Laravel 5.8 Upgrade Guide

High Impact Changes

Medium Impact Changes

Upgrading To 5.8.0 From 5.7

Estimated Upgrade Time: 1 Hour

Note: We attempt to document every possible breaking change. Since some of these breaking changes are in obscure parts of the framework only a portion of these changes may actually affect your application.

Updating Dependencies

Update your laravel/framework dependency to 5.8.* in your composer.json file.

Next, examine any 3rd party packages consumed by your application and verify you are using the proper version for Laravel 5.8 support.

The Application Contract

The environment Method

Likelihood Of Impact: Very Low

The environment method signature of the Illuminate\Contracts\Foundation\Application contract has changed. If you are implementing this contract in your application, you should update the method signature:

/**
 * Get or check the current application environment.
 *
 * @param  string|array  $environments
 * @return string|bool
 */
public function environment(...$environments);

Added Methods

Likelihood Of Impact: Very Low

The bootstrapPath, configPath, databasePath, environmentPath, resourcePath, storagePath, resolveProvider, bootstrapWith, configurationIsCached, detectEnvironment, environmentFile, environmentFilePath, getCachedConfigPath, getCachedRoutesPath, getLocale, getNamespace, getProviders, hasBeenBootstrapped, loadDeferredProviders, loadEnvironmentFrom, routesAreCached, setLocale, shouldSkipMiddleware and terminate methods were added to the Illuminate\Contracts\Foundation\Application contract.

In the very unlikely event you are implementing this interface, you should add these methods to your implementation.

Authentication

Password Reset Notification Route Parameter

Likelihood Of Impact: Low

When a user requests a link to reset their password, Laravel generates the URL using the route helper to create a URL to the password.reset named route. When using Laravel 5.7, the token is passed to the route helper without an explicit name, like so:

route('password.reset', $token);

When using Laravel 5.8, the token is passed to the route helper as an explicit parameter:

route('password.reset', ['token' => $token]);

Therefore, if you are defining your own password.reset route, you should ensure that it contains a {token} parameter in its URI.

New Default Password Length

Likelihood Of Impact: High

The required password length when choosing or resetting a password was changed to eight characters. You should update any validation rules or logic within your application to match this new eight character default.

If you need to preserve the previous six character length or a different length, you may extend the Illuminate\Auth\Passwords\PasswordBroker class and overwrite the validatePasswordWithDefaults method with custom logic.

Cache

TTL in seconds

Likelihood Of Impact: Very High

In order to allow a more granular expiration time when storing items, the cache item time-to-live has changed from minutes to seconds. The put, putMany, add, remember and setDefaultCacheTime methods of the Illuminate\Cache\Repository class and its extended classes, as well as the put method of each cache store were updated with this changed behavior. See the related PR for more info.

If you are passing an integer to any of these methods, you should update your code to ensure you are now passing the number of seconds you wish the item to remain in the cache. Alternatively, you may pass a DateTime instance indicating when the item should expire:

// Laravel 5.7 - Store item for 30 minutes...
Cache::put('foo', 'bar', 30);

// Laravel 5.8 - Store item for 30 seconds...
Cache::put('foo', 'bar', 30);

// Laravel 5.7 / 5.8 - Store item for 30 seconds...
Cache::put('foo', 'bar', now()->addSeconds(30));

Tip!! This change makes the Laravel cache system fully compliant with the PSR-16 caching library standard.

PSR-16 Conformity

Likelihood Of Impact: Medium

In addition to the return value changes from below, the TTL argument of the put, putMany and add method's of the Illuminate\Cache\Repository class was updated to conform better with the PSR-16 spec. The new behavior provides a default of null so a call without specifying a TTL will result in storing the cache item forever. Additionally, storing cache items with a TTL of 0 or lower will remove items from the cache. See the related PR for more info.

The KeyWritten event was also updated with these changes.

Lock Safety Improvements

Likelihood Of Impact: High

In Laravel 5.7 and prior versions of Laravel, the "atomic lock" feature provided by some cache drivers could have unexpected behavior leading to the early release of locks.

