Category: Tutorial

Sessions are used to store information about the user across the requests. Laravel provides various drivers like file, cookie, apc, array, Memcached, Redis, and database to handle session data. By default, file driver is used because it is lightweight. Session can be configured in the file stored at config/session.php.

Accessing Session Data

To access the session data, we need an instance of session which can be accessed via HTTP request. After getting the instance, we can use the get() method, which will take one argument, “key”, to get the session data.

$value = $request->session()->get('key');

You can use all() method to get all session data instead of get() method.

Storing Session Data

Data can be stored in session using the put() method. The put() method will take two arguments, the “key” and the “value”.

$request->session()->put('key', 'value');

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Deleting Session Data

The forget() method is used to delete an item from the session. This method will take “key” as the argument.

$request->session()->forget('key');

Use flush() method instead of forget() method to delete all session data. Use the pull() method to retrieve data from session and delete it afterwards. The pull() method will also take key as the argument. The difference between the forget() and the pull() method is that forget() method will not return the value of the session and pull() method will return it and delete that value from session.

Example

Step 1 − Create a controller called SessionController by executing the following command.

php artisan make:controller SessionController --plain

Step 2 − After successful execution, you will receive the following output −

Step 3 − Copy the following code in a file at

app/Http/Controllers/SessionController.php.

app/Http/Controllers/SessionController.php

<?php

namespace App\Http\Controllers;

use Illuminate\Http\Request;
use App\Http\Requests;
use App\Http\Controllers\Controller;

class SessionController extends Controller {
   public function accessSessionData(Request $request) {
  if($request-&gt;session()-&gt;has('my_name'))
     echo $request-&gt;session()-&gt;get('my_name');
  else
     echo 'No data in the session';
   }
   public function storeSessionData(Request $request) {
  $request-&gt;session()-&gt;put('my_name','Virat Gandhi');
  echo "Data has been added to session";
   }
   public function deleteSessionData(Request $request) {
  $request-&gt;session()-&gt;forget('my_name');
  echo "Data has been removed from session.";
   }
}

Step 4 − Add the following lines at app/Http/routes.php file.

app/Http/routes.php

Route::get('session/get','SessionController@accessSessionData');
Route::get('session/set','SessionController@storeSessionData');
Route::get('session/remove','SessionController@deleteSessionData');

Step 5 − Visit the following URL to set data in session.

http://localhost:8000/session/set

Step 6 − The output will appear as shown in the following image.

Step 7 − Visit the following URL to get data from session.

http://localhost:8000/session/get

Step 8 − The output will appear as shown in the following image.

Step 9 − Visit the following URL to remove session data.

http://localhost:8000/session/remove

Step 10 − You will see a message as shown in the following image.

Localization feature of Laravel supports different language to be used in application. You need to store all the strings of different language in a file and these files are stored at resources/views directory. You should create a separate directory for each supported language. All the language files should return an array of keyed strings as shown below.

<?php
return [
   'welcome' => 'Welcome to the application'
];

Example

Step 1 − Create 3 files for languages − English, French, and German. Save English file at resources/lang/en/lang.php

<?php
   return [
  'msg' =&gt; 'Laravel Internationalization example.'
   ];
?>

Step 2 − Save French file at resources/lang/fr/lang.php.

<?php
   return [
  'msg' =&gt; 'Exemple Laravel internationalisation.'
   ];
?>

Step 3 − Save German file at resources/lang/de/lang.php.

<?php
   return [
  'msg' =&gt; 'Laravel Internationalisierung Beispiel.' 
   ];
?>

Step 4 − Create a controller called LocalizationController by executing the following command.

php artisan make:controller LocalizationController --plain

Step 5 − After successful execution, you will receive the following output −

Step 6 − Copy the following code to file

app/Http/Controllers/LocalizationController.php

app/Http/Controllers/LocalizationController.php

<?php

namespace App\Http\Controllers;

use Illuminate\Http\Request;
use App\Http\Requests;
use App\Http\Controllers\Controller;

class LocalizationController extends Controller {
   public function index(Request $request,$locale) {
  //set’s application’s locale
  app()-&gt;setLocale($locale);
  
  //Gets the translated message and displays it
  echo trans('lang.msg');
   }
}

Step 7 − Add a route for LocalizationController in app/Http/routes.php file. Notice that we are passing {locale} argument after localization/ which we will use to see output in different language.

app/Http/routes.php

Route::get('localization/{locale}','LocalizationController@index');

Step 8 − Now, let us visit the different URLs to see all different languages. Execute the below URL to see output in English language.

http://localhost:8000/localization/en

Step 9 − The output will appear as shown in the following image.

