Technology Glossary - Davide Cariola

What is Laravel?

Laravel is an open-source PHP framework for web application development. Created by Taylor Otwell in 2011, Laravel has become the most popular PHP framework in the world, with over 75,000 stars on GitHub (2024). Laravel follows the Model-View-Controller (MVC) architectural pattern and provides an elegant syntax and a rich set of features including routing, authentication, caching, and database migrations. Laravel is known for its developer-friendly approach, comprehensive documentation, and robust ecosystem.

Use cases: E-commerce platforms, content management systems, RESTful APIs, SaaS applications, enterprise web solutions.

What is FilamentPHP?

FilamentPHP is a framework for building admin panels and internal tools based on Laravel and Livewire. Released in 2020, FilamentPHP allows developers to create sophisticated admin interfaces in half the time compared to traditional custom development. It provides a collection of beautiful full-stack components for building forms, tables, notifications, actions, and more. FilamentPHP uses the TALL stack (Tailwind CSS, Alpine.js, Laravel, Livewire) and follows modern design principles.

Use cases: Admin panels, CRM systems, content management backends, data dashboards, internal business tools.

What is Livewire?

Livewire is a full-stack framework for Laravel that enables building dynamic interfaces without writing JavaScript. Developed by Caleb Porzio, Livewire allows developers to write reactive components entirely in PHP, while the framework handles the JavaScript communication behind the scenes using AJAX and DOM diffing. Livewire components are server-rendered and communicate with the backend in real-time, providing a seamless development experience without the complexity of traditional SPA frameworks.

Use cases: Real-time dashboards, form validation, search interfaces, dynamic tables, interactive UI components.

What is Vue.js?

Vue.js is a progressive JavaScript framework for building user interfaces. Created by Evan You in 2014, Vue.js is designed to be incrementally adoptable, meaning it can be integrated into existing projects gradually or used to build full single-page applications (SPAs). Vue.js features a reactive data binding system, component-based architecture, and a gentle learning curve. It has become one of the most popular frontend frameworks alongside React and Angular.

Use cases: Single-page applications, progressive web apps, interactive dashboards, e-commerce frontends, mobile hybrid apps.

What is Alpine.js?

Alpine.js is a minimal JavaScript framework for adding interactive behavior to HTML. Often described as "Tailwind for JavaScript," Alpine.js provides reactive and declarative functionality through simple HTML attributes. Created by Caleb Porzio (also creator of Livewire), Alpine.js is lightweight (15kb gzipped) and perfect for adding interactivity without the overhead of larger frameworks. It's particularly popular in the Laravel ecosystem as part of the TALL stack.

Use cases: Dropdown menus, modals, accordions, tabs, form validation, simple interactivity without build tools.

What is Tailwind CSS?

Tailwind CSS is a utility-first CSS framework for rapidly building custom user interfaces. Unlike traditional CSS frameworks that provide pre-designed components, Tailwind provides low-level utility classes that can be composed to build any design. Created by Adam Wathan in 2017, Tailwind has revolutionized modern web design by enabling developers to build unique interfaces without writing custom CSS. It includes features like responsive design utilities, dark mode support, and JIT (Just-In-Time) compilation.

Use cases: Custom web designs, component libraries, admin panels, landing pages, responsive web applications.

What is PHP?

PHP (PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor) is a server-side scripting language designed for web development. Created by Rasmus Lerdorf in 1994, PHP is one of the most widely used programming languages for web applications. PHP powers approximately 77% of websites whose server-side language is known, including platforms like WordPress, Facebook, and Wikipedia. Modern PHP (version 8.0+) includes features like JIT compilation, union types, named arguments, and significant performance improvements.

Use cases: Web applications, content management systems, e-commerce platforms, RESTful APIs, server-side rendering.

What is Flutter?

Flutter is an open-source UI framework by Google for building natively compiled applications for mobile, web, and desktop from a single codebase. Released in 2017, Flutter uses the Dart programming language and provides a rich set of pre-designed widgets for building beautiful, fast user interfaces. Flutter's "hot reload" feature enables developers to see changes instantly without losing application state. Flutter has become a popular choice for cross-platform mobile development.

Use cases: Cross-platform mobile apps, progressive web apps, desktop applications, embedded systems, IoT interfaces.

What is MySQL?

MySQL is an open-source relational database management system (RDBMS) based on SQL (Structured Query Language). Developed in 1995, MySQL is one of the most popular database systems in the world, used by major companies including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Netflix. MySQL is known for its reliability, ease of use, and strong performance for web applications. It supports ACID transactions, replication, partitioning, and is compatible with most programming languages.

Use cases: Web application databases, e-commerce platforms, data warehousing, logging systems, content management.

What is REST API?

REST (Representational State Transfer) API is an architectural style for designing networked applications. RESTful APIs use HTTP requests to perform CRUD operations (Create, Read, Update, Delete) on resources. REST APIs are stateless, cacheable, and use standard HTTP methods (GET, POST, PUT, DELETE). They typically return data in JSON or XML format. REST has become the standard approach for building web APIs due to its simplicity, scalability, and compatibility with web technologies.

Use cases: Mobile app backends, third-party integrations, microservices, data exchange between systems, web services.

What is WCAG?

WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) are international standards for making web content accessible to people with disabilities. Published by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), WCAG provides guidelines for creating content that is perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust. WCAG 2.1 Level AA is the most commonly adopted standard, required by law in many countries. Compliance ensures websites can be used by people with visual, auditory, motor, or cognitive disabilities.

Key requirements: Alternative text for images, keyboard navigation, sufficient color contrast, clear content structure, screen reader compatibility.