In the previous article, We installed and configured a Laravel application. And in this article We will build on the same project to create a simple Hello Laravel application and look at the key components of Laravel framework.

Artisan Command Line
Artisan is the command line that automates common tasks in Laravel framework. The artisan command line can be used to perform the following tasks and much more:

- Generate boilerplate code – it easily create controllers, models… etc.
- Database migrations – migrations is used to manipulate database objects and can be used to create and drop tables etc.
- Seeding – seeding is a term used to add dummy records to the database.
- Routing
- Run unit tests.

The Way to Use the Artisan Command
Open the terminator and run the following command to view the list of available commands:

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php artisan list

Artisan Command To Generate Codes for a Controller
Open the terminator and run the following command to generate codes for Hello Laravel controller:

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php artisan make:controller HelloLaravelController

- php artisan is used to run the artisan command line.
- make:controller HelloLaravelController specifies the command that the should run. This command will create codes for a controller HelloLaravelController in /app/Http/Controllers/HelloLaravelController.php.

And then open up the file HelloLaravelController.php in folder /app/Http/Controllers.

And you will get the following code:

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<?php

namespace App\Http\Controllers;

use Illuminate\Http\Request;

use App\Http\Requests;
use App\Http\Controllers\Controller;

class HelloLaravelController extends Controller
{
  /**
   * Display a listing of the resource.
   *
   * @return Response
   */
  public function index()
  {
    //
  }

  /**
   * Show the form for creating a new resource.
   *
   * @return Response
   */
  public function create()
  {
    //
  }

  /**
   * Store a newly created resource in storage.
   *
   * @param  Request  $request
   * @return Response
   */
  public function store(Request $request)
  {
    //
  }

  /**
   * Display the specified resource.
   *
   * @param  int  $id
   * @return Response
   */
  public function show($id)
  {
    //
  }

  /**
   * Show the form for editing the specified resource.
   *
   * @param  int  $id
   * @return Response
   */
  public function edit($id)
  {
    //
  }

  /**
   * Update the specified resource in storage.
   *
   * @param  Request  $request
   * @param  int  $id
   * @return Response
   */
  public function update(Request $request, $id)
  {
    //
  }

  /**
   * Remove the specified resource from storage.
   *
   * @param  int  $id
   * @return Response
   */
  public function destroy($id)
  {
    //
  }
}

- namespace App\Http\Controllers;: defines the namespace for the controller.
- use Illuminate\Http\Request;: imports namespaces with the required classes to use in the controller.
- class HelloLaravelController extends Controller: defines the HelloLaravelController class which extends/inherit the base controller.
- public function index(){}: defines the default function for the controller.
- public function create(){}: defines the function that is used to render the create form view.
- public function store(Request $request): defines the function that is used to store/save a newly recode into the table/database.
- public function show($id): defines the function that is used to retrieves a single recode/resource based on the id.
- public function edit($id): defines the function that is used to render the edit form based on the id.
- public function update(Request $request, $id) defines a function that is used to update a record in the table/database base on the id.
- public function destroy($id): defines the function that is used to remove a recode based on the id.

Routing
We will create a new route that will render Hello Laravel in the browser.

Open up file web.php in folder routes and add the following codes below:

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Route::get('/hello_laravel',function(){
  return 'Hello Laravel!';
});

Route::get('/hello',function(){...});: responds to the GET method of the URI hello. function() defines an anonymous function that does the actual work for the requested URI.
return 'Hello Laravel!';: returns and render Hello Laravel! to the requested browser.

And then go to ther browser and type the uri http://localhost:8000/hello you will get the output “Hellow Laravel!”.

Route To Controller
Add the following codes in routes/web.php.

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Route::get('hello', 'HelloLaravelController@index');

And then open up app/Http/Controllers/HelloLaravelController.php file and add the following codes below:

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public function index()
{
  return 'Hello Laravel!';
}

And then go to ther browser and type the uri http://localhost:8000/hello you will get the output “Hello Laravel!”.

Loading the View from the Controller
Open up app/Http/Controllers/HelloLaravelController.php file and edit the following codes below:

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public function index()
{
  return view('home');
}

return view('home');: loads a view named hello.blade.php.

And then create a new file home.blade.php in folder /resources/views and add the following codes below:

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Hello Laravel!

And then go to ther browser and type the uri http://localhost:8000/hello you will get the output “Hello Laravel!”.

So far so good, That’s it!!! See ya!!! :)