Step 10 − Execute the below URL to see output in French language.

http://localhost:8000/localization/fr

Step 11 − The output will appear as shown in the following image.

Step 12 − Execute the below URL to see output in German language

http://localhost:8000/localization/de

Step 13 − The output will appear as shown in the following image.

Laravel provides various in built tags to handle HTML forms easily and securely. All the major elements of HTML are generated using Laravel. To support this, we need to add HTML package to Laravel using composer.

Example 1

Step 1 − Execute the following command to proceed with the same.

composer require illuminate/html

Step 2 − This will add HTML package to Laravel as shown in the following image.

Step 3 − Now, we need to add the package shown above to Laravel configuration file which is stored at config/app.php. Open this file and you will see a list of Laravel service providers as shown in the following image. Add HTML service provider as indicated in the outlined box in the following image.

Step 4 − Add aliases in the same file for HTML and Form. Notice the two lines indicated in the outlined box in the following image and add those two lines.

Step 5 − Now everything is setup. Let’s see how we can use various HTML elements using Laravel tags.

Opening a Form

{{ Form::open(array('url' => 'foo/bar')) }}
   //
{{ Form::close() }}

Generating a Label Element

echo Form::label('email', 'E-Mail Address');

Generating a Text Input

echo Form::text('username');

Specifying a Default Value

echo Form::text('email', '[email protected]');

Generating a Password Input

echo Form::password('password');

Generating a File Input

echo Form::file('image');

Generating a Checkbox Or Radio Input

echo Form::checkbox('name', 'value');
echo Form::radio('name', 'value');

Generating a Checkbox Or Radio Input That Is Checked

echo Form::checkbox('name', 'value', true);
echo Form::radio('name', 'value', true);

Generating a Drop-Down List

echo Form::select('size', array('L' => 'Large', 'S' => 'Small'));

Generating A Submit Button

echo Form::submit('Click Me!');

Example 2

Step 1 − Copy the following code to create a view called

resources/views/form.php.

resources/views/form.php

<html>
   <body>
  
  &lt;?php
     echo Form::open(array('url' =&gt; 'foo/bar'));
        echo Form::text('username','Username');
        echo '&lt;br/&gt;';
        
        echo Form::text('email', '[email protected]');
        echo '&lt;br/&gt;';
 
        echo Form::password('password');
        echo '&lt;br/&gt;';
        
        echo Form::checkbox('name', 'value');
        echo '&lt;br/&gt;';
        
        echo Form::radio('name', 'value');
        echo '&lt;br/&gt;';
        
        echo Form::file('image');
        echo '&lt;br/&gt;';
        
        echo Form::select('size', array('L' =&gt; 'Large', 'S' =&gt; 'Small'));
        echo '&lt;br/&gt;';
        
        echo Form::submit('Click Me!');
     echo Form::close();
  ?&gt;
   
   </body>
</html>

Step 2 − Add the following line in app/Http/routes.php to add a route for view form.php

app/Http/routes.php

Route::get('/form',function() {
   return view('form');
});

Step 3 − Visit the following URL to see the form.

http://localhost:8000/form

Step 4 − The output will appear as shown in the following image.

This chapter deals with errors and logging in Laravel projects and how to work on them.

Errors

A project while underway, is borne to have a few errors. Errors and exception handling is already configured for you when you start a new Laravel project. Normally, in a local environment we need to see errors for debugging purposes. We need to hide these errors from users in production environment. This can be achieved with the variable APP_DEBUG set in the environment file .env stored at the root of the application.

For local environment the value of APP_DEBUG should be true but for production it needs to be set to false to hide errors.

Note − After changing the APP_DEBUG variable, you should restart the Laravel server.

Logging

Logging is an important mechanism by which system can log errors that are generated. It is useful to improve the reliability of the system. Laravel supports different logging modes like single, daily, syslog, and errorlog modes. You can set these modes in config/app.php file.

'log' => 'daily'

You can see the generated log entries in storage/logs/laravel.log file.

