Laravel is the most widely used and the best PHP framework out there. App Developers in Houston use it to create apps and websites of all sizes.
If you’re thinking of using it for an enterprise-level large project with a ton of Eloquent Models and routes, then here are the ten things you have to remember:
10 Ways to Prepare for a Large Laravel Project Development
1. Familiarize Yourself With Automatic Testing
The larger the project, the higher the stakes. Therefore, testing is crucial for every software project, especially large projects with many public controller methods.
But manually testing your code can be extremely time-consuming. And it’s almost impossible to do when multiple developers and designers work on their specific app sections.
Luckily, Laravel makes it easy for you to test the app by using its automated testing features. You can define test methods and run different segments of the code easily.
Start with testing the most important functions for your project. That way, even if you’re short on time, you can ensure that your project will run smoothly once it goes live.
2. Learn When and How to Upgrade
Large projects are built to last. That means you need to upgrade the framework regularly.
Not only that, but the packages you use also have to be updated to the latest version to ensure optimal performance of your software.
Laravel releases a new version almost yearly now. So even if you start with the latest version when building the app, you’ll still have to update in a few months or a year.
Hence as a developer of a big Laravel project, you should learn about the process of updating Laravel, steps to protect your website or app from data loss, ways to remove outdated packages and install better ones, and most importantly – learn when you have to upgrade.
3. Prepare the Code With New Developers in Mind
You’ll probably need additional developers on your team down the line. This is because large projects only grow larger with more users and additional features.
So it would be best if you lay the groundwork in a way that helps new developers get used to your code structure.
For instance, one thing you can do is create a factory and a seed for every new Eloquent model that you create. That’ll make it easy for your new team members to check their code without waiting for real users to visit the website or use the Laravel app.
So before you begin developing the project, learn about the default database seeder class, the call method, and the best way to control the seed order for your project.
4. Carefully Choose Your Database Structure
The default Laravel structure is great for large projects. But it may not be ideal for you if you’re used to your database tables being arranged a certain way.
A great feature of this PHP framework is that it gives you complete freedom in choosing your database structure.
You can also choose the relationships you want to create in the base code. Some of the options are HasOne, HasMany, and BelongsToMany.
The key is to choose the one that’ll work even when your project grows. Remember, you must design the code keeping the project’s future in mind.
This is one of the most important steps for a large project. If you aren’t sure, you should contact Laravel development services for expert advice.
5. Think Long Term
To build on the last point, while your database structure is important, don’t forget the other things you need for the project, such as packages and plugins. You’ve got to choose these with the future in mind as well.
Your code should be simple enough for other developers to understand yet flexible enough to accommodate changes later.
For example, think of the future while choosing your Laravel packages. Then, ask yourself if you need those packages and check if they’ll get regular updates.
6. Check Your Firewall
Security is a major concern for large applications. So it would be best if you were extra mindful of that during development.
There are too many ways that bugs can enter your system. But, as a developer, you must prepare for most of them.
So you should create an extra secure firewall for your Laravel project and test it many times during the development stage.
7. Prioritize Performance and Speed Optimization
A big project means a lot of users. So it would be best if you had enough servers to accommodate them without compromising performance.
Some areas you’ll have to optimize during development and maintenance include web server and PHP configuration, queue mechanism, content load speed, removing unused services and plugins, and going for a faster cache, to name a few.
One thing you can do for your future self is set up a performance analysis and reporting system. It can serve as a diagnostic tool for you.
That way, you’ll get updates about what systems aren’t performing well, and then you can quickly fix those.
The upside of doing this is that your website or app will rarely have slow speed since you’ll fix the issues as soon as they pop up.
8. Contingency Plan for Downtime
You can’t afford to have your website or app down for too long because of technical issues or while you’re deploying new changes. So have a plan in place for when the website does go down. Or you can hire a company that can provide services like web development in Houston.
For instance, you can ensure excellent data backup to bring your app online again ASAP after it goes down. Or you can use tools such as the official Envoyer product that gives you zero downtime during deployment.
9. Choose Cloud
Given the scale of your project, you should consider building the app or website on the cloud. It reduces the need for hardware and reduces the costs associated with it.
Developers are quickly adapting the cloud for software development. Since it’s the future and you’ll have to move to the cloud at some point, you might as well start your project with the cloud.
The cloud offers quite a few advantages over hardware servers.
The best thing about it is that a load of your Laravel project will be distributed over several servers if you’re using multiple clouds. That makes scaling your app in the future much easier.
10. Prepare a Data Recovery Plan
Any half-decent developer knows that you always have to perform backups of your project. But only experienced developers try to recover the backup during project development to see if it works.
You can’t risk not testing that for a large Laravel project, especially because recovery gets tricker when many database servers are involved.
So you have to run the import at least once to ensure that it executes perfectly. You might find some issues with the data recovery system that need fixing. You can use this time to fix them before you have to recover data.
The Takeaway – 10 Ways to Prepare for a Large Laravel Project Development
While developing a large Laravel project, you must prepare your app or website for the future. Therefore, your project will naturally increase in size and expand in functionalities with time.
So your base code needs to be stable. Only then can you build something amazing with this incredible PHP framework.