For example: Client A acquires lock foo with a 10 second expiration. Client A actually takes 20 seconds to finish its task. The lock is released automatically by the cache system 10 seconds into Client A's processing time. Client B acquires lock foo. Client A finally finishes its task and releases lock foo, inadvertently releasing Client B's hold on the lock. Client C is now able to acquire the lock.

In order to mitigate this scenario, locks are now generated with an embedded "scope token" which allows the framework to ensure that, under normal circumstances, only the proper owner of a lock can release a lock.

If you are using the Cache::lock()->get(Closure) method of interacting with locks, no changes are required:

Cache::lock('foo', 10)->get(function () {
    // Lock will be released safely automatically...
});

However, if you are manually calling Cache::lock()->release(), you must update your code to maintain an instance of the lock. Then, after you are done performing your task, you may call the release method on the same lock instance. For example:

if (($lock = Cache::lock('foo', 10))->get()) {
    // Perform task...

    $lock->release();
}

Sometimes, you may wish to acquire a lock in one process and release it in another process. For example, you may acquire a lock during a web request and wish to release the lock at the end of a queued job that is triggered by that request. In this scenario, you should pass the lock's scoped "owner token" to the queued job so that the job can re-instantiate the lock using the given token:

// Within Controller...
$podcast = Podcast::find(1);

if (($lock = Cache::lock('foo', 120))->get()) {
    ProcessPodcast::dispatch($podcast, $lock->owner());
}

// Within ProcessPodcast Job...
Cache::restoreLock('foo', $this->owner)->release();

If you would like to release a lock without respecting its current owner, you may use the forceRelease method:

Cache::lock('foo')->forceRelease();

The Repository and Store Contracts

Likelihood Of Impact: Very Low

In order to be fully compliant with PSR-16 the return values of the put and forever methods of the Illuminate\Contracts\Cache\Repository contract and the return values of the put, putMany and forever methods of the Illuminate\Contracts\Cache\Store contract have been changed from void to bool.

Collections

The add Method

Likelihood Of Impact: Very Low

The add method has been moved from the Eloquent collection class to the base collection class. If you are extending Illuminate\Support\Collection and your extended class has an add method, make sure the method signature matches its parent:

public function add($item);

The firstWhere Method

Likelihood Of Impact: Very Low

The firstWhere method signature has changed to match the where method's signature. If you are overriding this method, you should update the method signature to match its parent:

/**
 * Get the first item by the given key value pair.
 *
 * @param  string  $key
 * @param  mixed  $operator
 * @param  mixed  $value
 * @return mixed
 */
public function firstWhere($key, $operator = null, $value = null);

Console

The Kernel Contract

Likelihood Of Impact: Very Low

The terminate method has been added to the Illuminate\Contracts\Console\Kernel contract. If you are implementing this interface, you should add this method to your implementation.

Container

Generators & Tagged Services

Likelihood Of Impact: Medium

The container's tagged method now utilizes PHP generators to lazy-instantiate the services with a given tag. This provides a performance improvement if you are not utilizing every tagged service.

Because of this change, the tagged method now returns an iterable instead of an array. If you are type-hinting the return value of this method, you should ensure that your type-hint is changed to iterable.

In addition, it is no longer possible to directly access a tagged service by its array offset value, such as $container->tagged('foo')[0].

The resolve Method

Likelihood Of Impact: Very Low

The resolve method now accepts a new boolean parameter which indicates whether events (resolving callbacks) should be raised/executed during the instantiation of an object. If you are overriding this method, you should update the method signature to match its parent.

The addContextualBinding Method

Likelihood Of Impact: Very Low

The addContextualBinding method was added to the Illuminate\Contracts\Container\Container contract. If you are implementing this interface, you should add this method to your implementation.

The tagged Method

Likelihood Of Impact: Low

The tagged method signature has been changed and it now returns an iterable instead of an array. If you have type-hinted in your code some parameter which gets the return value of this method with array, you should modify the type-hint to iterable.