Laravel has made processing with database very easy. Laravel currently supports following 4 databases −

• MySQL
• Postgres
• SQLite
• SQL Server

The query to the database can be fired using raw SQL, the fluent query builder, and the Eloquent ORM. To understand the all CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete) operations with Laravel, we will use simple student management system.

Connecting to Database

Configure the database in config/database.php file and create the college database with structure in MySQL as shown in the following table.

Database: College

Table: student

We will see how to add, delete, update and retrieve records from database using Laravel in student table.

Named route is used to give specific name to a route. The name can be assigned using the “as” array key.

Route::get('user/profile', ['as' => 'profile', function () {
   //
}]);

Note − Here, we have given the name profile to a route user/profile.

Redirecting to Named Routes

Example

Observe the following example to understand more about Redirecting to named routes −

Step 1 − Create a view called test.php and save it at

resources/views/test.php.

<html>
   <body>
  &lt;h1&gt;Example of Redirecting to Named Routes&lt;/h1&gt;
   </body>
</html>

Step 2 − In routes.php, we have set up the route for test.php file. We have renamed it to testing. We have also set up another route redirect which will redirect the request to the named route testing.

app/Http/routes.php

Route::get('/test', ['as'=>'testing',function() {
   return view('test2');
}]);

Route::get('redirect',function() {
   return redirect()->route('testing');
});

Step 3 − Visit the following URL to test the named route example.

http://localhost:8000/redirect

Step 4 − After execution of the above URL, you will be redirected to http://localhost:8000/test as we are redirecting to the named route testing.

Step 5 − After successful execution of the URL, you will receive the following output −

Redirecting to Controller Actions

Not only named route but we can also redirect to controller actions. We need to simply pass the controller and name of the action to the action method as shown in the following example. If you want to pass a parameter, you can pass it as the second argument of the action method.

return redirect()->action(‘NameOfController@methodName’,[parameters]);

Example

Step 1 − Execute the following command to create a controller called RedirectController.

php artisan make:controller RedirectController --plain

Step 2 − After successful execution, you will receive the following output −

Step 3 − Copy the following code to file

app/Http/Controllers/RedirectController.php.

app/Http/Controllers/RedirectController.php

<?php

namespace App\Http\Controllers;

use Illuminate\Http\Request;
use App\Http\Requests;
use App\Http\Controllers\Controller;

class RedirectController extends Controller {
   public function index() {
  echo "Redirecting to controller's action.";
   }
}

Step 4 − Add the following lines in app/Http/routes.php.

app/Http/routes.php

Route::get('rr','RedirectController@index');
Route::get('/redirectcontroller',function() {
   return redirect()->action('RedirectController@index');
});

Step 5 − Visit the following URL to test the example.

http://localhost:8000/redirectcontroller

Step 6 − The output will appear as shown in the following image.

Laravel 5.1 introduces the concept of using Blade, a templating engine to design a unique layout. The layout thus designed can be used by other views, and includes a consistent design and structure.

When compared to other templating engines, Blade is unique in the following ways −

• It does not restrict the developer from using plain PHP code in views.
• The blade views thus designed, are compiled and cached until they are modified.

The complete directory structure of Laravel is shown in the screenshot given here.

You can observe that all views are stored in the resources/views directory and the default view for Laravel framework is welcome.blade.php.

Please note that other blade templates are also created similarly.

Steps for Creating a Blade Template Layout

You will have to use the following steps to create a blade template layout −

Step 1

• Create a layout folder inside the resources/views folder. We are going to use this folder to store all layouts together.
• Create a file name master.blade.php which will have the following code associated with it −

<html>
   <head>
  &lt;title&gt;DemoLaravel - @yield('title')&lt;/title&gt;
   </head>
   <body>
  @yield('content')
   </body>
</html>

Step 2

In this step, you should extend the layout. Extending a layout involves defining the child elements. Laravel uses the Blade @extends directive for defining the child elements.

When you are extending a layout, please note the following points −

• Views defined in the Blade Layout injects the container in a unique way.
• Various sections of view are created as child elements.
• Child elements are stored in layouts folder as child.blade.php

An example that shows extending the layout created above is shown here −

@extends('layouts.app')
@section('title', 'Page Title')
@section('sidebar')
   @parent
<p>This refers to the master sidebar.</p>
@endsection
@section('content')
<p>This is my body content.</p>
@endsection

Step 3

To implement the child elements in views, you should define the layout in the way it is needed.

