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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