Migrating from Laravel 4 to Laravel 5: Step-by-step guide

Laravel 5 has been released, but people's fear of change remains. We keep hearing people complain about some big changes, such as new folder structures. Will my application crash if it executes composer update?

This article will guide you on how to migrate your existing Laravel 4 app to Laravel 5 and learn about the new folder structure.

Key Points

• Upgrading from Laravel 4 to Laravel 5 includes several steps, including updating the composer.json file, updating the route, controller and views, and modifying any custom code to use new features and changes in Laravel 5.
• Laravel 5 introduces many new features and improvements, such as new directory structure, improved routing, better environment configuration processing, and new components such as Socialite, Elixir and Scheduler.
• The process of upgrading to Laravel 5 can be complicated and time consuming, depending on the size of the application. However, there is no need to upgrade to the new folder structure; you can keep the old structure and only update the composer dependencies, but this is not the recommended practice.

Installation

My existing Laravel 4 application is a demo program in previous articles about using the Google Analytics API. The application doesn't have much code, but it's enough for our tutorial.

Let's first install Laravel 5 on your computer and create a temporary folder to save our Laravel 4 version of the application.

composer create-project laravel/laravel --prefer-dist

I prefer to install Laravel through composer, but you can access the documentation to learn more about the Laravel installer.

You can use the Vagrant virtual machine in the repository, or use Homestead Improved. If all goes well, you should see the welcome page for Laravel 5.

Configuration File

The old

Folder is now located in the root of the application, so we have to move app/config to app/config/analytics.php. The credentials are pasted directly into the file, so why not use environment variables? config/analytics.php

// config/analytics.php

return [
  'app_name'          => env('app_name'),
  'client_id'         => env('client_id'),
  'client_secret'     => env('client_secret'),
  'api_key'           => env('api_key')
];

<code>// .env

app_name='YOUR APP NAME'
client_id='YOUR CLIENT ID'
client_secret='CLIENT SECRET'
api_key='API KEY'</code>

The file will be loaded automatically and can be used to separate the local environment configuration from the production environment, test environment, etc. .env

Route

Laravel 4 route is registered in

. In Laravel 5, all HTTP-related parts are grouped under the app/routes.php folder, including the route, so let's move app/Http to app/routes.php. app/Http/routes.php

Filter

Laravel 5 has been migrated from filters to middleware, so if your route contains any filters, make sure to change it to middleware.

Route::get('/report', ['middleware' => 'auth', function() {
    //
}]);

If you have a custom filter, you can migrate it to middleware. I use a GoogleLogin middleware in my route, the implementation is as follows.

composer create-project laravel/laravel --prefer-dist

// config/analytics.php

return [
  'app_name'          => env('app_name'),
  'client_id'         => env('client_id'),
  'client_secret'     => env('client_secret'),
  'api_key'           => env('api_key')
];

<code>// .env

app_name='YOUR APP NAME'
client_id='YOUR CLIENT ID'
client_secret='CLIENT SECRET'
api_key='API KEY'</code>

CRSF protection middleware is added by default. If you want to delete it, you can go to the app/Http/Kernel.php file and comment out the corresponding line.

Controller

Because our controller is considered part of HTTP logic, we need to move app/controllers/* to app/Http/Controllers and use the App\Http\Controllers namespace. The last issue you need to fix is ??changing BaseController to Controller class.

If you don't like the App root namespace, you can change it globally using the artisan command below.

Route::get('/report', ['middleware' => 'auth', function() {
    //
}]);

Migration

Our Google Analytics application does not have any local database interactions, but the upgrade process is worth mentioning.

The

app/database directory is now in the /database folder, you just need to move the files there. The directory already contains a user table and a password_resets table that you can delete or update as needed.

Model

The models folder in Laravel 4 disappears, and Laravel 5 places User model directly in the app folder as an example. You can also copy your model there and use the App namespace.

However, if you don't like the idea of ??putting your model there, you can create a new folder called Models under the app directory, but don't forget to use the App\Models namespace for your class namespace.

// app/Http/Middleware/GoogleLogin.php

class GoogleLogin
{
  public function handle($request, Closure $next)
  {
    $ga = \App::make('\App\Services\GoogleLogin');
    if (!$ga->isLoggedIn()) {
      return redirect('login');
    }

    return $next($request);
  }
}

Application Service

Our src folder contains a GA_Service and a GA_Utils class. If we think they are services, we can put them in app/Services. Otherwise, we can create a new folder called app/GA where we will store our service class. This will cause problems because we didn't load automatically with PSR-4 at the beginning, so we need to update the class references in the controller with the correct new namespace.

