Laravel - Application Structure

The application structure in Laravel is basically the structure of folders, sub-folders and files included in a project. 

📂 Main Folders of a Laravel Project

1. app/

This contains the core logic of your application (the heart of your business logic).

• Console/ → Custom Artisan commands.
• Exceptions/ → Application’s exception handling.
• Http/ 
• —  Controllers/ → Handle incoming requests and return responses.
• —  Middleware/ → Filters HTTP requests (before/after handling).
• —  Requests/ → Form request validation logic.
• Models/ → Eloquent models for database interactions.
• Policies/ → Authorization logic.
• Providers/ → Service providers to bind services and configure app services.
• Events/ → Events represent actions that have occurred in your application.
• Listeners/ → Handle the events and execute logic when an event is fired.
• Jobs/ → Queued jobs for background tasks.
• Mail/ → Classes for sending emails (Mailable).
• Notifications/ → Classes for sending notifications (email, SMS, etc.).
• Rules/ → Custom validation rules.

2. bootstrap/

Contains files that initialize the framework.

• app.php → Initializes the Laravel framework.
• cache/ → Stores cached files for faster loading.

3. config/

Contains all the configuration files for your app (database, mail, etc.).

4. database/

Contains everything related to your database.

• migrations/ → Database schema migrations.
• factories/ → Model factories for seeding the database with sample data.
• seeders/ → Classes that populate the database with data.

5. public/

This is the web server's document root.

• index.php → The main entry point of the application.
• assets/ → Publicly accessible files such as images, CSS, and JS.

6. resources/

Contains assets that need to be processed or compiled.

• views/ → Blade templates (HTML).
• lang/ → Localization files (translations).
• js/ → JavaScript files (if using Laravel Mix).
• sass/ → SCSS files (if using Laravel Mix).

7. routes/

Defines your application’s route files.

• web.php → Routes for the web (browser-based).
• api.php → Routes for APIs (stateless).
• console.php → Artisan command-line routes.
• channels.php → Routes for broadcasting events.

8. storage/

Contains various types of file storage.

• app/ → Application-generated files.
• framework/ → Caches, session files, and compiled views.
• logs/ → Application log files.

9. tests/

Contains automated tests for your application.

• Feature/ → Tests for routes, controllers, etc.
• Unit/ → Unit tests for smaller, isolated functions.

10. vendor/

Contains all third-party dependencies managed by Composer.

– Do not modify this folder directly.

Key Files

• .env → Environment variables (app key, database credentials).
• composer.json → PHP dependencies and autoloading.
• artisan → Command line interface for Laravel.
• package.json → Node dependencies (frontend assets).
• webpack.mix.js → Laravel Mix config (frontend asset compilation).

In short:

• app/ = logic
• routes/ = URLs
• resources/ = views/assets
• config/ = settings
• database/ = database
• public/ = web root
• storage/ = files
• tests/ = tests

Root Folder

• helpers.php → Optional file for global helper functions (you can create it yourself).