What is MVC in Laravel ?

Laravel full guide step by step

MVC stands for:

M – Model

V – View

C – Controller

It’s an architectural pattern used by Laravel (and many other frameworks) to organize your code in a clean and maintainable ways.

The Three Pillars of MVC

1. Model — Your Data Brain

The main logic of the database

It mainly Deals with your database and business logic.

The Model represents your database tables.

In Laravel, Models are usually stored in the app/Models folder.

They handle things like:

Fetching data from the database

Saving new records

Updating and deleting records

Defining relationships (e.g. A single user can have many posts)

Example:

// app/Models/User.php
class User extends Model
{
    protected $fillable = ['name', 'email', 'password'];
}

Here, the User model talks to the users table in your database.
It’s like the bridge between your code and your data.

2. View — The User Interface

The mainly focus on Shows the data to the user (UI).

Views are stored in resources/views.

They are basically Blade template files (Laravel’s HTML + PHP mix).

Views should not have heavy logic

just show data given by the Controller.

Example

<!-- resources/views/users.blade.php -->
<h1>All Users</h1>
<ul>
    @foreach ($users as $user)
        <li>{{ $user->name }}</li>
    @endforeach
</ul>

This is what your users actually see in the browser.

3. Controller The middle man

Mainly focus onConnecting Models and Views.

Controllers’ stores in app/Http/Controllers.

They receive HTTP requests (like visiting a page, submitting a form),
talk to the Model, and then return the proper View with data.

Example:

// app/Http/Controllers/UserController.php
class UserController extends Controller
{
    public function index() {
        $users = User::all(); // talk to the model and display all user from database
        return view('users', compact('users')); // pass data to view
    }
}

Here, the Controller is the middleman: it asks the Model for all users and gives them to the View to display.

How the MVC Flow Works in Laravel

Let’s imagine a real-life user visiting http://127.0.0.1:8000/users

User hits a route

Laravel looks at routes/web.php

Route::get(‘/users’, [UserController::class, ‘index’]);

Route calls a Controller method → UserController@index

Controller talks to the Model → User::all() // select all user from database and display to the users

Model gets data from the database

Controller sends the data to a View

return view(‘users’, compact(‘users’))

View displays the data as HTML in the browser

Your user sees a clean web page, but behind the scenes, MVC kept everything organized and separated.

Why MVC Is So Helpful

Organized/ modularize code – Each part does only one job/ each module works only one jobs for its works only. Mainly focus on separation of concern on logic and views.

Reusable & scalable – You can add new features easily without breaking everything.

Team-friendly –

Frontend devs can work on Views,
backend devs on Models/Controllers.

Imagine a team where one person builds the house structure

(Model),
One decorates it (View),
One directs who does what (Controller).
That’s how smooth MVC makes development.

Practice Challenge

Let’s now build a complete CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete) system in Laravel

We’ll build a Student Management CRUD as an example.

Step 1 Create a Fresh Laravel Project

composer create-project laravel/laravel sms

cd student-crud

php artisan serve

Open http://localhost:8000 to see fresh the Laravel welcome page.

Step 2 Connect to Database/ Database configuration

Create a database named sms_db in MySQL

Update your .env file:

DB_CONNECTION=mysql
DB_HOST=127.0.0.1
DB_PORT=3306
DB_DATABASE=sms_db // your database 
DB_USERNAME=root
DB_PASSWORD=

Step 3 Create Student Model & Migration

php artisan make:model Student -m

This provides:

app/Models/Student.php
database/migrations/2025-0-0-0_create_students_table.php

Edit the migration:
// database/migrations/xxxx_xx_xx_create_students_table.php
public function up(): void
{
    Schema::create('students', function (Blueprint $table) {
        $table->id();
        $table->string('name');
        $table->string('email')->unique();
        $table->string('phone');
        $table->timestamps();
    });
}

Run the migration:

php artisan migrate

Step 4 Create Controller for Students

php artisan make:controller StudentController -r

This creates app/Http/Controllers/StudentController.php with all 7 resource methods.

Index // display list of students
Create // provide call form students from views
Edit // provide form to the users
Store // send data to the database
Update // update data by checking user inputs
Destroy // deleting data from database based on customer provide form
Show // showing detail of students by id viewers hits.

