Ajax Workflow for Laravel

Provides useful tools for working with AJAX requests & JSON responses.
Unobtrusive - Same behaviour for non-AJAX requests with single code (no if statements)
YES - it can be used for processing FORMs via AJAX out of the box!
Invalid FormRequests display HTML validation errors both to ErrorBagContainer and FormGroup (Optional)
- Uses Bootstrap CSS Form semantics. Compatible with Bootstrap 3 & 4.
Support clientside @section redraw and redirects. @see Ajax Service
Only dependencies are jQuery1.8> and Laravel 4>

Installation

Copy source code to your existing App - directories should match service Namespace

app/Services/Ajax/

'providers' => [
	...,
	App\Services\Ajax\ServiceProvider::class,
],
'aliases' => [
	...,
	'Ajax' => \App\Services\Ajax\Facade\Ajax::class,
]

Copy App/Services/Ajax/laravel.ajax.js to your public/js directory or run command

php artisan vendor:publish --tag=public --force

Edit your master.blade.php

  <meta name="_token" content="{!! csrf_token() !!}"/>
  <script src="/js/laravel.ajax.js"></script>

you can use browserify require('laravel.ajax'); in your app.js

Usage

FrontEnd

to send your FORMs and LINKs by AJAX just add ajax class

<form action="" class="ajax">
<a href="ajax/my-action" class="ajax">

If we want redraw some html after AJAX request

<div id='snippet'>
   @include('partials/_snippet')
</div>

<!-- In case that we want redraw section-->
<div id='mySection'>
	@yield('mySection')
</div>

BackEnd

Ajax Service provides you a Factory for your response. It is designed to simplify your work and communication with frontend.

Ajax Service recognize if request is XmlHttpRequest and return JsonResponse, in other case returns regular Http\Response or Http\RedirectResponse

Getting service

//Dependency injection with TypeHint
public function redraw(\App\Services\Ajax\Ajax $ajax) {
	$ajax = app('ajax'); //by resolving from IoC container
	$ajax = \Ajax::instance();  //Using Facade

Redrawing Views

	$ajax->redrawView('snippet'); //if we want simply redraw some HTML
	//or
	$ajax->appendView('snippet'); //if we want to append HTML instead of replace
	...
	return $ajax->view('partials/_snippet', $data )

	// we can redraw even @section(s) - @yield() must be wrappeed with div#sectionName.
	// Use only with good reason, it could be very uneffective.
	return $ajax->redrawSection('mySection')->view('my.template', $data);
}

Redirecting

public function update(ClientRequest $request, Client $client)
{
    $client->update($request->all());
    $request->session()->flash('success', 'Client has been updated.');

	// This is also example of Ajax Facade usage
    return \Ajax::redirect(route('clients.index'));
    //or
    return \Ajax:redirectBack()
}

Sending custom data

public function getData(\App\Services\Ajax\Ajax $ajax) {
	...
	$ajax->json = $data; //setting custom data
	// custom ajax success handler needed -  @see section Configuration and custom AJAX requests
	return $ajax->jsonResponse();
}

Fluent API

You can utilize fluent API and with some useful methods

Route::get('test',function(\App\Services\Ajax\Ajax $ajax){
	return $ajax
		->setJson([])  //set your custom json data
		->redrawView('htmlID')
		->runJavascript('alert("hello");') //evaluate javascript
		->dump() //enable console.info after JSON is delivered
		->alert('test') //alert popup with message
		->scrollTo('elementID')
		->jsonResponse() //return JsonResponse... if you have not call view() or redirect()
	});

Configuration and library in depth

Configuration

<script src="/js/laravel.ajax.js"></script>
<script>
    laravel.errors.errorBagContainer = $('#errors');
    laravel.errors.showErrorsBag = true;
    laravel.errors.showErrorsInFormGroup = false;
    laravel.bootstrapVersion = 3;
</script>

Extending or modifying laravel.ajax module

<script>
    //modifying laravel.ajax handlers globally
    var laravel.ajax.originalSuccessHandler = laravel.ajax.successHandler;
    laravel.ajax.successHandler = function(payload) {
        //custom logic here

        //using one of laravel helpers
        laravel.redirect(payload.redirect);

        //or call super success handler
        laravel.ajax.originalSuccessHandler(payload);
    };

    //creating extensions or helper
    laravel.helper = function(){ ...  };
</script>

How to create custom AJAX request

You can always use standard $.ajax(options), but this is useful shortcut with JSON ready X-CSRF-Token header set.

<script>
    laravel.ajax.send({
        url: "{{ route('my.route) }}",
        type: 'GET', //optional,
        success: function(payload){} //optional - default is laravel.ajax.successHandler
        error: function(event){      //optional - default is laravel.ajax.errorHandler
		...
		laravel.ajax.errorHandler.call(this,event); //calling super handler
	} 
    });
</script>

Ajax success

Ajax success request handler expect JSON containing some of these keys

{
	redirect: 'absoluteUrl', //page to redirect
	sections: {     //html snippets to be redrawn
	   'snippetId':'<div>HTML</div>'
	},
	dump: true, //console.info parsed JSON,
	alert: 'message', //alert('message'),
	runJavascript: 'jsCall();', //evaluate javascript code
	scrollTo: 'elementID' //scroll page to element - value is elementID
}

Ajax error

If FormRequest fails after form validation it sends HTTP response 422 - Unprocessable Entity which is recognized and process with laravel.ajax.errorHandler function. This function recognize which error occurred and automatically displays validation errors to the Form which sent the data...

How to create Validation Error Response manually

public function store()
{
    ...
    $validator = Validator::make(Input::all(), $rules);
	if ($validator->fails()) {
		//if request is AJAX it only sends `422 Error Response` and redirect will not be used..
		//@see previous section
        return \Ajax::redirectWithErrors(route('someRoute'),$validator);
    }
}

whipsterCZ / laravel-ajax