studio Code extension:
- 🧠 Enhanced autocompletion for Laravel code
- 🕵️ Improved error detection
- 🗺️ Easy navigation between related files
- 🧪 Built-in testing tools
This extension will make Laravel development in VS Code more efficient and user-friendly.
4. Framework Updates 🛠️
The improvements to the Framework are worth of a totally separate post themselves! But some of the the Laravel framework new features that were announce were:
- 🎯 Container attributes for simpler dependency injection
- 🏃♂️ Deferred functions for background processing without queues
- 🚦 Concurrency facade for parallel processing
- 🧊 Improved caching with flexible time-to-live options
- 🗄️ Local private file serving
I love the new deffered functions! A game changer for simple tasks where you don't want to introduce jobs and queues.
These updates focus on improving performance and simplifying common tasks.
5. Design Improvements 🎨
The Laravel team is also focusing on design:
- Refreshing the Laravel.com website
- Creating a new brand resource site
- Improving the documentation experience
These changes aim to enhance the overall Laravel brand and make resources more accessible.
Conclusion
Laracon US 2024 has shown that Laravel continues to evolve and improve. From Laravel Cloud to Inertia 2.0, the VS Code extension, and core framework updates, there's a lot to look forward to in the Laravel ecosystem.
Keep an eye on the official Laravel channels for more information about release dates and how to get early access to Laravel Cloud.
What new feature are you most excited about? We'd love to hear your thoughts!