Let's Learn Laravel & Livewire: A Guided Path For Beginners

Create a fresh Laravel project with composer create-project in a dedicated folder. Start a local server with php artisan serve and preview at localhost:8000 or 127.0.0.1:8000.

Explore how Laravel routes map URLs to actions by editing web.php, creating a root page and an about page, and understand get versus post requests for clean routing.

Learn how to create Blade templates in Laravel, understand what a view is, and pass data from a controller into a view, using Blade directives like foreach and dynamic expressions.

Learn to reduce duplication in blade templates by applying includes and a layout component with a slot, sharing a common header and footer across pages while keeping page content unique.

Install and configure MySQL on Windows, use Workbench and the command line to manage a local Laravel database, including creating schemas for the project.

Install MySQL on Mac by downloading the MySQL Community Server and MySQL Workbench, select ARM or x86 version (Rosetta if needed), then create the Laravel app schema for local access.

Connect Laravel to your database and manage tables with migrations, avoiding manual SQL. Learn to create and modify the users table with migrations, unique usernames, and fresh migrations.

Validate user input in Laravel forms with username, email, and password rules (including unique and confirmation), display automatic red error messages, and preserve old inputs on error.

Master Laravel authentication by implementing login/logout, validating inputs, posting to /log in, using auth()->attempt, regenerating the session, and rendering a logged-in home page showing the username.

Learn how to implement logout, redirects, and flash messages in Laravel, protect forms with CSRF tokens, and display login, logout, and success or error feedback in layouts and views.

Set up a create post flow in a Laravel app with routes, a controller, blade form, a posts migration, and a post model, then save via the authenticated user.

Set up a dynamic single post URL in Laravel and load post data with a model for a Blade view, while validating and preserving input with error messages.

Define a belongsTo relationship on the post model to retrieve the username from the user_id in Laravel; display username, created_at, and body in blade templates and redirect on create.

Learn how Laravel adds markdown support to post content, enabling headings, bold, italics, and lists that render as HTML. See how Str::markdown and blade rendering provide safe, controlled output.

Learn how Laravel middleware intercepts HTTP requests to protect routes, using auth or guest checks, redirects, and even custom middleware for reusable access control.

Build a dynamic Laravel user profile by routing /profile/{user}, resolving the user via model binding, and displaying their blog posts with a has many relationship in Blade.

Enforce owner-only permissions with a Laravel policy to update or delete posts, and reuse it in blade templates, controllers, and routes to streamline authorization.

Explore policy-based permissions in Laravel by enforcing with middleware and routes, protect delete and edit actions for blog posts, and build an edit workflow with Blade templates and route handling.

Set up admin or moderator status with a new is_admin migration. Enforce post update and delete permissions using Laravel policies and can and cannot checks.

Learn to build an admin-only page with a Laravel gate, then enforce it on routes or controllers while comparing gates with policies as a single ability check.

Enable users to upload and manage profile avatars in a Laravel app with a file upload form, routes, and storage via a storage link to avatars.

Learn to resize images on the server with PHP in a Laravel app using the Intervention Image package, including validation, middleware-protected routes, and saving avatars to storage with unique filenames.

Store a user avatar filename in the database and display it on the front end using Laravel blade templates and a model accessor with a fallback avatar.

Learn to save follows in the database by creating a follows table with user id and followed user, and wiring routes and a controller to follow and unfollow.

Add a dynamic follow or stop-follow button that toggles based on whether the logged-in user already follows the profile, using auth checks and a follow relationship in Laravel.

Create a reusable blade profile component with a slot to unify three profile pages—posts, followers, and following—then wire routes, controllers, and views to pass dynamic data.

Highlight the active profile tab by checking the url’s third segment in blade, and reduce duplication by adding a getSharedData function that shares data with profile views via View::share.

Learn to output a list of users by modeling followers and following in Laravel, define relationships in user and follow models, and render usernames, avatars, and follower and following counts.

Build a home page feed of posts from followed users using Laravel has many through, and expose a feed posts method on the user model to render posts in Blade.

Learn to implement pagination in Laravel by converting the feed to a paginated collection, choosing posts per page, rendering pagination links in a Blade template, and styling with Bootstrap.

Learn to make dynamic page titles in Laravel by passing a doc title to layout blade, enabling blog posts and profiles to display titles and share a reusable post component.

Discover how to search in Laravel, from simple filtering to the official scout-driven approach, then configure Scout and use Post::search(term) with user data loaded.

Learn to implement a website search feature with vanilla JavaScript and Laravel's asset bundling. Then rebuild it using Laravel's Livewire to compare tools for interactive features.

Connect your Laravel backend to client-side JavaScript using vite for asset bundling and implement a live search UI with real-time results, npm workflows, and dom purify.

Learn how events and listeners decouple code in Laravel, fire example events on login/logout, and connect listeners to log actions and prepare for broadcasting in a live chat feature.

Explore Laravel real-time broadcasting with pusher, sending chat messages to all connected users via a chat message event, channels, and a private chat channel.

Connect client-side JavaScript to live broadcasting with pusher, setting up chat.js and the private channel. See how Laravel broadcasts chat messages via ChatMessageEvent to connected clients.

Discover how Livewire enhances Laravel by building dynamic, interactive PHP components with no JavaScript, powering live search and chat features and enabling a single-page application experience.

Demonstrate live results with Livewire by binding an input to a server-side search term using wire:model and the live modifier, rendering database posts in blade without JavaScript.

Learn to build a reactive search overlay using Livewire and Alpine, toggling visibility with x-data and x-bind, and migrate from legacy JavaScript for a smoother ui.

Finish building a live search with Livewire by wiring the input to a search term, debouncing keystrokes, showing real results with a loading spinner, and a zero results message.

Learn to build a persistent chat powered by Livewire in a Laravel app, converting from vanilla JS to a single-page experience with a new chat component and animated UI.

Learn how to broadcast and receive messages in a Livewire powered chat by sending on enter, validating users, updating a chat log, and listening for broadcasted messages.

Turn your Livewire chat into a true single-page application by using wire:navigate to persist components across navigation, keeping the chat alive as you move between posts, profiles, and search overlays.

Master converting forms to Livewire by building delete and edit post actions, adding follow and unfollow features, and handling avatar uploads, all while preserving chat persistence.

Create Livewire actions to unfollow users and upload avatars in a Laravel app, preserving a persistent chat with spa navigation and real-time form handling.