Best Practices for Custom Helpers in Laravel 5

Question

I would like to create helper functions to avoid repeating code between views in Laravel 5   view blade php   lt p gt Foo Formated text     fooFormatText  text     lt  p gt    They re basically text formatting functions  Where and how can I create a file with these functions

User · Answer

Custom Blade Directives in Laravel 5

Yes, there is another way to do this!

Step 1: Register a custom Blade directive:

<?php // code in app/Providers/AppServiceProvider.php

namespace App\Providers;

use Illuminate\Support\ServiceProvider;

use Blade; // <-- This is important! Without it you'll get an exception.

class AppServiceProvider extends ServiceProvider
{
    /**
     * Bootstrap any application services.
     *
     * @return void
     */
     public function boot()
     {
         // Make a custom blade directive:
         Blade::directive('shout', function ($string) {
             return trim(strtoupper($string), '(\'\')');
         });

         // And another one for good measure:
         Blade::directive('customLink', function () {
             return '<a href="#">Custom Link</a>';
         });
     }
    ...

Step 2: Use your custom Blade directive:

<!-- // code in resources/views/view.blade.php -->

@shout('this is my custom blade directive!!')
<br />
@customLink

Outputs:

THIS IS MY CUSTOM BLADE DIRECTIVE!!
Custom Link

Source: https://laravel.com/docs/5.1/blade#extending-blade

Additional Reading: https://mattstauffer.co/blog/custom-conditionals-with-laravels-blade-directives

If you want to learn how to best make custom classes that you can use anywhere, see Custom Classes in Laravel 5, the Easy Way

User · Answer

There are some great answers here but i think this is the simplest  In Laravel 5 4  and prob earlier versions too  you can create a class somewhere convenient for you  eg App Libraries Helper php  class Helper         public function uppercasePara  str            return   lt p gt    strtoupper  str     lt p gt             Then you can simply call it in your Blade template like this    inject  helper    App Libraries Helper      helper- gt drawTimeSelector        If you don t want to use  inject then just make the  uppercasePara  function as static and embed the call in your Blade template like this       App Libraries Helper  drawTimeSelector        No need for aliases  Laravel resolves the concrete class automatically

User · Answer

Create Helpers php in app Helper Helpers php   namespace App Helper class Helpers         Add in composer and composer update    autoload              classmap                  database seeds                database factories                database   app Helper Helpers php                      psr-4                  App      app                        files     app Helper Helpers php            use in Controller   use App Helper Helpers  use in view change in config- app php file       aliases    gt                 Helpers      gt   App Helper Helpers           call in view   lt  php echo Helpers  function name       gt

User · Answer

instead of including your custom helper class  you can actually add to your config app php file under aliases   should be look like this     aliases    gt                          Helper    gt  App Http Services Helper  class       and then to your Controller  include the Helper using the method  use Helper  so you can simply call some of the method on your Helper class   eg  Helper  some function      or in resources view you can directly call the Helper class already   eg    Helper  foo       But this is still the developer coding style approach to be followed  We may have different way of solving problems  and i just want to share what i have too for beginners

User · Answer

This is what is suggested by JeffreyWay in this Laracasts Discussion    Within your app Http directory  create a helpers php file and add your functions  Within composer json  in the autoload block  add  files     app Http helpers php    Run composer dump-autoload

User · Answer

Having sifted through a variety of answers on SO and Google  I still couldn t find an optimal approach  Most answers suggest we leave the application and rely on 3rd party tool Composer to do the job  but I m not convinced coupling to a tool just to include a file is wise   Andrew Brown s answer came the closest to how I think it should be approached  but  at least in 5 1   the service provider step is unnecessary  Heisian s answer highlights the use of PSR-4 which brings us one step closer  Here s my final implementation for helpers in views   First  create a helper file anywhere in your apps directory  with a namespace     namespace App Helpers   class BobFinder       static function bob                 return   lt strong gt Bob   Is that you   lt  strong gt              Next  alias your class in config app php  in the aliases array    aliases    gt           Other aliases      BobFinder    gt  App Helpers BobFinder  class     And that should be all you need to do  PSR-4 and the alias should expose the helper to your views  so in your view  if you type       BobFinder  bob         It should output    lt strong gt Bob   Is that you   lt  strong gt

