Sep 2, 2022
Made a Laravel app in 1 minute, in my phone
No installs, no downloads, its pure magic, and you can do it too
One of the things that start to take its toll when creating simple prototypes or small projects is the setting up the kitchen sink: creating the migrations, syncing up the models, each model attributes and properties, setting up the factories and seeders, shoving traits here and there… I think you get the gist.
Each of the chores takes little time, but is a mental process that piles up for each piece of data you are dealing with. Are your relations correct? Did you forget property annotation? Is that column nullable? Does need an index? Things that are part of the setup but not your idea.
Seeing how I made this over and over again, and that took the “make your idea” experience less direct, I created Larawiz.com, a Laravel online scaffolder that uses a simple YAML file to create your app.
Look mom, no downloads!
Let’s take the big elephant in the room: Laravel Blueprint. I really liked it, but I always found it a bother because is a three-step process: install Laravel, install the package, and then scaffold the blueprint itself. You want to make something on the go? Good luck finding yourself a computer or bring your own. Also, while some may find the set up acceptable, I just wanted something that didn’t require anything but my head and some really, brain-dead, simple YAML.
That’s why Larawiz exists: it does it online, and you don’t need a manual. Hell, you could do it in your phone.
A simple visit to Larawiz.com ditches you an online editor with a sample blueprint in YAML and a wide choice of useful packages you can add to your application. Once you scaffold your app, a command exclusive for your project will be shown to install it in your computer. You can also download it as a zip, so your idea isn’t lost in your phone or tablet.
The editor is really forgiving and you will get an error if you make a mistake, as it validates against a JSON Schema. You could also download the schema to use in your own editor, like PhpStorm or VS Code.
It also supports adding Laravel and Laragear packages to your project from the get go, so you won’t need to install each of them later, saving you time. You can even include one of the Starter Kits: Laravel Breeze, Laravel Fortify or Laravel JetStream.
Once you’re done, hit the “Scaffold” button and you will be presented with a command to install your app in your computer. No additional steps necessary, as it leverages Composer own on-demand “packages” option to install your application through a zip file.
What we get is a lot of chores already done and set in code, so we can start developing our idea in a flash:
- Models with relations, hidden properties and what not.
- Migrations, Factories and Seeders.
- Controllers, Form Requests and web routes.
- And a whole lot more.
Larawiz is meant to use convention over configuration, so you won’t fail at creating an application. You can even add more things into the mix, like reusable Traits, indexes, soft-deletes, scopes, casts, and even factory states.
The good part of all of this is that is free, so you can start now saving your time. If you find it useful, you may drop a word on Twitter or sponsor it with your company or by yourself. If you find an issue, there is always an issue tracker.
