Laravel Shift

If you want to upgrade your current version of Laravel without worrying about doing it yourself, add Laravel Shift to your developer’s toolbox. Their handy service will automatically upgrade you to the latest version of Laravel so you can get on with your coding. Laravel Shift also offers Laravel application reviews, perfect for those new to Laravel or who want to ensure their code is as stellar for clients as possible.
(laravelshift.com)

LaraJobs

If you are a Laravel programmer who wants to build your client list, add LaraJobs to your resource list. LaraJobs lets you search for Laravel jobs for companies wanting in-house employees as well as remote workers. Find everything from engineering roles at up-and-coming startups to programming jobs at international scientific research labs. From senior Laravel developer roles to web application leads, there is a multitude of awesome opportunities waiting to be discovered on LaraJobs. Be sure to add this handy site to your bookmark toolbar as you’ll likely be visiting it on a frequent basis.
(larajobs.com)

Laracasts

Laracasts is another must-use tool for Laravel developers who want to upgrade their skills. Available from Jeffrey Way, Laracasts can help teach you everything from learning Laravel from scratch to building forums or how to complete authentication procedures. There are beginner, intermediate, and advanced learning sessions, and you can learn techniques one episode at a time or complete a series of related lessons. Whether you want to build your first app using Laravel or learn more about caching in Laravel, this powerful resource has the knowledge you seek. Be careful discovering Laracasts, as you might end up feeling like you’ve fallen down the rabbit hole of Laravel wisdom.
(laracasts.com)

LaraChat

LaraChat is another one of those resources no Laravel developer should be without. Imagine being able to chat with other Laravel programmers in real time while you’re coding and you’ll understand why LaraChat on Slack is so popular. Leave messages on Slack or participate in live-chat sessions with other Laravel users. With over 20,000 global users, you’ll never have a problem connecting with other developers who can help you hone your skills. LaraChat has a number of popular Slack channels including announcements, Laravel packages, Laravel questions, Laravel testing, and Laravel tools. You can use this phenomenal resource to chat about Laravel 4 and Laravel 5 or follow breaking Laravel news via handy RSS feeds. As with Laracasts, you need to use caution perusing LaraChat or you may find yourself chatting instead of coding on client projects.
(larachat.co)

Laravel Meetups

Not all of your Laravel networking needs to be done online. Thanks to Meetup, you can now discover Laravel networking events near your location. With over 68,000 members and meetings in over 250 locations, there is a good chance you can connect with Laravel users in your area. From Istanbul and Santa Monica to Lagos and Mexico City, you will find a wide variety of meeting opportunities when you dig into Meetup. View networking opportunities by location or by topic of discussion, e.g. open source, application development, framework.
(meetup.com/topics/laravel)

The more effort you put into building your Laravel resource list, the likelier it is you will become an in-demand developer who can command top rates from clients. Dive into each of these resources to see which ones can help you up your Laravel programming game. Chances are good you’ll wish you had discovered some of these fabulous finds sooner.

While CakePHP is still a great framework and we continue to utilize it, we have seen a very large adoption of the Laravel PHP framework in the United States, specifically over the past three years. Laravel’s developer community has grown significantly, with 77,000 Twitter followers, 20,000+ Slack/irc users, and 420 contributors on GitHub. As such, we have taken an interest in Laravel as well, and have found some helpful ways to hone your Laravel skills and engage with the Laravel community.

Education Tutorials

Laracasts.com, a tutorial website created by Jeffrey Way, provides a wealth of hands-on video tutorials that help a PHP developer learn not only how to use Laravel, but also advanced topics like OOP, Unit Testing, front-end Javascript frameworks, and more. The videos are professional, well-written, and well-articulated, making them very easy to comprehend. Videos range from beginner level to advanced. This is incredibly rare for a framework community to have such a wealth of information available at their fingertips.

Documentation

Good documentation is key for adoption of a framework. If a developer finds a framework difficult to learn and understand, then it likely won’t stick around. Laravel has a superior online documentation portal to learn all the ins and outs of the framework, with provided examples. This resource coupled with LaraCasts is a deadly combination.

Conferences

Cohesiveness is important for a framework community, and conferences serve that purpose. It brings fellow developers who are working with the same set of tools together to network, listen to informative talks, and simply get away from the daily grind. Laravel has both an EU and United States conference called Laracon. The EU and US conferences each boast a planned attendance of 600 developers in 2018.

While LoadSys has been using Laravel for over a year, our commitment to quality dictates that we do not publicize the offering until we have proven our expertise in the area. We’re happy to announce that time has come — we are now officially publicizing that we are experts in both CakePHP and Laravel, and are now scheduling slots for Laravel projects or existing Laravel project support. With a full-team of United States developers, all senior level, you will receive the same dedicated and proven support LoadSys has always provided.  

Get in touch with us about your Laravel development project today!

If you are a PHP developer looking to hone your Laravel skills, it is essential you build a toolbox full of Laravel resources. Entrepreneurial developers within the Laravel community have created a host of helpful resources for code junkies just like you — review the following roundup to see which ones should be added to your list of helpful programming tools.

1. Eyewitness

Eyewitness is a must-discover tool for Laravel programmers, allowing you to monitor everything from your application’s uptime to your email and queues. You can check to see if your queues are accumulating backlogs, monitor failed or pending jobs, retry server jobs remotely, and track the status of your application log files. If Laravel is your platform of choice, Eyewitness needs to be on your developer’s resource list.

2. Talk

If you want to integrate chat or messaging features into your builds, add Talk to your list of handy tools. Talk’s features include real-time messaging, message threading, conversation tracking via conversation i.d. and/or user i.d., and thread/message pagination. Both receivers and senders can delete messages, too. As instant messaging becomes an integral part of everything from mobile apps to SaaS platforms, you will likely find yourself using Talk on an increasingly frequent basis.

3. Laravel Cheat Sheet

If you’re going to be creating with the Laravel framework, you need the Laravel Cheat Sheet on your resource list. Laravel Cheat Sheet is a searchable list that can be searched or viewed according to topic, and it contains cheats on everything from HTML builds and inputs to configurations and routing. You might as well just add this handy tool to your browser bar; chances are pretty good you’ll be using it frequently.

4. Laravel Test Tools

The Laravel Test Tools Chrome extension is another must-have tool for Laravel coders. This handy Chrome add-on allows you to create integration tests while you’re busy writing code. Who knew testing software on the fly was so easy?

5. Charts

If you want to incorporate charts into your Laravel builds, make sure ConsoleTV’s Charts is on your list. With a multitude of chart libraries to pick from and 100+ chart options, you’re sure to find just the right eye candy for your Laravel builds.

Laravel programmers who build a diverse resource list with plenty of powerful tools can create code faster and build their client list simultaneously. These five Laravel resources are but a tiny sampling of the tools available to today’s programmers. What about you – what are your favorites?