User · Answer

For Custom Helper Libraries in my Laravel project  I have created a folder with name Libraries in my Laravel App Directory and within Libraries directory  I have created various files for different helper libraries   After creating my helper files I simply include all those files in my composer json file like this       autoload              classmap                  database                      files                  app Libraries commonFunctions php                      psr-4                  App      app                          and execute   composer dump-autoload

User · Answer

Another Way that I used was  1  created a file in app FolderName fileName php and had this code inside it i e   lt  php namespace App library    class hrapplication    public static function libData       return  Data              gt    2  After that in our blade     FmyFunctions   new  App FolderName classsName    echo  is ok     FmyFunctions- gt libData       that s it  and it works

User · Answer

Custom Classes in Laravel 5  the Easy Way  This answer is applicable to general custom classes within Laravel  For a more Blade-specific answer  see Custom Blade Directives in Laravel 5   Step 1  Create your Helpers  or other custom class  file and give it a matching namespace   Write your class and method    lt  php    Code within app Helpers Helper php  namespace App Helpers   class Helper       public static function shout string  string                return strtoupper  string             Step 2  Create an alias    lt  php    Code within config app php       aliases    gt                      Helper    gt  App Helpers Helper  class             Step 3  Run composer dump-autoload in the project root  Step 4  Use it in your Blade template    lt  -- Code within resources views template blade php -- gt       Helper  shout  this is how to use autoloading correctly           Extra Credit  Use this class anywhere in your Laravel app    lt  php    Code within app Http Controllers SomeController php  namespace App Http Controllers   use Helper   class SomeController extends Controller        public function   construct                 Helper  shout  now i  m using my helper class in a controller                        Source  http   www php-fig org psr psr-4   Why it works  https   github com laravel framework blob master src Illuminate Support ClassLoader php  Where autoloading originates from  http   php net manual en language oop5 autoload php

User · Answer

Since OP asked for best practices  I think we re still missing some good advices here   A single helpers php file is far from a good practice  Firstly because you mix a lot of different kind of functions  so you re against the good coding principles  Moreover  this could hurt not only the code documentation but also the code metrics like Cyclomatic Complexity  Maintainability Index and Halstead Volume  The more functions you have the more it gets worse   Code documentation would be Ok using tools like phpDocumentor  but using Sami it won t render procedural files  Laravel API documentation is such a case - there s no helper functions documentation  https   laravel com api 5 4  Code metrics can be analyzed with tools like PhpMetrics  Using PhpMetrics version 1 x to analyze Laravel 5 4 framework code will give you very bad CC MI HV metrics for both src Illuminate Foundation helpers php and src Illuminate Support helpers php files   Multiple contextual helper files  eg  string helpers php  array helpers php  etc   would certainly improve those bad metrics resulting in an easier code to mantain  Depending on the code documentation generator used this would be good enough   It can be further improved by using helper classes with static methods so they can be contextualized using namespaces  Just like how Laravel already does with Illuminate Support Str and Illuminate Support Arr classes  This improves both code metrics organization and documentation  Class aliases could be used to make them easier to use   Structuring with classes makes the code organization and documentation better but on the other hand we end up loosing those great short and easy to remember global functions  We can further improve that approach by creating function aliases to those static classes methods  This can be done either manually or dynamically   Laravel internally use the first approach by declaring functions in the procedural helper files that maps to the static classes methods  This might be not the ideal thing as you need to redeclare all the stuff  docblocks arguments   I personally use a dynamic approach with a HelperServiceProvider class that create those functions in the execution time    lt  php  namespace App Providers   use Illuminate Support ServiceProvider   class HelperServiceProvider extends ServiceProvider                  The helper mappings for the application                 var array             protected  helpers              uppercase    gt   App Support Helpers StringHelper  uppercase            lowercase    gt   App Support Helpers StringHelper  lowercase                          Bootstrap the application helpers                 return void             public function boot                 foreach   this- gt helpers as  alias   gt   method                if   function exists  alias                     eval  function   alias       args    return   method       args                                                      Register the service provider                 return void             public function register                              One can say this is over engineering but I don t think so  It works pretty well and contrary to what might be expected it does not cost relevant execution time at least when using PHP 7 x

