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

Foo Formated text: {{ fo         


        

Answer 1

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 '<strong>Bob?! Is that you?!</strong>';
    }
}

Next, alias your class in config\app.php, in the aliases array:

'aliases' => [
    // Other aliases
    'BobFinder' => 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:

<strong>Bob?! Is that you?!</strong>

Answer 2

**

• Status Helper

** create new helper

<?php

namespace App\Helpers;

use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Collection;

class StatusHelper
{
 protected static $_status = [
        1=> [
            'value' => 1,
            'displayName' => 'Active',
        ],
        2 => [
            'value' => 2,
            'displayName' => 'Inactive',
        ],
        3 => [
            'value' => 3,
            'displayName' => 'Delete',
        ],

    ];

     public static function getStatusesList()
    {
        $status = (new Collection(self::$_status))->pluck('displayName', 'value')->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'));
        }
}

Answer 3

This is my HelpersProvider.php file:

<?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->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",
        ...
    ]
},
...

Answer 4

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

Answer 5

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 <facade_name> -n '<namespace_prefix>'

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' => '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:

<?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.

<?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 $0)" -f <facade_name> -n '<namespace_prefix>'"
    echo ""
    echo "  Example:"
    echo "  ========"
    echo "      "$(basename $0) -f test -n "'App\MyAppDirectory'"
    echo ""
}


if [ $# -ne 4 ]
then
    echo ""
    display_syntax
    exit
else
# Use > 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 [[ $# > 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='<?php

namespace {namespace_prefix}\Facades;

class {facade_name_upcase}
{
    //
}
'


#  Filename: {facade_name_upcase}ServiceProvider.php    -   SERVICE PROVIDER TEMPLATE
serviceProvider_template='<?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='<?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 "${source_template}" > ./${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 "${serviceProvider_template}" > ./${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 "${facade_template}" > ./${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: '"${facade_name_upcase}"' => '"${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 ""

Answer 6

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($str) {
        return '<p>' .strtoupper($str). '<p>;
    }
}

Then you can simply call it in your Blade template like this:

@inject('helper', \App\Libraries\Helper)
{{ $helper->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.