Laravel Microservices Architecture: An All-Inclusive Guide for Organizations

In today’s fast-paced digital landscape, organizations are constantly seeking scalable solutions to enhance their web applications. 

Laravel offers custom web application development with a simple syntax utilizing a PHP framework. 

Laravel hosts more than 20 million websites around the world. The highest number of Laravel’s customers come from the US making up 36.5% of their entire customer base. The company earns $5.7 million in annual revenues. 

It is the most widely accepted framework for developers to provide an enriching customer experience. 

Global brands like BBC and Pfizer utilize Laravel for their web application development projects. Let us navigate the possibilities of Laravel microservices architecture to enhance organization productivity. 

What are Laravel Microservices? 

Laravel implements the Model-View-Controller architecture pattern. This web application development framework helps to build custom applications and upgrade different components of an application individually without impacting the functions of other components within the application. 

Understanding the Laravel fundamentals is imperative to build a developer and user-friendly website application. 

Fundamentals of Laravel Microservices

The fundamentals of Laravel application development for microservices include routing requests, processing database connections, validating user input, and deploying feasible user authentication and authorization systems.

The Architecture of Laravel Microservices

A microservice architecture is the process of developing applications. The most unique part of this type of architecture is the ability to divide a large application into smaller parts. 

Building microservices with Laravel gives a structured approach to developers in building web applications, distinguishing queries, and providing code reusability. 

Laravel can deploy services independently making it a popular choice for developers globally. It empowers businesses to enhance scalability for desirable application functionalities without interfering with the features of the overall app. 

Programmers can use any coding language to build a Laravel microservice. Moreover, each microservice is enabled to manage its database for accuracy and independent functions. 

Reasons to Choose Laravel for Microservices

Notable Laravel framework advantages are –

• Easy syntax – A developer-friendly framework enabling programmers to use any coding language and reuse codes for repetitive functions. 
• Robust authentication – It is a process to authenticate each component within an application. Also, it could help to authenticate users who use this type of system. Authentication is an identity process to match credentials such as passwords and usernames. 
• Highly scalable framework – Scale up or down the components of an application using the microservice framework based on application requirements. 
• Quick development speed – Accelerated project development cycle enabling individual modifications and updates to each module within a microservice without affecting the functions of other components of the application. 
• Extensive library – A large library to build RESTful APIs. 
• Good documentation – Safe and secure documentation of codes and data that can be accessed and reused later for repetitive tasks. 

Read Also: What are the most Useful Benefits of Python in Web Development?

What are the Differences Between Laravel and Lumen? 

Lumen is a fast-loading and lightweight PHP microframework to deploy microservices. It uses the same technology powering Laravel. 

Lumen enables developers to route, login, cache, queue, validate, and handle errors within a microservice. 

Developers use Lumen in the cloud services and data analytics industries. 

Companies such as United Direct Solutions, Valley Cities Behavioral Healthcare, Microsoft, Minnesota Vikings, and AWS use Lumen for various business operations.

The major differences between Laravel and Lumen are – 

• Laravel is integrated with the PHP programming language while Lumen is integrated with third-party tools to unlock new features. 
• Laravel manages fewer requests per second compared to Lumen. 
• The response time for Lumen is less than that of Laravel.
• Laravel has an in-built command-line interface framework while Lumen has a feature-rich micro-framework. 

How To Deploy API Development with Laravel Microframework? 

A REST API is an application program interface with HTTP requests to get DELETE, GET, PUT, and POST information. 

Mobile development and JavaScript framework have paved the way to build RESTful APIs. It is a popular choice for developers due to its common interface for sharing brand information with clients. 

Lumen is the ideal framework to develop REST APIs because – 

• Fast speed 
• Ability to handle more requests than Laravel
• Faster version to deploy a full web application framework 
• Enhanced performance with FastRoute 

Follow these steps to develop a REST API with Lumen – 

• Create a project in Lumen 
• Create a new route name 
• Create a migration model for the table 
• Create repository 
• Create a Fractal Transformer 
• Create Policy 
• Create Controller  

When Should You Use Microservices? 

The ideal scenario for companies to choose Laravel microservices is as follows – 

• Support dynamic clients with different desktop or mobile browser requirements 
• Run an application on several machines simultaneously for easy scalability 
• Integrate with other web applications 
• Highlight an API for third parties 
• Migrate monolithic applications 
• Restructure legacy application modules into microservices 
• Rebuild applications with cloud application development and multi-language integration
  

Business Perspective for Microservices 

An IT industry business chooses microservices due to their agile and cost-reduction abilities. Microservices are granular and reusable therefore reducing the time, effort, and money to restructure applications or build from scratch.

Examples of Microservice Architecture Projects 

Let us check out the common examples of a microservices architecture project – 

• Online streaming platform 
• AI-powered microservices ecosystem 
• Blockchain-based microservices 
• Content recommendation microservices 
• Renewable energy management microservices 

Spotify is an example of microservices application architecture. It is a music streaming application. 

Full-Stack and Micro Web Framework Differences 

Let us explore the differences between Full-Stack Development and Micro Web Frameworks in detail – 

• Microframeworks are useful for building fast and specific features within an application 
• A full-stack framework is used for large software projects that need to be scaled frequently
• Laravel is a Full-Stack PHP-based framework 
• Flask is a microframework in Python 
• The fast loading of microframeworks enables it to handle more requests in less time
• Full-stack frameworks are used to deploy a complete web application 
• Microframeworks require minimum coding for smaller applications 
• Full-stack frameworks contain built-in tools to develop large applications 
• Microframeworks are ideal for building REST-based apps 
• Microframeworks contain 5k lines of codes 
• Full-stack frameworks consist of 8k code lines

Read Also: Best Practices For Building User-Driven dApps Interfaces?