User · Answer

Status Helper      create new helper    lt  php  namespace App Helpers   use Illuminate Database Eloquent Collection   class StatusHelper    protected static   status             1  gt                 value    gt  1               displayName    gt   Active                      2   gt                 value    gt  2               displayName    gt   Inactive                      3   gt                 value    gt  3               displayName    gt   Delete                            public static function getStatusesList                  status    new Collection self    status  - gt pluck  displayName    value  - gt toArray              return  status            Use for the controller and any view file   use App Helpers StatusHelper   class ExampleController extends Controller           public function index                          statusList   StatusHelper  getStatusesList                 return view  example index   compact  statusList

User · Answer

Here s a bash shell script I created to make Laravel 5 facades very quickly   Run this in your Laravel 5 installation directory   Call it like this   make facade sh -f  lt facade name gt  -n   lt namespace prefix gt     Example   make facade sh -f helper -n  App MyApp    If you run that example  it will create the directories Facades and Providers under  your laravel installation dir app MyApp    It will create the following 3 files and will also output them to the screen     app MyApp Facades Helper php   app MyApp Facades HelperFacade php   app MyApp Providers HelperServiceProvider php   After it is done  it will display a message similar to the following                                   Finished                              Add these lines to config app php  ---------------------------------- Providers  App MyApp Providers HelperServiceProvider  Alias   Helper    gt   App MyApp Facades HelperFacade     So update the Providers and Alias list in  config app php   Run composer -o dumpautoload  The    app MyApp Facades Helper php  will originally look like this    lt  php  namespace App MyApp Facades    class Helper              Now just add your methods in    app MyApp Facades Helper php    Here is what    app MyApp Facades Helper php  looks like after I added a Helper function    lt  php  namespace App MyApp Facades   use Request   class Helper       public function isActive  pattern   null   include class   false                return   Request  is  pattern        include class     class  active      active                    This is how it would be called                                        Helper  isActive  help   true        This function expects a pattern and can accept an optional second boolean argument   If the current URL matches the pattern passed to it  it will output  active   or  class  active   if you add  true  as a second argument to the function call    I use it to highlight the menu that is active   Below is the source code for my script   I hope you find it useful and please let me know if you have any problems with it      bin bash  display syntax        echo        echo    The Syntax is like this       echo                                  echo           basename  0   -f  lt facade name gt  -n   lt namespace prefix gt        echo        echo    Example       echo                  echo           basename  0  -f test -n   App MyAppDirectory       echo        if      -ne 4   then     echo        display syntax     exit else   Use  gt  0 to consume one or more arguments per pass in the loop  e g    some arguments don t have a corresponding value to go with it such   as in the --default example       while        gt  0        do         key   1              case  key in             -n --namespace prefix              namespace prefix in   2              echo                shift   past argument                            -f --facade              facade name in   2              shift   past argument                                                     unknown option                        esac         shift   past argument or value     done fi echo Facade Name     facade name in  echo Namespace Prefix     echo   namespace prefix in    sed -e  s            echo        function display start banner         echo                                                                  echo             STARTING LARAVEL MAKE FACADE SCRIPT      echo                                                                    Init the Vars that I can in the beginning function init and export vars        echo     echo  INIT and EXPORT VARS      echo                                Substitution Tokens                Tokens           namespace prefix           namespace prefix lowerfirstchar           facade name upcase           facade name lowercase              namespace prefix   echo   namespace prefix in    sed -e  s                namespace prefix lowerfirstchar   echo   namespace prefix in    sed -e  s      g  -e  s         l 1 g       facade name upcase   echo   facade name in    sed -e  s  b       u 1        facade name lowercase   echo   facade name in    awk   print tolower  0           Filename   facade name upcase  php  -  SOURCE TEMPLATE source template   lt  php  namespace  namespace prefix  Facades   class  facade name upcase                    Filename   facade name upcase ServiceProvider php    -   SERVICE PROVIDER TEMPLATE serviceProvider template   lt  php  namespace  namespace prefix  Providers   use Illuminate Support ServiceProvider  use App    class  facade name upcase ServiceProvider extends ServiceProvider        public function boot                               public function register                 App  bind   facade name lowercase    function                         return new   namespace prefix  Facades  facade name upcase                               facade name upcase Facade php   -   FACADE TEMPLATE facade template   lt  php  namespace  namespace prefix  Facades   use Illuminate Support Facades Facade   class  facade name upcase Facade extends Facade        protected static function getFacadeAccessor     return   facade name lowercase              function checkDirectoryExists        if     -d   namespace prefix lowerfirstchar        then         echo            echo  Can t find the namespace     namespace prefix in          echo            echo      NOTE           echo             Make sure the namspace directory exists and          echo             you use quotes around the namespace prefix           echo            display syntax         exit     fi    function makeDirectories        echo  Make Directories      echo                        mkdir -p   namespace prefix lowerfirstchar  Facades     mkdir -p   namespace prefix lowerfirstchar  Providers     mkdir -p   namespace prefix lowerfirstchar  Facades    function createSourceTemplate        source template   echo    source template     sed -e  s  namespace prefix     namespace prefix   g  -e  s  facade name upcase     facade name upcase   g  -e  s  facade name lowercase     facade name lowercase   g       echo  Create Source Template       echo                               echo    source template       echo        echo    source template    gt      namespace prefix lowerfirstchar  Facades   facade name upcase  php    function createServiceProviderTemplate        serviceProvider template   echo    serviceProvider template     sed -e  s  namespace prefix     namespace prefix   g  -e  s  facade name upcase     facade name upcase   g  -e  s  facade name lowercase     facade name lowercase   g       echo  Create ServiceProvider Template       echo                                        echo    serviceProvider template       echo        echo    serviceProvider template    gt      namespace prefix lowerfirstchar  Providers   facade name upcase ServiceProvider php    function createFacadeTemplate        facade template   echo    facade template     sed -e  s  namespace prefix     namespace prefix   g  -e  s  facade name upcase     facade name upcase   g  -e  s  facade name lowercase     facade name lowercase   g       echo  Create Facade Template       echo                               echo    facade template       echo        echo    facade template    gt      namespace prefix lowerfirstchar  Facades   facade name upcase Facade php     function serviceProviderPrompt        echo  Providers    namespace prefix in  Providers    facade name upcase ServiceProvider      function aliasPrompt        echo  Alias      facade name upcase      gt      namespace prefix in   Facades    facade name upcase Facade              END FUNCTION DECLARATIONS                                    START RUNNING SCRIPT                                  display start banner  init and export vars makeDirectories  checkDirectoryExists echo     createSourceTemplate createServiceProviderTemplate createFacadeTemplate echo    echo                               echo    Finished TEST  echo                               echo    echo  Add these lines to config app php   echo  ----------------------------------  serviceProviderPrompt aliasPrompt echo

