Why you should upgrade to Laravel 9?

Laravel, the most optimal PHP framework. Do you know why more than a million websites use it?

It’s because Laravel knows how to treat its users. It brings new releases every six months.

Fixed bugs, optimized performance, and enhanced security, are some usual highlights you will see in new Laravel updates.

Similarly, Laravel released its latest version Laravel 9 in February 2022. The framework moved to a 12-month major release cycle.

Laravel 9 comes with a pack of new & exciting features. Its’ creators affirm that it would also promote the pre-available Laravel features to help a business grow faster!

This means it’s time for you to upgrade.

es, be it an upgrade from Laravel 7 to 9 or an upgrade from Laravel 8 to 9, it’s high time for your business.

Today, we will discuss What, and why you should upgrade to Laravel 9. We recommend reading this post till the end.

A team of certified Laravel developers has created it themselves to help you know better and make informed decisions.

Something important to know before upgrading to Laravel 9

The original release date for Laravel 9 was set for September 2021. However, because Symfony 6.0 had to be added to the update, the release date had been pushed back to 8th February 2022.

To run Laravel 9, you need PHP 8.0. Symfony’s latest version 6.0 depends on PHP 8.0, so Laravel is going to release a new major framework every year in February (following semantic versioning). There will also be minor and patch releases every week.

Reasons to upgrade to Laravel 9

Laravel 9 has new features that make it worth upgrading from Laravel 7 or 8.

1) Symfony mailer

This is one of the biggest changes in Laravel’s latest version. SwiftMailer, which is used to send mail, isn’t going to be updated anymore after 2021. Symfony Mailer is a new mail library that will be more consistent with your Laravel application. To make sure your application works well with others, check for the following changes:-

• The Mailer component uses Symfony/mailgun-mailer and Symfony/http-client composer packages.
• Wildbit/Swiftmailer-Postmark is replaced with symfony/postmark-mailer and symfony/http-client.
• Using getSymfonySentMessage, you may call the Symfony mailer component’s SentMessage method.
• The names of unfamiliar SwiftMailer files are changed to Symfony Mailer counterparts.
• The default in Symfony Mailer is to create a Message-ID from the sender rather than using mime.idgenerator.idright configuration option.
• All transports will be disconnected if the connection is interrupted. Symfony Mailer will attempt to reconnect automatically.
• If you want to implement any of the supported options, you must set them in the configuration file directly.
• All of the SendLater smtp-settings.php files should be updated to corresponding Symfony Mailer counterparts instead of missing methods proxied to SwiftMailer’s.

2) Enhanced Mutators/Accessors

In Laravel 9, you may now use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Casts\\Attribute to define accessors and mutators. This is a method to declare a model prefix. You can now get and set attributes using this method. In addition, defining accessors will cache object values like in custom cast classes.

3) Controller route groups

The controller method is used to create a common controller for every route in the group. This will make it easier to read and understand the route definitions.

4) Flysystem 3.x

When you upgrade Laravel version 9. x it also upgrades Flysystem 1. x to 3. x. This will make Laravel development processes easier and faster. Take a look at the modifications listed below:

• Now, when you write operations, the files that already exist will be replaced.
• If the write operation fails, it will no longer trigger an exception.
• Since cached adapters are no longer supported, the cache key could be removed from the disk configuration.

5) Scout database engine

Laravel Scout is a driver-based solution that lets you search through your Eloquent models. This used to require services like Algolia or MeiliSearch, but now you can do it yourself if you’re using MySQL or PostgreSQL. With Laravel Scout, you can use the model’s toArray() method to search the database. This new search method doesn’t require traditional indexing as you needed with Algolia.

6) Blade string rendering

Laravel 9 now provides the ability to render a blade string into its HTML equivalent. The render method validates the blade template string and an optional data array to be used by the template.

The render component approach is a way to render a specific class component without invoking the component instance.

In addition to these, the most recent version of Laravel has introduced checked and selected blade components for working out in a specific situation.

7) Where clauses / Full-text indexes

This is one of the most significant changes in this version. When using MySQL or PostgreSQL, full-text indexes are now available with Laravel 9.

By means of Laravel 9, the whereFullText() method becomes a string in the appropriate SQL for the underlying DBMS.

8) Implicit route bindings with enums

PHP 8.1 first supported Enums. In Laravel 9.x, you can type-hint an Enum on your route definition. The framework will only invoke the route if it has a valid Enum value in the URI. If not then an HTTP 404 response will return automatically.

9) New helper functions

Even though the risk of this new feature is low, it makes basic work much easier. Laravel 9.x now includes a global str helper function. This means you can use the function instead of using the confusing string helper function that PHP used to provide.

In the previous release of Laravel, if you used a closure when or unless methods, the methods would always be true. In Laravel 9.x, the value returned by the closure will be considered a boolean value when passing through when and unless methods.

10) Bootstrap 5 pagination views

Laravel 9 has upgraded to Bootstrap 5 pagination. The old way of getting tailwind views is no longer necessary. You can now use the useBootstrapFive method for pagination.

Conclusion

Laravel 9.x is the first PHP framework that will have a new release every year. The creators want to give users the best possible solutions and experiences.

With the latest version of Laravel, it will be easier to develop web apps. If you need help designing a web app, you can hire Laravel 9 developers from us.

We are a Laravel-certified agency. Our team has experience working with Laravel clients across the US, Europe, Australia, and the UK.

If you have an idea or concept and want to discuss it, let’s talk.