What are the Steps To Build Laravel Microservices? 

Let us break down the steps for building customized application microservices with the Laravel architecture – 

• Use the Composer option on Laravel to create a new Lumen project 
• Configure the database credentials to connect with the Laravel microservices 
• Include appropriate commands to verify the routing works properly 
• Define the application API logic with Artisan 
• Create a post-model in the namespace with actionable commands 
• Create a database table 
• Run migrations with PHP artisan commands 
• Generate sample data with the Artisan console
• Test the functions of the microservices 

Organizational Benefits with Laravel Microservice Architecture

Organizations that want to build web applications can immensely benefit from the Laravel microservice architecture. The advantages of this framework in several scenarios include – 

• Resource allocation with Laravel microservices based on project requirements 
• Enables team members to work on different components of the same application thus improving the speed of the developmental cycle 
• System failure chances are reduced 
• Easier to improve microservice speed with Laravel due to the small file size of individual components 
• Simplified application architecture with Laravel microservices enables the integration of new tools and technologies 
• Microservices are heavily scalable therefore reducing the overall infrastructure costs

What are the Laravel Enterprise Application Development Features? 

Noteworthy Laravel framework features include – 

• Open-Source – A network code that enables everyone to access and modify the code. 
• Artisan Command Line Interface – Provides several useful commands to develop a comprehensive application. 
• Model-View-Controller Architecture – This is a framework for application development that differentiates the process into three logical components as the name suggests M-V-C. 
• Native authentication – This authentication mechanism enables storing user names and encrypted passwords within a secure database. 
• Blade template engine – A simple Laravel templating engine without any programming language or coding restrictions. 

Importance of Laravel for Enterprise Application Development 

Check out the top reasons to implement Laravel microservices – 

• Independence of working – Teams working on different parts of the web application development process can work autonomously without impacting the process of others. For example, if developers want to build a payment gateway for the application, they simply need to modify one microservice module instead of restructuring the entire code. 
• Superior compatibility – Laravel is an excellent development framework that is compatible with a wide range of programming languages. So, developers regardless of their knowledge of a specific programming language can work with their preferred options on the Laravel framework. 
• Improved productivity – When a developer or a user can manage different components of an application, it is easier to manage the application as a whole.  
• Strengthened business operations – Teams can improve individual services without affecting the master code. This improves productivity and streamlines business operations. 

Read Also: Website Optimization Practices To Enhance the Overall Performance

Best Scenarios for Laravel Microservices 

The best-case scenario for utilizing microservices is to build independent components of a web application. However, there are several other instances when developers need to integrate microservice facilities. Sometimes, organizations have scaling difficulties due to a large application size. Here are some of the times when developers can utilize Laravel microservices –

• Building an application from scratch 
• Building a monolithic program 
• Rebuilding a legacy application 
• Adding new features to an already-developed application 
• If an application has scaling problems 
• If the application has low productivity 
• If the application is challenging to maintain 
• If the traditional logging system is inefficient
• When rapid changes are required to modify an application 
• When the web application gets high traffic consequently increases the load of the application 

Advantages and Drawbacks of Laravel Microservice 

Any new tool or technology has its own set of flaws and excellence. Here, we will explore the pros and cons of Laravel microservices. 

Advantages

Microservice is the style of architecture for developing applications that comprise dynamic components. Certain advantages of using Laravel microservices include – 

• Autonomy – This allows independent updates for each application microservice component without affecting the functions of the other modules. 
• Problem-driven attention-to-detail – Breaking down components to fix specific issues without affecting the other components within the application. 
• Reusable codes – Developers can utilize the microservices sub-modules for reworking with developed codes saving time and effort. 
• Flexibility – Microservices are scalable based on the application requirements without impacting the functions of other components. 

Drawbacks

Regardless of the autonomy and high speed of Laravel microservices, there are certain drawbacks of this framework as well. Some of the cons are – 

• Complexities of deployment – There are certain issues while deploying a microservice and following the best practices can help manage the problem effectively. An automated deployment process, containerization technologies, and Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) tools can resolve the difficulties related to deployment. 
• Increased overhead costs – There are frequent obstacles such as accommodating resources to manage the microservice architecture. Code optimization and efficient communication protocols can minimize unprecedented overhead costs. 
• Debugging difficulties – The distributive nature of microservices makes it difficult to debug. A comprehensive logging system for each of the microservices makes debugging easier. 
• Inconsistency of data – Network latency and concurrent updates build inconsistencies within a microservice environment. Data consistency strategies such as event sourcing and event-driven architecture can eliminate these inconsistencies. 

Bottomline 

Build highly efficient applications that enable users to take swift actions and developers to fix bugs in a matter of seconds from the backend. 

Developers prefer Laravel to build custom web applications and manage the microservices modules independently. 

The flexibility of the programming language and highly beneficial features help to build microservices that function independently within an application. 

Webgen Technologies USA is a premier Laravel development company with a team of experts dedicated to building, maintaining, and updating customized apps for your business.