User · Answer

This is my HelpersProvider php file    lt  php  namespace App Providers   use Illuminate Support ServiceProvider   class HelperServiceProvider extends ServiceProvider       protected  helpers                Add your helpers in here                        Bootstrap the application services              public function boot                                          Register the application services              public function register                 foreach   this- gt helpers as  helper                 helper path   app path     Helpers    helper   php                if   File  isFile  helper path                     require once  helper path                                    You should create a folder called Helpers under the app folder  then create file called whatever php inside and add the string whatever inside the  helpers array   Done   Edit  I m no longer using this option  I m currently using composer to load static files like helpers   You can add the helpers directly at        autoload          files              app helpers my helper php

User · Answer

Create a helpers php file in your app folder and load it up with composer   quot autoload quot          quot classmap quot                             quot psr-4 quot              quot App   quot    quot app  quot              quot files quot              quot app helpers php quot      lt ---- ADD THIS           After adding that to your composer json file  run the following command  composer dump-autoload   If you don t like keeping your helpers php file in your app directory  because it s not a PSR-4 namespaced class file   you can do what the laravel com website does  store the helpers php in the bootstrap directory  Remember to set it in your composer json file   quot files quot          quot bootstrap helpers php quot      Tip  If you want to use the different file name instead of helpers  you can change the file name and path  Also  you can create multiple helper files  It will look like this   quot autoload quot          quot classmap quot                             quot psr-4 quot              quot App   quot    quot app  quot              quot files quot              quot app Helpers base php quot       lt ---- ADD THIS          quot app Helpers metrics php quot      lt ---- Create  metrics php  file in this path and add the path in composer json file

User · Answer

In laravel 5 3 and above  the laravel team moved all procedural files  routes php  out of the app  directory  and the entire app  folder is psr-4 autoloaded  The accepted answer will work in this case but it doesn t feel right to me    So what I did was I created a helpers  directory at the root of my project and put the helper files inside of that  and in my composer json file I did this        autoload          classmap              database              psr-4              App      app               files              helpers ui helpers php                 This way my app  directory is still a psr-4 autoloaded one  and the helpers are a little better organized    Hope this helps someone

