It's not a Laravel adaptation of SOLID principles, patterns etc. Here you'll find the best practices which are usually ignored in real life Laravel projects.
Single responsibility principle
Fat models, skinny controllers
Business logic should be in service class
Prefer to use Eloquent over using Query Builder and raw SQL queries. Prefer collections over arrays
Do not execute queries in Blade templates and use eager loading (N + 1 problem)
Comment your code, but prefer descriptive method and variable names over comments
Use config and language files, constants instead of text in the code
Follow Laravel naming conventions
Use shorter and more readable syntax where possible
Use IoC container or facades instead of new Class
Do not get data from the .env file directly
Store dates in the standard format. Use accessors and mutators to modify date format
A class and a method should have only one responsibility.
Bad:
public function getFullNameAttribute()
{
if (auth()->user() && auth()->user()->hasRole('client') && auth()->user()->isVerified()) {
return 'Mr. ' . $this->first_name . ' ' . $this->middle_name . ' ' . $this->last_name;
} else {
return $this->first_name[0] . '. ' . $this->last_name;
}
}Good:
public function getFullNameAttribute()
{
return $this->isVerifiedClient() ? $this->getFullNameLong() : $this->getFullNameShort();
}
public function isVerifiedClient()
{
return auth()->user() && auth()->user()->hasRole('client') && auth()->user()->isVerified();
}
public function getFullNameLong()
{
return 'Mr. ' . $this->first_name . ' ' . $this->middle_name . ' ' . $this->last_name;
}
public function getFullNameShort()
{
return $this->first_name[0] . '. ' . $this->last_name;
}Put all DB related logic into Eloquent models or into Repository classes if you're using Query Builder or raw SQL queries.
Bad:
public function index()
{
$clients = Client::verified()
->with(['orders' => function ($q) {
$q->where('created_at', '>', Carbon::today()->subWeek());
}])
->get();
return view('index', ['clients' => $clients]);
}Good:
public function index()
{
return view('index', ['clients' => $this->client->getWithNewOrders()]);
}
class Client extends Model
{
public function getWithNewOrders()
{
return $this->verified()
->with(['orders' => function ($q) {
$q->where('created_at', '>', Carbon::today()->subWeek());
}])
->get();
}
}Move validation from controllers to Request classes.
Bad:
public function store(Request $request)
{
$request->validate([
'title' => 'required|unique:posts|max:255',
'body' => 'required',
'publish_at' => 'nullable|date',
]);
....
}Good:
public function store(PostRequest $request)
{
....
}
class PostRequest extends Request
{
public function rules()
{
return [
'title' => 'required|unique:posts|max:255',
'body' => 'required',
'publish_at' => 'nullable|date',
];
}
}A controller must have only one responsibility, so move business logic from controllers to service classes.
Bad:
public function store(Request $request)
{
if ($request->hasFile('image')) {
$request->file('image')->move(public_path('images') . 'temp');
}
....
}Good:
public function store(Request $request)
{
$this->articleService->handleUploadedImage($request->file('image'));
....
}
class ArticleService
{
public function handleUploadedImage($image)
{
if (!is_null($image)) {
$image->move(public_path('images') . 'temp');
}
}
}Reuse code when you can. SRP is helping you to avoid duplication. Also, reuse Blade templates, use Eloquent scopes etc.
Bad:
public function getActive()
{
return $this->where('verified', 1)->whereNotNull('deleted_at')->get();
}
public function getArticles()
{
return $this->whereHas('user', function ($q) {
$q->where('verified', 1)->whereNotNull('deleted_at');
})->get();
}Good:
public function scopeActive($q)
{
return $q->where('verified', 1)->whereNotNull('deleted_at');
}
public function getActive()
{
return $this->active()->get();
}
public function getArticles()
{
return $this->whereHas('user', function ($q) {
$q->active();
})->get();
}Eloquent allows you to write readable and maintainable code. Also, Eloquent has great built-in tools like soft deletes, events, scopes etc.
Bad:
SELECT *
FROM `articles`
WHERE EXISTS (SELECT *
FROM `users`
WHERE `articles`.`user_id` = `users`.`id`
AND EXISTS (SELECT *
FROM `profiles`
WHERE `profiles`.`user_id` = `users`.`id`)
AND `users`.`deleted_at` IS NULL)
AND `verified` = '1'
AND `active` = '1'
ORDER BY `created_at` DESCGood:
Article::has('user.profile')->verified()->latest()->get();Bad:
$article = new Article;
$article->title = $request->title;
$article->content = $request->content;
$article->verified = $request->verified;
// Add category to article
$article->category_id = $category->id;
$article->save();Good:
$category->article()->create($request->validated());Bad (for 100 users, 101 DB queries will be executed):
@foreach (User::all() as $user)
{{ $user->profile->name }}
@endforeachGood (for 100 users, 2 DB queries will be executed):
$users = User::with('profile')->get();
...