The flush Method

Likelihood Of Impact: Very Low

The flush method was added to the Illuminate\Contracts\Container\Container contract. If you are implementing this interface, you should add this method to your implementation.

Database

Unquoted MySQL JSON Values

Likelihood Of Impact: Low

The query builder will now return unquoted JSON values when using MySQL and MariaDB. This behavior is consistent with the other supported databases:

$value = DB::table('users')->value('options->language');

dump($value);

// Laravel 5.7...
'"en"'

// Laravel 5.8...
'en'

As a result, the ->> operator is no longer supported or necessary.

SQLite

Likelihood Of Impact: Medium

As of Laravel 5.8 the oldest supported SQLite version is SQLite 3.7.11. If you are using an older SQLite version, you should update it (SQLite 3.8.8+ is recommended).

Migrations & bigIncrements

Likelihood Of Impact: None

As of Laravel 5.8, migration stubs use the bigIncrements method on ID columns by default. Previously, ID columns were created using the increments method.

This will not affect any existing code in your project; however, be aware that foreign key columns must be of the same type. Therefore, a column created using the increments method can not reference a column created using the bigIncrements method.

Eloquent

Model Names Ending With Irregular Plurals

Likelihood Of Impact: Medium

As of Laravel 5.8, multi-word model names ending in a word with an irregular plural are now correctly pluralized.

// Laravel 5.7...
App\Feedback.php -> feedback (correctly pluralized)
App\UserFeedback.php -> user_feedbacks (incorrectly pluralized)

// Laravel 5.8
App\Feedback.php -> feedback (correctly pluralized)
App\UserFeedback.php -> user_feedback (correctly pluralized)

If you have a model that was incorrectly pluralized, you may continue using the old table name by defining a $table property on your model:

/**
 * The table associated with the model.
 *
 * @var string
 */
protected $table = 'user_feedbacks';

Custom Pivot Models With Incrementing IDs

If you have defined a many-to-many relationship that uses a custom pivot model, and that pivot model has an auto-incrementing primary key, you should ensure your custom pivot model class defines an incrementing property that is set to true:

/**
 * Indicates if the IDs are auto-incrementing.
 *
 * @var bool
 */
public $incrementing = true;

The loadCount Method

Likelihood Of Impact: Low

A loadCount method has been added to the base Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model class. If your application also defines a loadCount method, it may conflict with Eloquent's definition.

The originalIsEquivalent Method

Likelihood Of Impact: Very Low

The originalIsEquivalent method of the Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Concerns\HasAttributes trait has been changed from protected to public.

Automatic Soft-Deleted Casting Of deleted_at Property

Likelihood Of Impact: Low

The deleted_at property will now be automatically casted to a Carbon instance when your Eloquent model uses the Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\SoftDeletes trait. You can override this behavior by writing your custom accessor for that property or by manually adding it to the casts attribute:

protected $casts = ['deleted_at' => 'string'];

BelongsTo getForeignKey & getOwnerKey Methods

Likelihood Of Impact: Low

The getForeignKey, getQualifiedForeignKey, and getOwnerKey methods of the BelongsTo relationship have been renamed to getForeignKeyName, getQualifiedForeignKeyName, and getOwnerKeyName respectively, making the method names consistent with the other relationships offered by Laravel.

Environment Variable Parsing

Likelihood Of Impact: High

The phpdotenv package that is used to parse .env files has released a new major version, which may impact the results returned from the env helper. Specifically, the # character in an unquoted value will now be considered a comment instead of part of the value:

Previous behavior:

ENV_VALUE=foo#bar

env('ENV_VALUE'); // foo#bar

New behavior:

ENV_VALUE=foo#bar
env('ENV_VALUE'); // foo

To preserve the previous behavior, you may wrap the environment values in quotes:

ENV_VALUE="foo#bar"

env('ENV_VALUE'); // foo#bar

For more information, please refer to the phpdotenv upgrade guide.

Events

The fire Method

Likelihood Of Impact: Low

The fire method (which was deprecated in Laravel 5.4) of the Illuminate\Events\Dispatcher class has been removed. You should use the dispatch method instead.

