Laravel 8 is just released!

Laravel 8 is now released and includes many new features including Laravel Jetstream, a models directory, model factory classes, migration squashing, rate-limiting improvements, time testing helpers, dynamic blade components, and many more features.

Before we jump into the new features, we’d like to point out that starting with version 6, Laravel now follows semver and will release a new major version every six months. You can see how the release process works here.

Laravel Jetstream

Laravel Jetstream improves upon the existing Laravel UI scaffolding found in previous versions. It provides a starting point for new projects, including login, registration, email verification, two-factor authentication, session management, API support via Laravel, and team management.

Models Directory

Laravel 8’s application skeleton includes an app/Models directory. All generator commands assume models exist in app/Models; however if this directory doesn’t exist, the framework will assume the application keeps models within the app/ folder.

Model Factory Classes

Eloquent model factories are now class-based starting in Laravel 8, with improved support for relationships between factories (i.e., a user has many posts). I think you’ll agree how awesome the new syntax is for generating records via the new and improved model factories:

use App\Models\User;

User::factory()->count(50)->create();

// using a model state "suspended" defined within the factory class
User::factory()->count(5)->suspended()->create();

Migration Squashing

If your application contains many migration files, you can now squash them into a single SQL file. This file will be executed first when running migrations, followed by any remaining migration files that are not part of the squashed schema file. Squashing existing migrations can decrease migration file bloat and possibly improve performance while running tests.

Improved Rate Limiting

Laravel 8 brings improvements to existing rate limiting functionality while supporting backward compatibility with the existing throttle middleware and offering far more flexibility. Laravel 8 has the concept of Rate Limiters that you can define via a facade:

use Illuminate\Cache\RateLimiting\Limit;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\RateLimiter;

RateLimiter::for('global', function (Request $request) {
    return Limit::perMinute(1000);
});

As you can see, the for() method takes the HTTP request instance, giving you full control over limiting requests dynamically.

Time Testing Helpers

Laravel users have enjoyed full control over time modification via the excellent Carbon PHP library. Laravel 8 brings this one step further by providing convenient test helpers for manipulating the time within tests:

// Travel into the future...
$this->travel(5)->milliseconds();
$this->travel(5)->seconds();
$this->travel(5)->minutes();
$this->travel(5)->hours();
$this->travel(5)->days();
$this->travel(5)->weeks();
$this->travel(5)->years();

// Travel into the past...
$this->travel(-5)->hours();

// Travel to an exact time...
$this->travelTo(now()->subHours(6));

// Return back to the present time...
$this->travelBack();

When using these methods, the time will reset between each test.

Dynamic Blade Components

Sometimes you need to render a blade component dynamically at runtime. Laravel 8 provides the ‘<x-dynamic-component/>’ to render the component:

<x-dynamic-component :component="$componentName" class="mt-4" />

Job Batching

Laravel’s job batching feature allows you to easily execute a batch of jobs and then perform some action when the batch of jobs has completed executing.

The new batch method of the Bus facade may be used to dispatch a batch of jobs. Of course, batching is primarily useful when combined with completion callbacks. So, you may use the then, catch, and finally methods to define completion callbacks for the batch. Each of these callbacks will receive an Illuminate\Bus\Batch instance when they are invoked:

use App\Jobs\ProcessPodcast;
use App\Podcast;
use Illuminate\Bus\Batch;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Bus;
use Throwable;

$batch = Bus::batch([
    new ProcessPodcast(Podcast::find(1)),
    new ProcessPodcast(Podcast::find(2)),
    new ProcessPodcast(Podcast::find(3)),
    new ProcessPodcast(Podcast::find(4)),
    new ProcessPodcast(Podcast::find(5)),
])->then(function (Batch $batch) {
    // All jobs completed successfully...
})->catch(function (Batch $batch, Throwable $e) {
    // First batch job failure detected...
})->finally(function (Batch $batch) {
    // The batch has finished executing...
})->dispatch();

return $batch->id;

Improved Maintenance Mode

In previous releases of Laravel, the php artisan down maintenance mode feature may be bypassed using an “allow list” of IP addresses that were allowed to access the application. This feature has been removed in favor of a simpler “secret” / token solution.

While in maintenance mode, you may use the secret option to specify a maintenance mode bypass token:

php artisan down --secret="1630542a-246b-4b66-afa1-dd72a4c43515"

After placing the application in maintenance mode, you may navigate to the application URL matching this token and Laravel will issue a maintenance mode bypass cookie to your browser:

https://example.com/1630542a-246b-4b66-afa1-dd72a4c43515

When accessing this hidden route, you will then be redirected to the / route of the application. Once the cookie has been issued to your browser, you will be able to browse the application normally as if it was not in maintenance mode.

Pre-Rendering The Maintenance Mode View

If you utilize the php artisan down command during deployment, your users may still occasionally encounter errors if they access the application while your Composer dependencies or other infrastructure components are updating. This occurs because a significant part of the Laravel framework must boot in order to determine your application is in maintenance mode and render the maintenance mode view using the templating engine.

For this reason, Laravel now allows you to pre-render a maintenance mode view that will be returned at the very beginning of the request cycle. This view is rendered before any of your application’s dependencies have loaded. You may pre-render a template of your choice using the down command’s render option:

php artisan down --render="errors::503"

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Content Source:

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