Blade template engine – definition, benefits, challenges
Selecting the right framework for the project always requires knowledge of the available solutions and deep understanding of the challenges that may appear in the development process. According to Statista, Laravel was used by 9,4% of web developers worldwide in 2022. It places it somewhat in the middle in the ranking of web frameworks popularity. One of the reasons, why it is so often chosen by web creators can be Blade template engine. Learn more.
What is Blade template engine?
Blade is a template engine and a part of Laravel – one of the solutions that make web development faster and less energy-consuming. It handles the default View layer in MVC architecture. It can be used for designing hierarchical layouts and creating dynamic content in Laravel applications. But how is it different from other PHP template engines? It does not prevent you from utilizing plain PHP in a code.
How to use Laravel Blade templates?
Great designs of the pages that users interact with are they to the application success. After all, engaging users is the primary goal of every website and web app. Blade template engine can be applied to web applications development. It allows developers to design the views of the digital products that developers are working on.
Views should be easy to maintain and modify whenever it is needed, and that is precisely what developer can achieve by creating them with Blade. Laravel together with Blade template engine is mostly used for building:
- e-commerce websites,
- content management systems,
- social media platforms.
It can be utlized in other types of projects too.
Leveraging Blade template engine – possible challenges
Like every web development tool, Blade has its drawbacks and benefits. Here are some challenges you may face when using it:
- Blade templated are compiled at runtime – it may not be suitable for complex digital products or those which have to deal with heavy traffic. If it will be used in such projects, you may observe slow rendering, which will affect your application efficiency.
- This engine does not support all advanced features of template engines – some other template engines can provide users with additional functionalities not available in Blade (such as support for asynchronous rendering or streaming). Establish what are the features you’ll need on your project.
- It can have only limited support – Blade is a relatively new template engine, so the community around it is still gathering. This means, you may sometimes lack the support and documentation that could solve your eventual problems.
What is most important, the Blade template engine is not a standalone tool. It comes as a part of the Laravel framework, so you must know Laravel, to work with Blade efficiently.
Benefits of blade template engine
If you are capable of using Laravel, you can try leverage Blade. In short time, you will realize, how much it simplifies the work on the project. Here are some advantages of using it:
- Clean, concise code – Blade enables you to a clean and simple syntax for creating and modifying views, even for those, who are not overly experienced with PHP.
- Layout as a single blade view – it makes it easier to work on extensive applications. With Laravel and Blade you can point the child page that should inherit some particular section or a layout. It reduces development time significantly.
- Efficiency – the fact that Blade templates are complied at runtime is not always the benefit, but in many cases it ensures high efficiency and short rendering time.
Blade integrates with other Laravel components, so the work on the web application is smooth and comfortable.
To sum up
- Blade template engine simplifies web development.
- It does not prevent you from using plain PHP code.
- Views created with it can be easily modified and maintained.
- Building applications with Laravel and Blade ensures a good performance.
- Blade engine is leverages in a variety of projects.
Ask us if Laravel is a proper technology for your project and check our case study.