Exception Handling

The ExceptionHandler Contract

Likelihood Of Impact: Low

The shouldReport method has been added to the Illuminate\Contracts\Debug\ExceptionHandler contract. If you are implementing this interface, you should add this method to your implementation.

The renderHttpException Method

Likelihood Of Impact: Low

The renderHttpException method signature of the Illuminate\Foundation\Exceptions\Handler class has changed. If you are overriding this method in your exception handler, you should update the method signature to match its parent:

/**
 * Render the given HttpException.
 *
 * @param  \Symfony\Component\HttpKernel\Exception\HttpExceptionInterface  $e
 * @return \Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\Response
 */
protected function renderHttpException(HttpExceptionInterface $e);

Mail

Markdown File Directory Change

Likelihood Of Impact: High

If you have published Laravel's Markdown mail components using the vendor:publish command, you should rename the /resources/views/vendor/mail/markdown directory to /resources/views/vendor/mail/text.

In addition, the markdownComponentPaths method has been renamed to textComponentPaths. If you are overriding this method, you should update the method name to match its parent.

Method Signature Changes In The PendingMail Class

Likelihood Of Impact: Very Low

The send, sendNow, queue, later and fill methods of the Illuminate\Mail\PendingMail class have been changed to accept an Illuminate\Contracts\Mail\Mailable instance instead of Illuminate\Mail\Mailable. If you are overriding some of these methods, you should update their signature to match its parent.

Queue

Pheanstalk 4.0

Likelihood Of Impact: Medium

Laravel 5.8 provides support for the ~4.0 release of the Pheanstalk queue library. If you are using Pheanstalk library in your application, please upgrade your library to the ~4.0 release via Composer.

The Job Contract

Likelihood Of Impact: Very Low

The isReleased, hasFailed and markAsFailed methods have been added to the Illuminate\Contracts\Queue\Job contract. If you are implementing this interface, you should add these methods to your implementation.

The Job::failed & FailingJob Class

Likelihood Of Impact: Very Low

When a queued job failed in Laravel 5.7, the queue worker executed the FailingJob::handle method. In Laravel 5.8, the logic contained in the FailingJob class has been moved to a fail method directly on the job class itself. Because of this, a fail method has been added to the Illuminate\Contracts\Queue\Job contract.

The base Illuminate\Queue\Jobs\Job class contains the implementation of fail and no code changes should be required by typical application code. However, if you are building custom queue driver which utilizes a job class that does not extend the base job class offered by Laravel, you should implement the fail method manually in your custom job class. You may refer to Laravel's base job class as a reference implementation.

This change allows custom queue drivers to have more control over the job deletion process.

Redis Blocking Pop

Likelihood Of Impact: Very Low

Using the "blocking pop" feature of the Redis queue driver is now safe. Previously, there was a small chance that a queued job could be lost if the Redis server or worker crashed at the same time the job was retrieved. In order to make blocking pops safe, a new Redis list with suffix :notify is created for each Laravel queue.

Requests

The TransformsRequest Middleware

Likelihood Of Impact: Low

The transform method of the Illuminate\Foundation\Http\Middleware\TransformsRequest middleware now receives the "fully-qualified" request input key when the input is an array:

'employee' => [
    'name' => 'Taylor Otwell',
],

/**
 * Transform the given value.
 *
 * @param  string  $key
 * @param  mixed  $value
 * @return mixed
 */
protected function transform($key, $value)
{
    dump($key); // 'employee.name' (Laravel 5.8)
    dump($key); // 'name' (Laravel 5.7)
}

Routing

The UrlGenerator Contract

Likelihood Of Impact: Very Low

The previous method has been added to the Illuminate\Contracts\Routing\UrlGenerator contract. If you are implementing this interface, you should add this method to your implementation.

The cachedSchema Property Of Illuminate\Routing\UrlGenerator

Likelihood Of Impact: Very Low

The $cachedSchema property name (which has been deprecated in Laravel 5.7) of Illuminate\Routing\UrlGenerator has been changed to $cachedScheme.

