README

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Introduction

This is base package with various helpers and abstract classes, acting as a foundation and a standard for other packages. It is highly recommended to build future packages and projects on top of this package.

Included Items

Base Classes

BaseCommand

A base class for Console commands of Laravel. It contains three new methods:

• debug() This method calls info() of base class and outputs the given string in VERY_VERBOSE mode i.e. the given string will be displayed on console only when -vvvv flag will be passed to a command.
• setNamespace() This is an abstract method. It should set $this->namespace property of command. Ideally its value should be taken from static getNamespace() method of Service Provider class as implemented in BaseServiceProvider and its child classes.
• setDefaultTranslationFile() This method sets the $defaultTranslationFile property of command. It is the name of file from which the localized strings should be loaded by default.
• str() This is a helper method that calls __() or trans() method to load localized strings based upon the values of $namespace and $defaultTranslationFile property of command. However, it is overloaded to accept a translations file name other than $defaultTranslationFile.

BaseException

BaseController

BaseServiceProvider

It has a static method getNamespace() that returns the namespace of this service provider in a specific format.

BaseRepository

It has the implementation of basic methods related to a resource:

• index()
• find()
• store()
• update
• destroy()

BaseMigration

This class can be extended by Laravel migration classes. Child class would need to implement following three methods:

• __construct() It should call parent::__construct("my_table") where my_table should be replaced with appropriate table name. It is highly recommended to get this string by calling getTableName() of a model for which this migration is intended.

• doChanges() This method will get an object of Blueprint. Developer can write the schema related statements straightforwardly without worrying about existence and non-existence of table. Use it as substitute of traditional up() method. However up() method can also be overridden if required.

• undoChanges() This function gets the table name as parameter. Use it as substitute of traditional down() method. However the later can still be overridden when required.

BaseSeeder

BaseTrait: LaravizModel

Use this trait in Eloquent Models and override findByIdentifier() method. There can be more than one identifiers of a model e.g. a user can be identified by its id as well as by email attribute. So instead of writing orWhere clauses, findByIdentifier() method can be called neatly.

Base Resource

This class has following two additional methods as compared to default Resource of Laravel:

• toCompactArray
• toFullArray

There're two properties of this class:

Static: $defaultResponseType

Default response type can be set with this property (default is ResponseType::FULL)

Non-static: $responseType

This property overrides the $defaultResponseType and can be set only via constructor.

Default Routes

Following open routes will be added to the application using this package:

/time

It returns current datetime with timezone details as JSON string.

/info

It returns the output of phpinfo()

These routes can be customized using config/laraviz.php file. Execute the following command to publish this config file:

php artisan vendor:publish --tag=Vizrex_Laraviz

Added Helpers

Eloquent Helpers

get_fillables()

It returns the fillable attributes as an associative array having key and value.

Html Helpers

public_url()

Returns base URL of application.

css($absolutePathOrArray)

Adds the HTML tag for including CSS. You can pass either an string, an array or an associative array where the key should contain the URL of CSS and the value should contain an expression such that CSS would be included only when the expression yields to true.

css("http://sample-cdn.com/example.css");
css(["http://abc.com/first.css", "http://abc.com/second.css"]);
css(["http://abc.com/first.css", ["http://abc.com/second.css" => 1 > 2], "http://www.example.com/main.css"]);

public_css($relativePath)

Adds the HTML tag for including css relative to public/css folder.

js($absolutePathOrArray)

Adds the HTML tag for including Javascript file. See the description of css() method. This method works exactly like that.

public_js($relativePath)

Adds the HTML tag for including js relative to public/js

Path Helpers

merge_url()

Currently it simply concatenates two string and adds a forward slash / between them. It can be enhanced to handle more complex situations.

String Helpers

str_concat()

This function accepts variable number of parameters and concatenates.

s()

This helper method is a wrapper on trans() and __() methods of Laravel. Using this method will eliminate the need of specifying language/translations file name every time. Simply specify a default language file in config/laraviz.php file and only pass the key to s() method. It will simply concatenate the configured file name to the given key and pass it to trans() method.

System Helpers

Following methods have very basic implementation. They're sort of thin wrappers. However there's a lot of room for enhancements

• v_echo()
• v_info()
• v_debug
• v_error()

To-dos

Following are the approved items:

• Improve merge_url() to handle complex situations e.g. concatenate relative urls to create an absolute one.
• Improve SystemHelpers. Ideally there should be a separate package for logging and SystemHelpers should only be thin wrappers on top of our custom logger.

Wishlist

Add the suggestions in this wishlist. Only approved wishlist items can be moved to To-dos list:

• Item-1