15 KiB
Views
- Introduction
- Writing Views in React / Vue
- Creating and Rendering Views
- Nested View Directories
- Creating the First Available View
- Determining if a View Exists
- Passing Data to Views
- Sharing Data With All Views
- View Composers
- View Creators
- Optimizing Views
Introduction
Of course, it's not practical to return entire HTML documents strings directly from your routes and controllers. Thankfully, views provide a convenient way to place all of our HTML in separate files.
Views separate your controller / application logic from your presentation
logic and are stored in the resources/views directory. When using Laravel,
view templates are usually written using the Blade templating
language. A simple view might look something like this:
1<!-- View stored in resources/views/greeting.blade.php -->
2
3<html>
4 <body>
5 <h1>Hello, {{ $name }}</h1>
6 </body>
7</html>
<!-- View stored in resources/views/greeting.blade.php -->
<html>
<body>
<h1>Hello, {{ $name }}</h1>
</body>
</html>
Since this view is stored at resources/views/greeting.blade.php, we may
return it using the global view helper like so:
1Route::get('/', function () {
2 return view('greeting', ['name' => 'James']);
3});
Route::get('/', function () {
return view('greeting', ['name' => 'James']);
});
Looking for more information on how to write Blade templates? Check out the full Blade documentation to get started.
Writing Views in React / Vue
Instead of writing their frontend templates in PHP via Blade, many developers have begun to prefer to write their templates using React or Vue. Laravel makes this painless thanks to Inertia, a library that makes it a cinch to tie your React / Vue frontend to your Laravel backend without the typical complexities of building an SPA.
Our React and Vue application starter kits give you a great starting point for your next Laravel application powered by Inertia.
Creating and Rendering Views
You may create a view by placing a file with the .blade.php extension in
your application's resources/views directory or by using the make:view
Artisan command:
1php artisan make:view greeting
php artisan make:view greeting
The .blade.php extension informs the framework that the file contains a
Blade template. Blade templates contain HTML as well as
Blade directives that allow you to easily echo values, create "if" statements,
iterate over data, and more.
Once you have created a view, you may return it from one of your application's
routes or controllers using the global view helper:
1Route::get('/', function () {
2 return view('greeting', ['name' => 'James']);
3});
Route::get('/', function () {
return view('greeting', ['name' => 'James']);
});
Views may also be returned using the View facade:
1use Illuminate\Support\Facades\View;
2
3return View::make('greeting', ['name' => 'James']);
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\View;
return View::make('greeting', ['name' => 'James']);
As you can see, the first argument passed to the view helper corresponds to
the name of the view file in the resources/views directory. The second
argument is an array of data that should be made available to the view. In
this case, we are passing the name variable, which is displayed in the view
using Blade syntax.
Nested View Directories
Views may also be nested within subdirectories of the resources/views
directory. "Dot" notation may be used to reference nested views. For example,
if your view is stored at resources/views/admin/profile.blade.php, you may
return it from one of your application's routes / controllers like so:
1return view('admin.profile', $data);
return view('admin.profile', $data);
View directory names should not contain the . character.
Creating the First Available View
Using the View facade's first method, you may create the first view that
exists in a given array of views. This may be useful if your application or
package allows views to be customized or overwritten:
1use Illuminate\Support\Facades\View;
2
3return View::first(['custom.admin', 'admin'], $data);
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\View;
return View::first(['custom.admin', 'admin'], $data);
Determining if a View Exists
If you need to determine if a view exists, you may use the View facade. The
exists method will return true if the view exists:
1use Illuminate\Support\Facades\View;
2
3if (View::exists('admin.profile')) {
4 // ...
5}
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\View;
if (View::exists('admin.profile')) {
// ...
}
Passing Data to Views
As you saw in the previous examples, you may pass an array of data to views to make that data available to the view:
1return view('greetings', ['name' => 'Victoria']);
return view('greetings', ['name' => 'Victoria']);
When passing information in this manner, the data should be an array with key
/ value pairs. After providing data to a view, you can then access each value
within your view using the data's keys, such as <?php echo $name; ?>.
As an alternative to passing a complete array of data to the view helper
function, you may use the with method to add individual pieces of data to
the view. The with method returns an instance of the view object so that you
can continue chaining methods before returning the view:
1return view('greeting')
2 ->with('name', 'Victoria')
3 ->with('occupation', 'Astronaut');
return view('greeting')
->with('name', 'Victoria')
->with('occupation', 'Astronaut');
Sharing Data With All Views
Occasionally, you may need to share data with all views that are rendered by
your application. You may do so using the View facade's share method.
Typically, you should place calls to the share method within a service
provider's boot method. You are free to add them to the
App\Providers\AppServiceProvider class or generate a separate service
provider to house them:
1<?php
2
3namespace App\Providers;
4
5use Illuminate\Support\Facades\View;
6
7class AppServiceProvider extends ServiceProvider
8{
9 /**
10 * Register any application services.
11 */
12 public function register(): void
13 {
14 // ...
15 }
16
17 /**
18 * Bootstrap any application services.
19 */
20 public function boot(): void
21 {
22 View::share('key', 'value');
23 }
24}
<?php
namespace App\Providers;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\View;
class AppServiceProvider extends ServiceProvider
{
/**
* Register any application services.