Sessions

The StartSession Middleware

Likelihood Of Impact: Very Low

The session persistence logic has been moved from the terminate() method to the handle() method. If you are overriding one or both of these methods, you should update them to reflect these changes.

Support

Prefer String And Array Classes Over Helpers

Likelihood Of Impact: Medium

All array_* and str_* global helpers have been deprecated. You should use the Illuminate\Support\Arr and Illuminate\Support\Str methods directly.

The impact of this change has been marked as medium since the helpers have been moved to the new laravel/helpers package which offers a backwards compatibility layer for all of the global array and string functions.

Deferred Service Providers

Likelihood Of Impact: Medium

The defer boolean property on the service provider which is/was used to indicate if a provider is deferred has been deprecated. In order to mark the service provider as deferred it should implement the Illuminate\Contracts\Support\DeferrableProvider contract.

Read-Only env Helper

Likelihood Of Impact: Low

Previously, the env helper could retrieve values from environment variables which were changed at runtime. In Laravel 5.8, the env helper treats environment variables as immutable. If you would like to change an environment variable at runtime, consider using a configuration value that can be retrieved using the config helper:

Previous behavior:

dump(env('APP_ENV')); // local

putenv('APP_ENV=staging');

dump(env('APP_ENV')); // staging

New behavior:

dump(env('APP_ENV')); // local

putenv('APP_ENV=staging');

dump(env('APP_ENV')); // local

Testing

The setUp & tearDown Methods

The setUp and tearDown methods now require a void return type:

protected function setUp(): void
protected function tearDown(): void

PHPUnit 8

Likelihood Of Impact: Optional

By default, Laravel 5.8 uses PHPUnit 7. However, you may optionally upgrade to PHPUnit 8, which requires PHP >= 7.2. In addition, please read through the entire list of changes in the PHPUnit 8 release announcement.

Validation

The Validator Contract

Likelihood Of Impact: Very Low

The validated method was added to the Illuminate\Contracts\Validation\Validator contract:

/**
 * Get the attributes and values that were validated.
 *
 * @return array
 */
public function validated();

If you are implementing this interface, you should add this method to your implementation.

The ValidatesAttributes Trait

Likelihood Of Impact: Very Low

The parseTable, getQueryColumn and requireParameterCount methods of the Illuminate\Validation\Concerns\ValidatesAttributes trait have been changed from protected to public.

The DatabasePresenceVerifier Class

Likelihood Of Impact: Very Low

The table method of the Illuminate\Validation\DatabasePresenceVerifier class has been changed from protected to public.

The Validator Class

Likelihood Of Impact: Very Low

The getPresenceVerifierFor method of the Illuminate\Validation\Validator class has been changed from protected to public.

Email Validation

Likelihood Of Impact: Very Low

The email validation rule now checks if the email is RFC6530 compliant, making the validation logic consistent with the logic used by SwiftMailer. In Laravel 5.7, the email rule only verified that the email was RFC822 compliant.

Therefore, when using Laravel 5.8, emails that were previously incorrectly considered invalid will now be considered valid (e.g hej@bär.se). Generally, this should be considered a bug fix; however, it is listed as a breaking change out of caution. Please let us know if you encounter any issues surrounding this change.

View

The getData Method

Likelihood Of Impact: Very Low

The getData method was added to the Illuminate\Contracts\View\View contract. If you are implementing this interface, you should add this method to your implementation.

Notifications

Nexmo / Slack Notification Channels

Likelihood Of Impact: High

The Nexmo and Slack Notification channels have been extracted into first-party packages. To use these channels in your application, require the following packages:

composer require laravel/nexmo-notification-channel
composer require laravel/slack-notification-channel

Miscellaneous

We also encourage you to view the changes in the laravel/laravel GitHub repository. While many of these changes are not required, you may wish to keep these files in sync with your application. Some of these changes will be covered in this upgrade guide, but others, such as changes to configuration files or comments, will not be. You can easily view the changes with the GitHub comparison tool and choose which updates are important to you.