An indication of good software design is how modular and maintainable your code is. Grouping several pieces of code into one logical module that can be reused is called a “package” in Laravel.
And today, we’ll take a look at creating our very own package in Laravel 5.6 from scratch. Don’t let this shake you. Creating a package is not as complicated as it seems. There are a few simple steps using which you can create your own package.
Of course, there isn’t a recipe to create a generic package, so as an example, let’s try and create a “To Do List” package.
Through the course of this example, we’ll cover concepts like migrations, routes, views, and dependencies on other packages, and so on.
Ready to get started? Here we go!
Step #1: Install Laravel 5.6
Install the latest Laravel version i.e. Laravel 5.6. To do so go to the project directory and run the command:composer create-project --prefer-dist laravel/laravel .
Step #2: Create a Folder Structure
Next, we move on to create a packages folder in our project directory. The convention to name packages is as follows [Creator or Vendor]/[Package name]. For example, the “laravel/framework” package has the vendor as “laravel” and package name is “framework“. Another popular package is “laravelcollective/html” package, here the vendor is “laravelcollective” and the package name is “html“. Similarly, let’s name our package “wisdmlabs/todolist“. Create this folder inside the “packages” folder as:- packages
- wisdmlabs
- todolist
- wisdmlabs
- packages
- wisdmlabs
- todolist
- src
- todolist
- wisdmlabs
Step #3: Create the Composer File
Every package should have a “composer.json” file, which will contain all the packages and their dependencies. Inside the “todolist” folder run the following commandcomposer init
{
"name": "wisdmlabs/todolist",
"description": "You can create the to-do-list of your task.",
"authors": [
{
"name": "John Doe",
"email": "[email protected]"
}
],
"minimum-stability": "dev"
}
Step #4: Load the Package from the Main Composer.JSON File
Now, the “composer.json” file for every Laravel application is present in the root directory. We need to make our package visible to the application. Add the namespace of our package in “autoload > psr-4” "autoload": {
"classmap": [
...
],
"psr-4": {
"App\\": "app/",
"WisdmLabs\\Todolist\\": "packages/wisdmlabs/todolist/src/"
}
},
Step #5: Create a Service Provider for Package
A service provider is the access point to our package. It is the class which maintains all the information regarding our package such as the location from which views, migration, routes are loaded. You may read more about service providers in the official Laravel documentation. Lets use the artisan command to create a service provider. Run the command:Php artisan make:provider TodolistServiceProvider
- packages
- wisdmlabs
- todolist
- src
- TodolistServiceProvider.php
- src
- todolist
- wisdmlabs
'providers' => [
/*
* Application Service Providers...
*/
...
App\Providers\RouteServiceProvider::class,
Wisdmlabs\Todolist\TodolistServicesProvider::class,
],
Step #6: Create the Migration
Moving on, we first need to create the migration using the following artisan command:php art isan make:migration create_task_table --create=tasks
<?php use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Schema; use Illuminate\Database\Schema\Blueprint; use Illuminate\Database\Migrations\Migration; class CreateTaskTable extends Migration { /** * Run the migrations. * * @return void */ public function up() { Schema::create('tasks', function (Blueprint $table) { $table->increments('id'); $table->string('name'); $table->timestamps(); }); } /** * Reverse the migrations. * * @return void */ public function down() { Schema::dropIfExists('tasks'); } }
Step #7: Create the Model for the Table
Once the above is done, we’ll create an eloquent model for our table so that we can use eloquent methods to easily create, update and delete the data in the table. Run the following artisan command:php artisan make:model Task
<?php namespace Wisdmlabs\Todolist; use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model; /** * Model of the table tasks. */ class Task extends Model { protected $table = 'tasks'; protected $fillable = [ 'name', ]; }
Step #8: Create a Controller
Let’s create the controller by running the artisan command:php artisan make:controller TaskController