View

Application view moves from app/views folder to resources/views folder.

The resources folder also contains the lang folder for application localization, and the assets folder for front-end resources. Laravel 5 introduces Elixir, which adapts the Gulp task runner to the Laravel development environment.

Composer

Make sure you copy the application's composer dependencies and make any necessary upgrades. For our demo, I will move

to a new "google/apiclient": "1.1.*" and execute composer.json to reflect these changes. composer update

Forms and HTML The

package has been removed from the default installation of Laravel 5 and you need to install it separately. illuminate/html

To bring HTML helper functions back to your project, you need to add the "illuminate/html": "5.0.*" package to your composer.json and run composer update, and then you need to add 'Illuminate\Html\HtmlServiceProvider' to your config/app.php > Provider array. If you want to use Html and Form appearances in blade templates, you can add the following appearances to your config/app.php appearance array.

composer create-project laravel/laravel --prefer-dist

Conclusion

The complexity and duration of the process of upgrading to Laravel 5 always depends on the size of your application, and for your specific case the process may be much longer than this example. In this article, we try to explain common processes that should handle most, if not all, of what needs to be changed.

You don't have to upgrade to the new folder structure, you can keep the old structure and just update your composer dependencies, but this is not the recommended practice. If you have any questions or comments, be sure to post them below. For more information, see the full version upgrade guide.

Laravel 4 to Laravel 5 Upgrade Guide FAQs (FAQs)

What is the main difference between Laravel 4 and Laravel 5?

Laravel 5 introduces many new features and improvements based on Laravel 4. These include new directory structures, improved routing, better environment configuration processing, and new components such as Socialite, Elixir and Scheduler. Laravel 5 also introduces a new command line interface called Artisan, which provides many useful commands for common tasks.

How to handle environment configuration in Laravel 5?

Laravel 5 introduces a new way of handling environment configuration. Laravel 5 no longer uses a single .env.php file, but instead uses one .env file for each environment. This makes it easier to manage different configurations for different environments. You can set environment variables in the .env file and Laravel will load them automatically.

What is the new directory structure in Laravel 5?

Laravel 5 introduces a new directory structure designed to be more intuitive and flexible. The app directory is now the root directory of the application, which contains several subdirectories of different parts of the application, such as Http, Providers, and Console. The public directory is now the root directory of the web server, which contains your resources such as images, JavaScript, and CSS files.

How to upgrade from Laravel 4 to Laravel 5?

Upgrading from Laravel 4 to Laravel 5 includes several steps. First, you need to update your composer.json file to require the latest version of Laravel. You then need to update the application's code to use the new features and changes in Laravel 5. This may involve updating your routes, controllers, and views, as well as any custom code you write.

What is Laravel Elixir and how to use it?

Laravel Elixir is a new component in Laravel 5 that provides a clean and smooth API for defining basic Gulp tasks. It supports common CSS and JavaScript preprocessors such as Sass and CoffeeScript, and it also provides a convenient way to version and connect your resources.

How to use the new routing system in Laravel 5?

Laravel 5 introduces a new routing system that is more flexible and powerful than the routing system in Laravel 4. Routers are now defined in the app/Http/routes.php file, and you can group the routes, apply middleware to them, and even namespace them.

What is Laravel Socialite and how to use it?

Laravel Socialite is a new component in Laravel 5 that provides an easy and convenient way to authenticate using the OAuth provider. It supports multiple popular providers out of the box, and you can also add your own custom providers.

How to use the new Artisan command in Laravel 5?

Laravel 5 introduces a new command line interface called Artisan, which provides many useful commands for common tasks. You can use Artisan to generate boilerplate code, run database migrations, and even start a local development server.

What are the new features in Laravel 5.0?

Laravel 5.0 introduces some new features, including new directory structure, improved routing, better environment configuration processing, and new components such as Socialite, Elixir and Scheduler. It also introduces a new command line interface called Artisan.

How to handle database migration in Laravel 5?

Laravel 5 provides a powerful database migration system that allows you to version the database schema. You can create migrations using the Artisan command line tool and then run them using the migrate command. This makes it easy to apply database schema changes in different environments.

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