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Video platform: a customizable, rich media solution | 16



                                                                 Since I was not familiar with Laravel, It was the best time
                                                                 to  start  with  reading  about  the  framework.  This
                                                                 consisted of using a lot of the library strategy, looking up
                                                                 information on the internet, reading articles and looking
                                                                 at example codes. I made sure to make use of the field
                                                                 strategy also, asking the developers at MAD Consultancy
                                                                 about  Laravel;  Mostly  how  I  would  call  the  database,
                                                                 what the best way was to link to the templates, where I
                                                                 had  to  put  the  specific  coding  functions  etc.

                                                                 It worked out great. With some tips and advice from my
                                                                 company mentor I found it easier and easier to work with
                                                                 the framework. I had learned quite a lot about the
                                                                 framework; at first it was mostly trying out pieces of code
                                                                 and for this I was using the workshop strategy combined
                                                                 with the lab strategy in order to test the parts out. This
                                                                 would either work or it would not; and every time I had to
                                                                 go back to the library strategy, find more information,
                                                                 read through the documentation to find out why it didn’t
                                                                 work or what better method there was to handle the
                                                                 specific feature.
                                                                  I had finished the register/login system for the platform,
                                                                 and it seemed as if everything was going easier. I
                                                                 understood the logic of the framework, how the MVC
                                                                 worked, where to put the template views, where to put
                                                                 functions and logic, and how to use and connect parts of
                                                                 the database. Since I was working and reading about
                                                                 Laravel which is an MVC framework, I thought it would
          Figure 4: single page sketch of the video platform
                                                                 be a good idea to answer some of the research questions
                                                                 I had written in my assignment survey (and also in my
            project plan, see appendix B), which can be found in appendix A.


            4.2.2 Research
             I had the research question: “Why is using MVC better than programming from scratch?” with this question came the sub-
            question: “What are benefits of using Laravel as a MVC”.

            By using the library strategy, I was surfing through Google, going article by article to
            get as much information. I found that a lot of the articles were very biased, and every
            programmer was talking about what they thought was best. What I found the clearest
            was a short article retrieved from Wikipedia [2]. MVC stands for Model-View-
            Controller; it’s an architectural pattern of building software in which you separate
            programming logic, html views and database. Every part has their place.
            Programming logic needs to be put in the controllers. HTML templates, CSS and other
            front-end parts should be put in the views and the database tables are linked with
            models, and the models act like your database tables. In figure 5 you can clearly see
            how the parts of a MVC work together, and what parts collaborate with what parts.
            This way of working, separates the code that is written and gives a clearer look to your
            project.
                                                                                    Figure 5: a typical collaboration of the MVC
                                                                                    components
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