User · Answer

Best Practice to write custom helpers is   1  Inside the app directory of the project root  create a folder named Helpers  Just to separate and structure the code    2  Inside the folder write psr-4 files or normal php files  If the PHP files are in the format of psr-4 then it will be auto loaded  else add the following line in the composer json which is inside the project root directory  Inside the autoload key  create a new key named files to load files at the time of auto load inside the files object add the path starting from app directory   here is an example    autoload          classmap              database              psr-4              App      app               files              app Helpers customHelpers php            autoload-dev          classmap              tests TestCase php             PS   try running composer dump-autoload if the file dosen t loaded

User · Answer

in dir bootstrap autoload php  require   DIR        vendor autoload php   require   DIR        app Helpers function php     add   add this file  app Helpers function php

User · Answer

my initial thought was the composer autoload as well  but it didn t feel very Laravel 5ish to me  L5 makes heavy use of Service Providers  they are what bootstraps your application   To start off I created a folder in my app directory called Helpers  Then within the Helpers folder I added files for functions I wanted to add  Having a folder with multiple files allows us to avoid one big file that gets too long and unmanageable   Next I created a HelperServiceProvider php by running the artisan command   artisan make provider HelperServiceProvider   Within the register method I added this snippet  public function register         foreach  glob app path     Helpers   php   as  filename           require once  filename             lastly register the service provider in your config app php in the providers array   providers    gt         App Providers HelperServiceProvider       now any file in your Helpers directory is loaded  and ready for use   UPDATE 2016-02-22  There are a lot of good options here  but if my answer works for you  I went ahead and made a package for including helpers this way  You can either use the package for inspiration or feel free to download it with Composer as well  It has some built in helpers that I use often  but which are all inactive by default  and allows you to make your own custom helpers with a simple Artisan generator  It also addresses the suggestion one responder had of using a mapper and allows you to explicitly define the custom helpers to load  or by default  automatically load all PHP files in your helper directory  Feedback and PRs are much appreciated   composer require browner12 helpers   Github  browner12 helpers

User · Answer

First create helpers php inside App Http directory  Then add the following code inside the composer json   autoload              classmap                  database                      files                  app Http helpers php                      psr-4                  App      app                      Next run the following command  composer dump-autoload   Now you can define your custom function inside the helpers php file

User · Answer

Create custom helpers    directory  First create Helpers directory in app directory  Create hlper class definition  Let   s now create a simple helper function that will concatenate two strings  Create a new file MyFuncs php in  app Helpers MyFuncs php Add the following code   lt  php  namespace App Helpers   class MyFuncs        public static function full name  first name  last name            return  first name          last name               namespace App Helpers  defines the Helpers namespace under App namespace  class MyFuncs       defines the helper class MyFuncs  public static function full name  first name  last name         defines a static function that accepts two string parameters and returns a concatenated string  Helpers service provide class  Service providers are used to auto load classes  We will need to define a service provider that will load all of our helper classes in  app Helpers directory   Run the following artisan command   php artisan make provider HelperServiceProvider  The file will be created in  app Providers HelperServiceProvider php  Open  app Providers HelperServiceProvider php   Add the following code    lt  php   namespace App Providers   use Illuminate Support ServiceProvider   class HelperServiceProvider extends ServiceProvider                 Bootstrap the application services               return void           public function boot                                    Register the application services               return void           public function register                foreach  glob app path     Helpers   php   as  filename               require once  filename                      HERE   namespace App Providers  defines the namespace provider use Illuminate Support ServiceProvider  imports the ServiceProvider class namespace class HelperServiceProvider extends ServiceProvider       defines a class HelperServiceProvider that extends the ServiceProvider class public function boot        bootstraps the application service public function register        is the function that loads the helpers foreach  glob app path     Helpers   php   as  filename       loops through all the files in  app Helpers directory and loads them    We now need to register the HelperServiceProvider and create an alias for our helpers   Open  config app php file  Locate the providers array variable  Add the following line   App Providers HelperServiceProvider  class    Locate the aliases array variable  Add the following line   MyFuncs    gt  App Helpers MyFuncs  class    Save the changes Using our custom helper  We will create a route that will call our custom helper function Open  app routes php  Add the following route definition  Route  get   func   function          return MyFuncs  full name  John   Doe          HERE   return MyFuncs  full name  John   Doe    calls the static function full name in MyFuncs class

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