Laravel Flashcards

Which Artisan command creates a new middleware class in Laravel?

Answer: php artisan make:middleware CheckAge

The `php artisan make:middleware` command scaffolds a new middleware class in the app/Http/Middleware directory.

In Laravel, where must a newly created middleware be registered to apply it to routes?

Answer: app/Http/Kernel.php

Middleware must be registered in the `$middleware`, `$middlewareGroups`, or `$routeMiddleware` arrays inside `app/Http/Kernel.php`.

What does Laravel's `dd()` helper function do?

Answer: Dumps the given variable and terminates script execution

`dd()` stands for 'dump and die' — it pretty-prints variable contents using Symfony's VarDumper and then halts execution.

Which Laravel facade provides an interface to the application's session store?

Answer: Session

The `Session` facade wraps the underlying session manager, exposing methods like `put()`, `get()`, `forget()`, and `flush()`.

How does Laravel's Eloquent `firstOrCreate()` method differ from `firstOrNew()`?

Answer: firstOrCreate() persists the record to the database; firstOrNew() returns an unsaved model instance

`firstOrCreate()` saves the new model to the database immediately, while `firstOrNew()` returns a new (unsaved) model instance that you must manually call `save()` on.

What is the purpose of Laravel's `config()` helper?

Answer: Retrieve or set configuration values from config files at runtime

`config('app.timezone')` reads from config files, and `config(['app.debug' => true])` sets values at runtime using dot-notation paths.

Which Laravel command caches all configuration files into a single file for faster loading?

Answer: php artisan config:cache

`php artisan config:cache` merges all config files into `bootstrap/cache/config.php`, speeding up configuration access on production.