Learning PHP from front to back to develop a web application has proven daunting for many of us who like to focus on front end design. I cannot express to you how much of a headache I get when I think about all of the components I would need to understand better in order to develop a basic blogging or CMS engine. Luckily, thanks to the hard work of many talented web application developers, there are now many open source frameworks available for use.
Layers upon layers being built upon existing languages, with repurposed code being organized and made available for the masses – it’s a prime example of Laravel.
There is a very talented web developer named Maksim Surguy who has written an excellent introductory article for the new framework. I would highly recommend taking a look at his write up as it offers a good balance of technical knowledge and entry level explanation.