Previously, if you wanted to output a default value of a string in Blade you would put a condition that checks if the variable is set, otherwise defaults to some value. Now you can shorten the code by using the keyword "or" to specify what should be displayed if the variable is not set.
This trick is what we use to make writing controllers very quick and easy. The base controller has methods plugged in where needed to automatically load views to a set of templates on it's own. All you need to do is pass it the data you want displayed. It also handles missingmethod to automatically look for logical views. Let me know what you think or any ideas for improving upon it. As a note, I use a separate controller to set the page title and menu items.
This trick is handy for wrapping all of your form elements with the same HTML/classes, which is especially useful for handling error states when using frameworks like Bootstrap or Foundation.
Did you know that Laravel comes with a great amount of helpers to generate HTML in your Blade templates, like UL and OL lists, obfuscating email links, links to javascript and style assets?
Check out the code below to see the HTML helpers in action.
Usually you would use @section and @stop to pass data to a Blade section. When your data is limited to a short text like page title you could use the second argument of @section to pass that data.