Laravel 6 Features Guide

Framework versioning affects upgrade planning. Laravel 6 switches to semantic versioning, enabling predictable release schedules. Job middleware and improved authentication scaffolding enhance developer experience.

Semantic Versioning

New versioning scheme:

• Major releases: Breaking changes (e.g., 6.x to 7.x)
• Minor releases: New features, backwards compatible (e.g., 6.0 to 6.1)
• Patch releases: Bug fixes only (e.g., 6.0.1 to 6.0.2)

Release schedule:

• Major release: Every 6 months
• Minor releases: As needed
• Patch releases: Weekly (as needed)
• LTS releases: Every 2 years (Laravel 6 is LTS)

Job Middleware

Control job execution with middleware:

// app/Jobs/Middleware/RateLimited.php
namespace App\Jobs\Middleware;

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Redis;

class RateLimited
{
    public function handle($job, $next)
    {
        Redis::throttle('key')
            ->block(0)
            ->allow(10)
            ->every(60)
            ->then(function () use ($job, $next) {
                $next($job);
            }, function () use ($job) {
                $job->release(60);
            });
    }
}

Apply middleware to jobs:

// app/Jobs/ProcessPodcast.php
use App\Jobs\Middleware\RateLimited;

class ProcessPodcast implements ShouldQueue
{
    public function middleware()
    {
        return [new RateLimited];
    }

    public function handle()
    {
        // Job logic
    }
}

Conditional middleware:

public function middleware()
{
    return $this->user->isPremium()
        ? []
        : [new RateLimited];
}

Laravel UI Package

Authentication scaffolding extracted:

# Laravel 6 requires separate package
composer require laravel/ui

# Generate auth scaffolding
php artisan ui bootstrap --auth
php artisan ui vue --auth
php artisan ui react --auth

Why separated?

• Cleaner core framework
• Flexibility in frontend choice
• Foundation for Laravel Jetstream (later)

Lazy Collection Improvements

Enhanced lazy operations:

use Illuminate\Support\LazyCollection;

// Remember values for multiple iterations
$collection = LazyCollection::make(function () {
    for ($i = 1; $i <= 10; $i++) {
        yield $i;
    }
})->remember();

// First iteration calculates
$collection->each(function ($item) {
    echo $item;
});

// Second iteration uses remembered values
$collection->each(function ($item) {
    echo $item;
});

Takeuntil and takewhile:

$collection = LazyCollection::times(INF)
    ->takeUntilTimeout(now()->addMinute());

$collection = LazyCollection::make(function () {
    while (true) {
        yield random_int(1, 100);
    }
})->takeWhile(function ($number) {
    return $number < 90;
});

Authorization Gates

Guest user support in gates:

Gate::define('view-post', function (?User $user, Post $post) {
    // Null user = guest
    if ($post->published) {
        return true;
    }

    return $user && $user->id === $post->author_id;
});

Eloquent Subquery Enhancements

Order by subquery:

// Order users by their latest post date
User::orderBy(
    Post::select('created_at')
        ->whereColumn('user_id', 'users.id')
        ->latest()
        ->limit(1)
)->get();

Select with subqueries:

// Add latest post title to user query
$users = User::addSelect([
    'latest_post_title' => Post::select('title')
        ->whereColumn('user_id', 'users.id')
        ->latest()
        ->limit(1)
])->get();

foreach ($users as $user) {
    echo $user->latest_post_title;
}

Multiple Cache Keys Delete

Delete multiple keys at once:

// Before: Multiple calls
Cache::forget('key1');
Cache::forget('key2');
Cache::forget('key3');

// After: Single call
Cache::deleteMultiple(['key1', 'key2', 'key3']);

Multiple Mail From Addresses

Different from addresses per mailable:

// config/mail.php
'from' => [
    'address' => env('MAIL_FROM_ADDRESS', 'hello@example.com'),
    'name' => env('MAIL_FROM_NAME', 'Example'),
],

// Override in mailable
class OrderShipped extends Mailable
{
    public function build()
    {
        return $this->from('contact@zirasoftware.com', 'ZIRA Software Orders')
            ->view('emails.orders.shipped');
    }
}

Job Batching Preparation

Foundation for Laravel 8 job batching:

// Jobs can now be configured with batch ID
// This feature fully implemented in Laravel 8

String Helpers

New string manipulation methods:

use Illuminate\Support\Str;

// Before/after specific string
Str::before('hello-world', '-');  // "hello"
Str::after('hello-world', '-');   // "world"

// Between two strings
Str::between('[hello]', '[', ']');  // "hello"

// PadBoth
Str::padBoth('James', 10, '_');  // "__James___"

// Plural
Str::plural('car', 2);  // "cars"

Ignition Error Page

Beautiful error pages:

• Cleaner stack traces
• Code context
• Solution suggestions
• Better debugging experience

Upgrade from Laravel 5.8

Key changes:

# Update composer.json
"laravel/framework": "^6.0"

# Update Composer
composer update

# Clear caches
php artisan config:clear
php artisan cache:clear
php artisan view:clear

# Run migrations if needed
php artisan migrate

Breaking changes:

• String and array helpers moved to separate package
• Authentication scaffolding requires laravel/ui
• Some deprecated methods removed

Production Deployment

Optimize for production:

composer install --optimize-autoloader --no-dev
php artisan config:cache
php artisan route:cache
php artisan view:cache

LTS Support

Laravel 6 support timeline:

• Bug fixes: 2 years (until September 2021)
• Security fixes: 3 years (until September 2022)

Perfect for long-term projects requiring stability.

Conclusion

Laravel 6 brings predictable semantic versioning and valuable features like job middleware. LTS support makes it ideal for enterprise applications requiring stability.

Planning a Laravel upgrade? Contact ZIRA Software for migration assistance.