Observe the screenshot shown here. You can find that each of links mentioned in the landing page are hyperlinks. Please note that you can also create them as child elements with the help of blade templates by using the procedure given above.

In MVC framework, the letter “V” stands for Views. It separates the application logic and the presentation logic. Views are stored in resources/views directory. Generally, the view contains the HTML which will be served by the application.

Example

Observe the following example to understand more about Views −

Step 1 − Copy the following code and save it at resources/views/test.php

<html>
   <body>
  &lt;h1&gt;Hello, World&lt;/h1&gt;
   </body>
</html>

Step 2 − Add the following line in app/Http/routes.php file to set the route for the above view.

app/Http/routes.php

Route::get('/test', function() {
   return view('test');
});

Step 3 − Visit the following URL to see the output of the view.

http://localhost:8000/test

Step 4 − The output will appear as shown in the following image.

Passing Data to Views

While building application it may be required to pass data to the views. Pass an array to view helper function. After passing an array, we can use the key to get the value of that key in the HTML file.

Example

Observe the following example to understand more about passing data to views −

Step 1 − Copy the following code and save it at resources/views/test.php

<html>
   <body>
  &lt;h1&gt;&lt;?php echo $name; ?&gt;&lt;/h1&gt;
   </body>
</html>

Step 2 − Add the following line in app/Http/routes.php file to set the route for the above view.

app/Http/routes.php

Route::get('/test', function() {
   return view('test',[‘name’=>’Virat Gandhi’]);
});

Step 3 − The value of the key name will be passed to test.php file and $name will be replaced by that value.

Step 4 − Visit the following URL to see the output of the view.

http://localhost:8000/test

Step 5 − The output will appear as shown in the following image.

Sharing Data with all Views

We have seen how we can pass data to views but at times, there is a need to pass data to all the views. Laravel makes this simpler. There is a method called share() which can be used for this purpose. The share() method will take two arguments, key and value. Typically share() method can be called from boot method of service provider. We can use any service provider, AppServiceProvider or our own service provider.

Example

Observe the following example to understand more about sharing data with all views −

Step 1 − Add the following line in app/Http/routes.php file.

app/Http/routes.php

Route::get('/test', function() {
   return view('test');
});

Route::get('/test2', function() {
   return view('test2');
});

Step 2 − Create two view files — test.php and test2.php with the same code. These are the two files which will share data. Copy the following code in both the files. resources/views/test.php & resources/views/test2.php

<html>
   <body>
  &lt;h1&gt;&lt;?php echo $name; ?&gt;&lt;/h1&gt;
   </body>
</html>

Step 3 − Change the code of boot method in the file app/Providers/AppServiceProvider.php as shown below. (Here, we have used share method and the data that we have passed will be shared with all the views.) app/Providers/AppServiceProvider.php

<?php

namespace App\Providers;
use Illuminate\Support\ServiceProvider;

class AppServiceProvider extends ServiceProvider {
   
   /**
  * Bootstrap any application services.
  *
  * @return void
   */

   public function boot() {
  view()-&gt;share('name', 'Virat Gandhi');
   }

   /**
  * Register any application services.
  *
  * @return void
   */

   public function register() {
  //
   }
}

Step 4 − Visit the following URLs.

http://localhost:8000/test
http://localhost:8000/test2

Step 5 − The output will appear as shown in the following image.

A web application responds to a user’s request in many ways depending on many parameters. This chapter explains you in detail about responses in Laravel web applications.

Basic Response

Laravel provides several different ways to return response. Response can be sent either from route or from controller. The basic response that can be sent is simple string as shown in the below sample code. This string will be automatically converted to appropriate HTTP response.

Example

Step 1 − Add the following code to app/Http/routes.php file.

app/Http/routes.php

Route::get('/basic_response', function () {
   return 'Hello World';
});

Step 2 − Visit the following URL to test the basic response.

http://localhost:8000/basic_response

Step 3 − The output will appear as shown in the following image.