@foreach ($users as $user)
{{ $user->profile->name }}
@endforeachBad:
if (count((array) $builder->getQuery()->joins) > 0)Better:
// Determine if there are any joins.
if (count((array) $builder->getQuery()->joins) > 0)Good:
if ($this->hasJoins())Bad:
public function isNormal()
{
return $article->type === 'normal';
}
return back()->with('message', 'Your article has been added!');Good:
public function isNormal()
{
return $article->type === Article::TYPE_NORMAL;
}
return back()->with('message', __('app.article_added'));Follow PSR standards.
Also, follow naming conventions accepted by Laravel community:
| What | How | Good | Bad |
|---|---|---|---|
| Controller | singular | ArticlesController | |
| Route | plural | articles/1 | |
| Named route | snake_case with dot notation | users.show_active | |
| Model | singular | User | |
| hasOne or belongsTo relationship | singular | articleComment | |
| All other relationships | plural | articleComments | |
| Table | plural | article_comments | |
| Pivot table | singular model names in alphabetical order | article_user | |
| Table column | snake_case without model name | meta_title | |
| Model property | snake_case | $model->created_at | |
| Foreign key | singular model name with _id suffix | article_id | |
| Primary key | - | id | |
| Migration | - | 2017_01_01_000000_create_articles_table | |
| Method | camelCase | getAll | |
| Method in resource controller | table | store | |
| Method in test class | camelCase | testGuestCannotSeeArticle | |
| Variable | camelCase | $articlesWithAuthor | |
| Collection | descriptive, plural | $activeUsers = User::active()->get() | |
| Object | descriptive, singular | $activeUser = User::active()->first() | |
| Config and language files index | snake_case | articles_enabled | |
| View | kebab-case | show-filtered.blade.php | |
| Config | snake_case | google_calendar.php | |
| Contract (interface) | adjective or noun | Authenticatable | |
| Trait | adjective | Notifiable |
Bad:
$request->session()->get('cart');
$request->input('name');Good:
session('cart');
$request->name;More examples:
| Common syntax | Shorter and more readable syntax |
|---|---|
Session::get('cart') |
session('cart') |
$request->session()->get('cart') |
session('cart') |
Session::put('cart', $data) |
session(['cart' => $data]) |
$request->input('name'), Request::get('name') |
$request->name, request('name') |
return Redirect::back() |
return back() |
is_null($object->relation) ? null : $object->relation->id |
optional($object->relation)->id |
return view('index')->with('title', $title)->with('client', $client) |
return view('index', compact('title', 'client')) |
$request->has('value') ? $request->value : 'default'; |
$request->get('value', 'default') |
Carbon::now(), Carbon::today() |
now(), today() |
App::make('Class') |
app('Class') |
->where('column', '=', 1) |
->where('column', 1) |
->orderBy('created_at', 'desc') |
->latest() |
->orderBy('age', 'desc') |
->latest('age') |
->orderBy('created_at', 'asc') |
->oldest() |
->select('id', 'name')->get() |
->get(['id', 'name']) |
->first()->name |
->value('name') |
new Class syntax creates tight coupling between classes and complicates testing. Use IoC container or facades instead.
Bad:
$user = new User;
$user->create($request->validated());Good:
public function __construct(User $user)
{
$this->user = $user;
}
....
$this->user->create($request->validated());Pass the data to config files instead and then use the config() helper function to use the data in an application.
Bad:
$apiKey = env('API_KEY');Good:
// config/api.php
'key' => env('API_KEY'),
// Use the data
$apiKey = config('api.key');Bad:
{{ Carbon::createFromFormat('Y-d-m H-i', $object->ordered_at)->toDateString() }}
{{ Carbon::createFromFormat('Y-d-m H-i', $object->ordered_at)->format('m-d') }}Good:
// Model
protected $dates = ['ordered_at', 'created_at', 'updated_at'];
public function getSomeDateAttribute($date)
{
return $date->format('m-d');
}
// View
{{ $object->ordered_at->toDateString() }}
{{ $object->ordered_at->some_date }}Never put any logic in routes files.
Minimize usage of vanilla PHP in Blade templates.