A big upgrade of Laravel Nova is around the corner and here's what we know. During this year's Laracon Online Winter '22, Taylor Otwell gave a sneak preview on what changes we can expect from Laravel Nova 4. The package hasn't gotten any major upgrade since March 2020 with the release of Laravel 7. Now it's time for a big change, it seems.
What do we know so far?
In his speech during Laracon Taylor teasered a few improvements:
- Batched action queueing support
dependsOn()method- Filterable fields
- Major user interface improvements
- New field types (e.g. colors)
- Notifications
Let's dig into the ones we know a bit more about:
dependsOn() method
This new method will allow us to explain the software that one field depends on another. Example: categories and sub-categories. We can simply say that a sub-category dependsOn() a category. You can automatically show or hide information based on the dependancy. Pick category A and only see sub-categories that depend on category A. The state of Nova forms can be changed with this new method. Now imagine what else this may enable you to do and you'll soon realize that this is one of the exciting changes coming with Nova 4.
Filterable fields
Instead of using custom filters or even packages to achieve the same outcome, we will soon be able to filter fields by adding one line of code. Let's take the example Taylor gave in his speech: Posts. Each blog post may have a user attached. Now, by adding this line of code, you'll be able to directly filter this field. There do not seem to be a lot of limitations: filterable fields seem to be available for text- and date-fields and who knows what else.
Major user interface improvements
A lighter user interface, more space between elements, a fully responsive theme and dark mode elevate Laravel Nova 4 to the latest industry standards. The days of using packages for having a dark mode or a responsive UI are finally over.
New field types, notifications, batched action support, ...
Those are only a few of the things that were mentioned. Later next month we can expect an official unveil. The big open question that remains is: how many breaking changes will there be? Will we switch from a Single-Page-Application (SPA) based on Vue.js to something else? One thing is certain: we are definitely looking forward to the next version of Nova.