Attaching Headers

The response can be attached to headers using the header() method. We can also attach the series of headers as shown in the below sample code.

return response($content,$status)
   ->header('Content-Type', $type)
   ->header('X-Header-One', 'Header Value')
   ->header('X-Header-Two', 'Header Value');

Example

Observe the following example to understand more about Response −

Step 1 − Add the following code to app/Http/routes.php file.

app/Http/routes.php

Route::get('/header',function() {
   return response("Hello", 200)->header('Content-Type', 'text/html');
});

Step 2 − Visit the following URL to test the basic response.

http://localhost:8000/header

Step 3 − The output will appear as shown in the following image.

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Attaching Cookies

The withcookie() helper method is used to attach cookies. The cookie generated with this method can be attached by calling withcookie() method with response instance. By default, all cookies generated by Laravel are encrypted and signed so that they can’t be modified or read by the client.

Example

Observe the following example to understand more about attaching cookies −

Step 1 − Add the following code to app/Http/routes.php file.

app/Http/routes.php

Route::get('/cookie',function() {
   return response("Hello", 200)->header('Content-Type', 'text/html')
  ->withcookie('name','Virat Gandhi');
});

Step 2 − Visit the following URL to test the basic response.

http://localhost:8000/cookie

Step 3 − The output will appear as shown in the following image.

JSON Response

JSON response can be sent using the json method. This method will automatically set the Content-Type header to application/json. The json method will automatically convert the array into appropriate json response.

Example

Observe the following example to understand more about JSON Response −

Step 1 − Add the following line in app/Http/routes.php file.

app/Http/routes.php

Route::get('json',function() {
   return response()->json(['name' => 'Virat Gandhi', 'state' => 'Gujarat']);
});

Step 2 − Visit the following URL to test the json response.

http://localhost:8000/json

Step 3 − The output will appear as shown in the following image.

Cookies play an important role while dealing a user’s session on a web application. In this chapter, you will learn about working with cookies in Laravel based web applications.

Creating a Cookie

Cookie can be created by global cookie helper of Laravel. It is an instance of Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\Cookie. The cookie can be attached to the response using the withCookie() method. Create a response instance of Illuminate\Http\Response class to call the withCookie() method. Cookie generated by the Laravel are encrypted and signed and it can’t be modified or read by the client.

Here is a sample code with explanation.

//Create a response instance
$response = new Illuminate\Http\Response('Hello World');

//Call the withCookie() method with the response method
$response->withCookie(cookie('name', 'value', $minutes));

//return the response
return $response;

Cookie() method will take 3 arguments. First argument is the name of the cookie, second argument is the value of the cookie and the third argument is the duration of the cookie after which the cookie will get deleted automatically.

Cookie can be set forever by using the forever method as shown in the below code.

$response->withCookie(cookie()->forever('name', 'value'));

Retrieving a Cookie

Once we set the cookie, we can retrieve the cookie by cookie() method. This cookie() method will take only one argument which will be the name of the cookie. The cookie method can be called by using the instance of Illuminate\Http\Request.

Here is a sample code.

//’name’ is the name of the cookie to retrieve the value of
$value = $request->cookie('name');

Example

Observe the following example to understand more about Cookies −

Step 1 − Execute the below command to create a controller in which we will manipulate the cookie.

php artisan make:controller CookieController --plain

Step 2 − After successful execution, you will receive the following output −

Step 3 − Copy the following code in

app/Http/Controllers/CookieController.php file.

app/Http/Controllers/CookieController.php

<?php

namespace App\Http\Controllers;

use Illuminate\Http\Request;
use Illuminate\Http\Response;
use App\Http\Requests;
use App\Http\Controllers\Controller;

class CookieController extends Controller {
   public function setCookie(Request $request) {
  $minutes = 1;
  $response = new Response('Hello World');
  $response-&gt;withCookie(cookie('name', 'virat', $minutes));
  return $response;
   }
   public function getCookie(Request $request) {
  $value = $request-&gt;cookie('name');
  echo $value;
   }
}

Step 4 − Add the following line in app/Http/routes.php file.

app/Http/routes.php

Route::get('/cookie/set','CookieController@setCookie');
Route::get('/cookie/get','CookieController@getCookie');

Step 5 − Visit the following URL to set the cookie.

http://localhost:8000/cookie/set

Step 6 − The output will appear as shown below. The window appearing in the screenshot is taken from firefox but depending on your browser, cookie can also be checked from the cookie option.

Step 7 − Visit the following URL to get the cookie from the above URL.

http://localhost:8000/cookie/get

Step 8 − The output will appear as shown in the following image.