Step 5 Define Routes

Open routes/web.php and add:

use App\Http\Controllers\StudentController;

Route::get('/', function () {
    return redirect()->route('students.index');
});

Route::resource('students', StudentController::class);

This will create all CRUD routes:

*Method*	*URL*	*Action*
GET	/students	index (list)
GET	/students/create	create form
POST	/students	store (save new)
GET	/students/{id}/edit	edit form
PUT	/students/{id}	update
DELETE	/students/{id}	destroy

Step 6 Implement Controller Logic

Edit app/Http/Controllers/StudentController.php:

<?php

namespace App\Http\Controllers;

use App\Models\Student;
use Illuminate\Http\Request;

class StudentController extends Controller
{
    // Show all students
    public function index()
    {
        $students = Student::all();
        return view('students.index', compact('students'));
    }

    // Show create form
    public function create()
    {
        return view('students.create');
    }

    // Save new student
    public function store(Request $request)
    {
        $request->validate([
            'name'=>'required',
            'email'=>'required|email|unique:students',
            'phone'=>'required'
        ]);

        Student::create($request->all());

        return redirect()->route('students.index')->with('success','Student created successfully.');
    }

    // Show edit form
    public function edit(Student $student)
    {
        return view('students.edit', compact('student'));
    }

    // Update student
    public function update(Request $request, Student $student)
    {
        $request->validate([
            'name'=>'required',
            'email'=>'required|email|unique:students,email,'.$student->id,
            'phone'=>'required'
        ]);

        $student->update($request->all());

        return redirect()->route('students.index')->with('success','Student updated successfully.');
    }

    // Delete student
    public function destroy(Student $student)
    {
        $student->delete();
        return redirect()->route('students.index')->with('success','Student deleted successfully.');
    }
}

Also update the model to allow mass assignment:

<?php

namespace App\Models;

use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;

class Student extends Model
{
    //
    protected $fillable = ['name','email','phone'];
}

Step 7 — Create Blade Views

Make a folder resources/views/students.

resources/views/layout.blade.php

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
    <title>Student CRUD</title>
    <link href="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/bootstrap@5.3.3/dist/css/bootstrap.min.css" rel="stylesheet">
</head>
<body>
<div class="container mt-5">
    <h2 class="mb-4 text-center">Student Management</h2>
    @if(session('success'))
        <div class="alert alert-success">{{ session('success') }}</div>
    @endif

    @yield('content')
</div>
</body>
</html>

resources/views/students/index.blade.php

@extends('layout')

@section('content')
<a href="{{ route('students.create') }}" class="btn btn-primary mb-3">+ Add Student</a>

<table class="table table-bordered">
    <thead>
        <tr>
            <th>ID</th><th>Name</th><th>Email</th><th>Phone</th><th>Actions</th>
        </tr>
    </thead>
    <tbody>
        @forelse ($students as $student)
        <tr>
            <td>{{ $student->id }}</td>
            <td>{{ $student->name }}</td>
            <td>{{ $student->email }}</td>
            <td>{{ $student->phone }}</td>
            <td>
                <a href="{{ route('students.edit',$student->id) }}" class="btn btn-sm btn-warning">Edit</a>
                <form action="{{ route('students.destroy',$student->id) }}" method="POST" style="display:inline-block;">
                    @csrf @method('DELETE')
                    <button type="submit" class="btn btn-sm btn-danger"
                        onclick="return confirm('Delete this student?')">Delete</button>
                </form>
            </td>
        </tr>
        @empty
        <tr><td colspan="5" class="text-center">No students found.</td></tr>
        @endforelse
    </tbody>
</table>
@endsection

resources/views/students/create.blade.php

@extends('layout')

@section('content')
<form action="{{ route('students.store') }}" method="POST">
    @csrf
    <div class="mb-3">
        <label>Name</label>
        <input type="text" name="name" class="form-control" required>
    </div>
    <div class="mb-3">
        <label>Email</label>
        <input type="email" name="email" class="form-control" required>
    </div>
    <div class="mb-3">
        <label>Phone</label>
        <input type="text" name="phone" class="form-control" required>
    </div>
    <button type="submit" class="btn btn-success">Save</button>
    <a href="{{ route('students.index') }}" class="btn btn-secondary">Back</a>
</form>
@endsection

resources/views/students/edit.blade.php

@extends('layout')

@section('content')
<form action="{{ route('students.update',$student->id) }}" method="POST">
    @csrf @method('PUT')
    <div class="mb-3">
        <label>Name</label>
        <input type="text" name="name" value="{{ $student->name }}" class="form-control" required>
    </div>
    <div class="mb-3">
        <label>Email</label>
        <input type="email" name="email" value="{{ $student->email }}" class="form-control" required>
    </div>
    <div class="mb-3">
        <label>Phone</label>
        <input type="text" name="phone" value="{{ $student->phone }}" class="form-control" required>
    </div>
    <button type="submit" class="btn btn-success">Update</button>
    <a href="{{ route('students.index') }}" class="btn btn-secondary">Back</a>
</form>
@endsection