*/
public function register(): void
{
// ...
}
/**
* Bootstrap any application services.
*/
public function boot(): void
{
View::share('key', 'value');
}
}
View Composers
View composers are callbacks or class methods that are called when a view is rendered. If you have data that you want to be bound to a view each time that view is rendered, a view composer can help you organize that logic into a single location. View composers may prove particularly useful if the same view is returned by multiple routes or controllers within your application and always needs a particular piece of data.
Typically, view composers will be registered within one of your application's
service providers. In this example, we'll assume that
the App\Providers\AppServiceProvider will house this logic.
We'll use the View facade's composer method to register the view composer.
Laravel does not include a default directory for class-based view composers,
so you are free to organize them however you wish. For example, you could
create an app/View/Composers directory to house all of your application's
view composers:
1<?php
2
3namespace App\Providers;
4
5use App\View\Composers\ProfileComposer;
6use Illuminate\Support\Facades;
7use Illuminate\Support\ServiceProvider;
8use Illuminate\View\View;
9
10class AppServiceProvider extends ServiceProvider
11{
12 /**
13 * Register any application services.
14 */
15 public function register(): void
16 {
17 // ...
18 }
19
20 /**
21 * Bootstrap any application services.
22 */
23 public function boot(): void
24 {
25 // Using class-based composers...
26 Facades\View::composer('profile', ProfileComposer::class);
27
28 // Using closure-based composers...
29 Facades\View::composer('welcome', function (View $view) {
30 // ...
31 });
32
33 Facades\View::composer('dashboard', function (View $view) {
34 // ...
35 });
36 }
37}
<?php
namespace App\Providers;
use App\View\Composers\ProfileComposer;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades;
use Illuminate\Support\ServiceProvider;
use Illuminate\View\View;
class AppServiceProvider extends ServiceProvider
{
/**
* Register any application services.
*/
public function register(): void
{
// ...
}
/**
* Bootstrap any application services.
*/
public function boot(): void
{
// Using class-based composers...
Facades\View::composer('profile', ProfileComposer::class);
// Using closure-based composers...
Facades\View::composer('welcome', function (View $view) {
// ...
});
Facades\View::composer('dashboard', function (View $view) {
// ...
});
}
}
Now that we have registered the composer, the compose method of the
App\View\Composers\ProfileComposer class will be executed each time the
profile view is being rendered. Let's take a look at an example of the
composer class:
1<?php
2
3namespace App\View\Composers;
4
5use App\Repositories\UserRepository;
6use Illuminate\View\View;
7
8class ProfileComposer
9{
10 /**
11 * Create a new profile composer.
12 */
13 public function __construct(
14 protected UserRepository $users,
15 ) {}
16
17 /**
18 * Bind data to the view.
19 */
20 public function compose(View $view): void
21 {
22 $view->with('count', $this->users->count());
23 }
24}
<?php
namespace App\View\Composers;
use App\Repositories\UserRepository;
use Illuminate\View\View;
class ProfileComposer
{
/**
* Create a new profile composer.
*/
public function __construct(
protected UserRepository $users,
) {}
/**
* Bind data to the view.
*/
public function compose(View $view): void
{
$view->with('count', $this->users->count());
}
}
As you can see, all view composers are resolved via the service container, so you may type-hint any dependencies you need within a composer's constructor.
Attaching a Composer to Multiple Views
You may attach a view composer to multiple views at once by passing an array
of views as the first argument to the composer method:
1use App\Views\Composers\MultiComposer;
2use Illuminate\Support\Facades\View;
3
4View::composer(
5 ['profile', 'dashboard'],
6 MultiComposer::class
7);
use App\Views\Composers\MultiComposer;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\View;
View::composer(
['profile', 'dashboard'],
MultiComposer::class
);
The composer method also accepts the * character as a wildcard, allowing
you to attach a composer to all views:
1use Illuminate\Support\Facades;
2use Illuminate\View\View;
3
4Facades\View::composer('*', function (View $view) {
5 // ...
6});
use Illuminate\Support\Facades;
use Illuminate\View\View;
Facades\View::composer('*', function (View $view) {
// ...
});
View Creators
View "creators" are very similar to view composers; however, they are executed
immediately after the view is instantiated instead of waiting until the view
is about to render. To register a view creator, use the creator method:
1use App\View\Creators\ProfileCreator;
2use Illuminate\Support\Facades\View;
3
4View::creator('profile', ProfileCreator::class);
use App\View\Creators\ProfileCreator;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\View;
View::creator('profile', ProfileCreator::class);
Optimizing Views
By default, Blade template views are compiled on demand. When a request is executed that renders a view, Laravel will determine if a compiled version of the view exists. If the file exists, Laravel will then determine if the uncompiled view has been modified more recently than the compiled view. If the compiled view either does not exist, or the uncompiled view has been modified, Laravel will recompile the view.
Compiling views during the request may have a small negative impact on
performance, so Laravel provides the view:cache Artisan command to
precompile all of the views utilized by your application. For increased
performance, you may wish to run this command as part of your deployment
process:
1php artisan view:cache
php artisan view:cache
You may use the view:clear command to clear the view cache:
1php artisan view:clear
php artisan view:clear