Changes and Comparison between Laravel 10 and 11

Laravel has undergone significant changes in version 11, particularly in terms of directory structure, which has been noticeably streamlined compared to previous versions. Let's delve into the details.

1. Slim Skeleton

Folder structure changed to look like this

app/
├── Http/
│   └── Controllers/
│       └── Controller.php
├── Models/
│   └── User.php
└── Providers/
    └── AppServiceProvider.php
bootstrap/
├── app.php
└── providers.php
config
...

Removed folders: app/Console, app/Exceptions, app/Http/Middleware. Also, The files routes/channel.php, routes/console.php, and routes/api.php have been removed.

Routes, Middlewares, and Exceptions are now registered in the bootstrap/app.php file.

bootstrap/app.php:

<?php

use Illuminate\Foundation\Application;
use Illuminate\Foundation\Configuration\Exceptions;
use Illuminate\Foundation\Configuration\Middleware;

return Application::configure(basePath: dirname(__DIR__))
    ->withRouting(
        web: __DIR__.'/../routes/web.php',
        commands: __DIR__.'/../routes/console.php',
        health: '/up',
    )
    ->withMiddleware(function (Middleware $middleware) {
        // add use $middleware->use([])->web([])->apu([])->......
    })
    ->withExceptions(function (Exceptions $exceptions) {
        //
    })->create();

2. Removed Some Config Files

config/broadcasting.php
config/cors.php
config/hashing.php
config/sanctum.php
config/view.php

But you can publish them manually, with this command:

php artisan config:publish

php artisan config:publish --all

3. API and Broadcasting: Installed Optionally

Laravel 11 does not installed Sanctum by default. You can install the API scaffolding with

php artisan install:api

after install and regestr you must only add the Laravel\Sanctum\HasApiTokens trait to the User Model.

php artisan install:broadcast

4. New Defaults: Pest and SQLite

The default database for Laravel was changed to SQLite.

5. New make Commands

php artisan make:enum

php artisan make:class

php artisan make:interface

php artisan make:trait

6. Dumpable Trait

Laravel 11 introduces a new Dumpable trait, designed to substitute the existing dd() and dump() methods across various classes within the framework. This trait can be utilized by users and package authors to facilitate code debugging.

Here is the usage example:

use Illuminate\Support\Traits\Conditionable;
use Illuminate\Support\Traits\Dumpable;
 
class Post
{
    use Conditionable, Dumpable;
 
    // ...
}

$post = new Post;
$post->setThis()->dd()->setThat();

7. Limit Eager Load

Laravel 11 will allow limiting eagerly loaded records natively, without external packages.

class Post extends Model
{
    // ...
}

class User extends Model
{
    public function posts()
    {
        return $this->hasMany(Post::class);
    }
}

$users = User::with(['posts' => function ($query) {
    $query->latest()->limit(10); 
}])->get();

8. Casts Method

the casts will be provided in the protected method casts() instead of the protected property $casts.

 
class User extends extends Authenticatable
{
    /**
     * Get the attributes that should be cast.
     *
     * @return array<string, string>
     */
    protected function casts(): array
    {
        return [
            'email_verified_at' => 'datetime',
            'password' => 'hashed',
            'type' => [AsCollection::class, OptionCollection::class],
        ];
    }
}

9. once() Method

This function ensures that a callable is called only once, returning the same result on subsequent calls.

class User extends Model
{
    public function stats(): array
    {
        return once(function () {
            // Expensive operations to generate user stats, multiple db queries, etc...
 
            return $stats;
        });
    }
}

// Assuming you have two User instances: $userA and $userB
 
$userA->stats();
$userA->stats(); // cached result from previous line...
 
$userB->stats(); // Not using $userA cached results, because $userB !== $userA
$userB->stats(); // cached result from previous line...

Last but not least: Minimum PHP 8.2

Version	PHP (*)	Release	Bug Fixes Until	Security Fixes Until
10	8.1 - 8.3	February 14th, 2023	August 6th, 2024	February 4th, 2025
11	8.2 - 8.3	March 12th, 2024	September 3rd, 2025	March 12th, 2026

AmmarALHasanat/Laravel-10-and-11