<?php namespace Wisdmlabs\Todolist; use App\Http\Controllers\Controller; use Request; use Wisdmlabs\Todolist\Task; class TodolistController extends Controller { public function index() { return redirect()->route('task.create'); } public function create() { $tasks = Task::all(); $submit = 'Add'; return view('wisdmlabs.todolist.list', compact('tasks', 'submit')); } public function store() { $input = Request::all(); Task::create($input); return redirect()->route('task.create'); } public function edit($id) { $tasks = Task::all(); $task = $tasks->find($id); $submit = 'Update'; return view('wisdmlabs.todolist.list', compact('tasks', 'task', 'submit')); } public function update($id) { $input = Request::all(); $task = Task::findOrFail($id); $task->update($input); return redirect()->route('task.create'); } public function destroy($id) { $task = Task::findOrFail($id); $task->delete(); return redirect()->route('task.create'); } }
Step #9: Create a Routes File
Create a new file in “wisdmlabs/todolist/src” folder and give the name “routes.php”. Define the routes we are going to use in our package.<?php Route::resource('/task', 'Wisdmlabs\Todolist\TodolistController');
Step #10: Create the Views
To create views, we have to create a “views” folder under “wisdmlabs/todolist/src/. Now, create a file for each required view under this folder. We’ll be creating two views: 1) app.blade – for each to-do and 2) list.blade – for the to-do list. Content to be added under app.blade.php:<!DOCTYPE html> <html> <head> <title>TO DO List</title> <link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/3.3.7/css/bootstrap.min.css"> </head> <body> <div class="container"> @yield('content') </div> <script type="text/javascript" src="https://code.jquery.com/jquery-3.1.1.min.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/3.3.7/js/bootstrap.min.js"></script> </body> </html>
@extends('wisdmlabs.todolist.app')
@section('content')
@if(isset($task))
<h3>Edit : </h3>
{!! Form::model($task, ['route' => ['task.update', $task->id], 'method' => 'patch']) !!}
@else
<h3>Add New Task : </h3>
{!! Form::open(['route' => 'task.store']) !!}
@endif
<div class="form-inline">
<div class="form-group">
{!! Form::text('name',null,['class' => 'form-control']) !!}
</div>
<div class="form-group">
{!! Form::submit($submit, ['class' => 'btn btn-primary form-control']) !!}
</div>
</div>
{!! Form::close() !!}
<hr>
<h4>Tasks To Do : </h4>
<table class="table table-bordered table-striped">
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Name</th>
<th>Action</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
@foreach($tasks as $task)
<tr>
<td>{{ $task->name }}</td>
<td>
{!! Form::open(['route' => ['task.destroy', $task->id], 'method' => 'delete']) !!}
<div class='btn-group'>
<a href="{!! route('task.edit', [$task->id]) !!}" class='btn btn-default btn-xs'><i class="glyphicon glyphicon-edit"></i></a>
{!! Form::button('<i class="glyphicon glyphicon-trash"></i>', ['type' => 'submit', 'class' => 'btn btn-danger btn-xs', 'onclick' => "return confirm('Are you sure?')"]) !!}
</div>
{!! Form::close() !!}
</td>
</tr>
@endforeach
</tbody>
</table>
@endsection
Step #11: Update the Service Provider to Load the Package
We’ve come to the penultimate step – loading the routes, migrations, views, and so on. If you want a user of your package to be able to edit the views, then you can publish the views in the service provider.<?php namespace wisdmlabs\todolist; use Illuminate\Support\ServiceProvider; class TodolistServiceProvider extends ServiceProvider { /** * Bootstrap the application services. * * @return void */ public function boot() { $this->loadRoutesFrom(__DIR__.'/routes.php'); $this->loadMigrationsFrom(__DIR__.'/migrations'); $this->loadViewsFrom(__DIR__.'/views', 'todolist'); $this->publishes([ __DIR__.'/views' => base_path('resources/views/wisdmlabs/todolist'), ]); } /** * Register the application services. * * @return void */ public function register() { $this->app->make('wisdmLabs\todolist\TodolistController'); } }
php artisan vendor:publish --tag=wisdmlabs\todolist\TodolistServiceProvider
- views
- wisdmlabs
- todolist
- app.blade.php
- list.blade.php
- todolist
- wisdmlabs
Step #12: Updating the Composer File
In the final step, we have include the “laravelcollective/html package” in our package. To do this, we have to add the dependencies of our package in “composer.json”{
"name": "wisdmlabs/todolist",
"description": "You can create the to-do-list of your task.",
"authors": [
{
"name": "John Doe",
"email": "[email protected]"
}
],
"minimum-stability": "dev",
"require": {
"laravelcollective/html": "^5.5"
},
"extra": {
"laravel": {
"providers": [
"wisdmlabs\\todolist\\TodolistServiceProvider"
]
}
},
"autoload": {
"psr-4": {
"Wisdmlabs\\Todolist\\": "src/"
}
}
}