Laravel - Understanding Release Process


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Every web application framework has its own version history and it is always being updated and maintained. Every latest version brings new functionality and functions which are either changed or deprecated, so it is important that you know which version will be suitable for your projects.

When it comes to Laravel, there are two active versions as given below −

  • Laravel 4- released in May 2013
  • Laravel 5.1- released in February 2015

Laravel 5.1 also includes various releases with the latest version of Laravel 5.1.5 which includes all the robust features for web development. The roadmap of Laravel or the version release is shown in the image below −

Laravel Release Process

The following points are worth notable in the context of understanding the release process of Laravel −

  • The old directory of app/models is removed in Laravel 5.1.

  • All the controllers, middleware and requests are grouped within a directory under the app/Http folder.

  • A new folder namely Providers directory is replaced with the app/start files in the previous versions of Laravel 4.x.

  • All the language files and views are moved to the resources directory.

  • New artisan command route:cache is used for registration of new routes and is included with the release of Laravel 5.1 and further versions.

  • Laravel supports HTTP middleware and also includes CSRF tokens and authentication model.

  • All the authentication models are located under one directory namely resources/views/auth. It includes user registration, authentication and password controllers.

Laravel Releases

Version Release Bug Fixes Until Security Fixes Until
V1 June 2011 - -
V2 September 2011 - -
v3 February 2012 - -
v4 May 2013 - -
5.0 Feb 4th, 2015 Aug 4th, 2015 Feb 4th, 2016
5.1 (LTS) Jun 9th, 2015 Jun 9th, 2017 Jun 9th, 2018
5.2 Dec 21st, 2015 Jun 21st, 2016 Dec 21st, 2016
5.3 Aug 23rd, 2016 Feb 23rd, 2017 Aug 23rd, 2017
5.4 Jan 24th, 2017 Jul 24th, 2017 Jan 24th, 2018
5.5 (LTS) Aug 30th, 2017 Aug 30th, 2019 Aug 30th, 2020
5.6 Feb 7th, 2018 Aug 7th, 2018 Feb 7th, 2019
5.7 Sep 4, 2018 Feb 4th, 2019 Sep 4th, 2019

Note that the highlighted version marks the latest release.

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