README

Blog

A fully developed Laravel Blog CRUD package that allows you to manage blogs, tags & collections.

How does this package work? This package offers a few models and provides a great base for creating a blog page for your project. The main features are:

1. A Blog model with the ability to add Tags and make it part of a Collection
2. Inbuilt role system and policies to control what actions can be performed by users
3. Built in Factories for easy seeding, development & testing
4. Files to make CRUD easy - including Actions & Requests

The main 3 models of this package are:

1. Blog: Containing all the columns you need for a Blog + SEO columns
2. Tag: Help users understand the base topics of the blog (A Blog HasMany Tags)
3. Collection: Used for concepts like a tutorial series (A blog BelongsToOne)

Example Use Case

1. A personal blog page which you want an easy implementation for to manage blogs - check out this repository
2. A new blog page where you can add multiple users with restrictions through the author rule + additional roles & policies

What this package does not offer This package is as non-subjective as possible so Controllers, FE Components + additional logic is up to your implementation.

Steps for Development

Installation (via composer)

composer require sethsharp/blog-crud

Adding Service Provider

Add to your config/app.php

'providers' => [
    \SethSharp\BlogCrud\BlogServiceProvider::class
]

Publishing the Migrations

Then to publish the migrations: php artisan vendor:publish --tag="blog-crud-migrations"

Publishing the Config File

Publish for when you need to edit values to suit your project:

php artisan vendor:publish --tag="blog-crud-config"

Things that you can override include:

1. Models: Allows you to create your own models - they are automatically injected into relationships within other package models
2. Image Driver: We use the laravel-intervention library for image resizing - this defaults to gd(), but imagick() is available
3. Bucket Paths: Allows you to specify your own paths for S3 buckets in local & production environments

WARNING: When over writing models in the config you will no longer be able to pass your model to existing actions - as it expects the package models only. This will be fixed in a future release

Other Requirements

File System This package does rely on AWS S3 logic when it comes to file uploads, via the Blog Cover or the images you can upload within your blog. So ensure that your AWS credentials are properly configured, specifically this config file in your project config/filesystems:

's3' => [
    'driver' => 's3',
    'key' => env('AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID'),
    'secret' => env('AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY'),
    'region' => env('AWS_DEFAULT_REGION'),
    'bucket' => env('AWS_BUCKET'),
    'url' => env('AWS_URL'),
    'endpoint' => env('AWS_ENDPOINT'),
    'use_path_style_endpoint' => env('AWS_USE_PATH_STYLE_ENDPOINT', false),
    'throw' => false,
],

Additional requirements:

1. It is encouraged that you explore this package, it is very straight forward and simple. But it is necessary you know what is contained within this package to suit your use case.
2. This package implements Coding Labs Laravel Roles, so that configuration will need to be carried out as well (don't worry its nice & easy!)

Factory Integration

All models integrate a factory for ease of development so make sure to use them.

Policies

There are policies for each available model in the package to add validation/protection to your routes. They must be booted in your AppServiceProvider like so:

public function boot()
{
    Gate::policy(Blog::class, BlogPolicy::class);
    Gate::policy(Tag::class, TagPolicy::class);
    Gate::policy(Collection::class, CollectionPolicy::class);
}

Update a Blog

use App\Http\Controllers\Controller;
use Illuminate\Http\RedirectResponse;
use SethSharp\BlogCrud\Models\Blog\Blog;
use SethSharp\BlogCrud\Actions\Blogs\UpdateBlogAction;
use SethSharp\BlogCrud\Requests\Blogs\UpdateBlogRequest;

class UpdateBlogController extends Controller
{
    public function __invoke(Blog $blog, UpdateBlogRequest $updateBlogRequest, UpdateBlogAction $updateBlogAction): RedirectResponse
    {
        $blog = $updateBlogAction($blog, $updateBlogRequest);

        $drafted = (bool)$updateBlogRequest->input('is_draft');

        return redirect()
            ->route('dashboard.blogs.index')
            ->with('success', $blog->title . ' successfully ' . ($drafted ? 'drafted' : 'published'));
    }
}

This is an example UpdateBlogController, using all the files from the package; Blog, UpdateBlogRequest & UpdateBlogAction. Reading each of these files will give you an understanding of what they expect - so its up to you to ensure you pass the correct information.

How does this package rely on S3

S3 is used for any images used within your content - uploading on the fly or via the blog cover. Images within the content can be achieved using the actions StoreFileAction & DestoryFileAction. For optimal S3 management you can also use the StoreBlogFileRequest - example here. This example will allow you to upload files on the fly within your content, then as you save your blog using the action, it will also call CleanBlogContentAction which makes file management so easy by ensuring your S3 and DB level are in sync. Allowing for no unused files within your content.

If you want to incorporate images with your content or just be able to build something that can integrate an editor the TipTap Editor is the best choice by far - it is what I use in mine!

Open Source

This is an open-source project, so contributions are welcome! Whether you want to add new features, fix bugs, or improve documentation, your help is appreciated. Submit your PR for review and I will review them as soon as possible.