Since 2011, Laravel has been gaining immense popularity and has maintained its position as one of the best PHP web development frameworks. It is an open-source platform that offers a syntax that is expressive and elegant. The framework structure and associated libraries make sure that developers can create powerful code with minimum effort. This code still has room for optimization that can be used to optimize the performance of Laravel applications to ensure smooth performance after deployment.
No PHP web developer is untouched by Laravel nowadays. And they prefer Laravel due to its excellent and robust functionalities such as dependency injection, queues, database abstraction layer, integration testing, schedule jobs, and much more. They are either a mid-level or junior developer who prefers to choose the rapid app development that Laravel offers.
Optimization and performance are the major factors that determine the success of every organization. It makes sure the performance of the Laravel application is an important skill that every developer should be able to deliver to their clients. It is also used for building business information systems, you just need to follow the tips to improve the performance of Laravel powered apps has serious implications for the success of the business.
In this article, we’re going to discuss various tips and tricks that will help you to improve the performance of your web application and also help you save big bucks. So, without any further ado, let’s get started!
Top Laravel Performance Optimization Tips to Follow in 2021 and Beyond
Tip 1: Use Eager Loading
Laravel offers ORM for dealing with databases known as Eloquent. It generates models that abstract the database tables from the developers and deal with all CRUD operations in PHP. When Eloquent uses eager loading, it regains all correlated object models in response to the initial query and adds to the response of the application.
Now, let’s compare lazy loading and eager loading:
Lazy loading:
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$books = App\Book::all(); foreach ($books as $book) { echo $book->author->name,} |
Eager loading:
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$books = App\Book::with(‘author’)->get(); foreach ($books as $book) { echo $book->author->name, } |
Tip 2: Add Middleware
After declaring the package we require to attach middleware details in the Kernel.php file. You just need to copy and paste it following codes under $middlewareGroups,
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protected $middlewareGroups = [ ‘web’ => [ \RenatoMarinho\LaravelPageSpeed\Middleware\InlineCss::class, \RenatoMarinho\LaravelPageSpeed\Middleware\ElideAttributes::class, \RenatoMarinho\LaravelPageSpeed\Middleware\InsertDNSPrefetch::class, \RenatoMarinho\LaravelPageSpeed\Middleware\RemoveComments::class, \RenatoMarinho\LaravelPageSpeed\Middleware\TrimUrls::class, \RenatoMarinho\LaravelPageSpeed\Middleware\RemoveQuotes::class, \RenatoMarinho\LaravelPageSpeed\Middleware\CollapseWhitespace::class, ] ] Define Route I going to add a route to check Optimized Website Speed and Performance in Laravel 5.5 Route::get(‘/listView’, function () { return view(‘listView’); }); |
Tip 3: Use Artisan Commands
A command-line tool is one of the best features provided by the Laravel framework and it is also known as Artisan. If you apply it efficiently, you can enhance your application’s performance.
You can accumulate the routes as well as the config and execute the below command to cache config and routes:
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php artisan config:cache php artisan route:cache |
Take a note: Artisan Optimize was eliminated in Laravel 5.5 this works in previous versions.
| php artisan optimize –force |
Do not forget to clear the cache while adding new config/routes. To clear the cache, you can follow the below-mentioned commands:
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php artisan config:clear php artisan route:cache php artisan view:clear |
Tip 4: Remove Unused Service
Laravle offers server containers that can be used to inject services. You just have to add the service in the provider array in the config/app.php file. But make sure you can only use the services that are already started. Other unwanted services and resources may create an unnecessary burden on the system.
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//AppServiceProvider.php public function boot() { config([‘app.timezone’ => “Your time Zone”]); config([‘app.locale’ => “Your Local”]); } //with app-settings() helper function public function boot() { config([‘app.timezone’ => app_settings(‘timezone’)]); config([‘app.locale’ => app_settings(‘locale’)]); } |
Tip 5: Asset Optimization
When you’re using the Laravel application for any front-end asset, ensure there’s a pipeline that compiles and minifies all the asset files. You can also use a bundler system such as Parcel, Webpack, Gulp, etc., don’t need to bother, but if you’re not doing this already, Laravel Mix is a solid recommendation.
The mix is a lightweight wrapper around Webpack that takes care of all your asset files such as CSS, SASS, JS, etc., for production. A typical .mix.js file can be as small as this and still work wonders:
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const mix = require(‘laravel-mix’); mix.js(‘resources/js/app.js’, ‘public/js’) .sass(‘resources/sass/app.scss’, ‘public/css’); |
All the imports, optimization, and minification are automatically managed and run npm run production. The mix takes care of not just traditional JS and CSS files, but also Vue and React components that you might have used in your application workflow.
Tip 6: Autoloader Optimization
Autoloading is a neat, not-so-old characteristic used in PHP that arguably preserved the conversation from doom. This stated, the method of obtaining and encumbering the appropriate class by revealing a given namespace string uses time and can be eliminated in production deployments where great performance is acceptable. For this, Laravel offers a single-command solution:
| composer install –optimize-autoloader –no-dev |
Tip 7: Use Laravel Queues
Using Laravel queues in your web application to defer tasks that consume a huge amount of time to complete for a later period is recommended. For instance, if you’re planning to build an app that sends a mail when any user login takes place. At this time, if you write the code sequentially for creating a record in the database, then it is recommended to use a third-party application to represent the Welcome screen and improve the user experience.
Laravel also provides you with a Queue mechanism through which you can lower the time consumed by functions for later execution and speed up the execution time.
The below-mentioned code makes this point very clear.
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public function register(Request $request) { // validate form inputs $this->validator($request->all())->validate(); // persist user to database $user = $this->create($request->all()); // send welcome email Mail::to($user)->send(new WelcomeEmail($user)); // log user in $this->guard()->login($user); return $this->registered($request, $user) ?: redirect($this->redirectPath()); } |
If you’re using this tip, you’re not only optimizing the app performance but it also helps in executing the code quickly and enhances your user experience.
Tip 8: Leverage JIT Compiler
To improve the performance of your Laravel website, translate PHP code to bytecode and then execute as a resource-intensive process. This is why the go-between before-mentioned as Zend Engine is expected to execute the C subroutines. This is a continuous process that has to be repeated every time the app is executed. To save your time, make sure to repeat this process at least once.
Tip 9: Cache Queries Results
Making sure to cache the results of the queries that are frequently running, it is a great way to improve the performance of your Laravel web application. For this, it is recommend to use the remember function, that can be used as follows:
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$posts = Cache::remember(‘index.posts’, 30, function() {return Post::with(‘comments’, ‘tags’, ‘author’, ‘seo’)->whereHidden(0)->get();}); |
Tip 10: Reduce Packages Usage
Laravel is one of the most popular and widely used frameworks among the open-source community and almost every day we see a new package is released. These packages can be used to add some functionality directly to your code.
Make sure to add the package in the composer.json file, and Laravel will automatically take care of downloading it as its dependency. This tip is an essential tip to follow and implement before adding any package to optimize the performance of your application. Also, check the dependencies of the package you are going to install. If your package has more than one dependency, then the app size will increase drastically.
Tip 11: Minify Blade Views
To boost the responsiveness of your application, make sure you always minify your views so that Lararvel compiled most of the views but does not minify them. It is recommended that you should always push minified views on your production server. Use the Laravel HTMLin package to minify your blade views at the compile time.
Conclusion
Here we discussed the major tips that every professional web developer follows to optimize the performance of the Laravel application. Do you think we missed out on any important tip that as a developer must know? If so, then do let us know in the comment section below, till then Happy coding!