Best Practices for Laravel
By: Sujit Mourya
Tags: PHP, Laravel, Best Practices, Programming

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.

Photo by Fatos Bytyqi on Unsplash

Single responsibility principle

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;

}

Fat models, skinny controllers

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();

}

}

Validation

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',

];

}

}

Business logic should be in service class

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');

}

}

}

Don’t repeat yourself (DRY)

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();

}

Prefer to use Eloquent over using Query Builder and raw SQL queries. Prefer collections over arrays

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` DESC

Good:

Article::has('user.profile')->verified()->latest()->get();

Mass assignment

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());

Do not execute queries in Blade templates and use eager loading (N + 1 problem)

Bad (for 100 users, 101 DB queries will be executed):

@foreach (User::all() as $user)

{{ $user->profile->name }}

@endforeach

Good (for 100 users, 2 DB queries will be executed):

$users = User::with('profile')->get(); ... @foreach ($users as $user)

{{ $user->profile->name }}

@endforeach

Comment your code, but prefer descriptive method and variable names over comments

Bad:

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())

Do not put JS and CSS in Blade templates and do not put any HTML in PHP classes

Bad:

let article = `{{ json_encode($article) }}`;

Better:

<input id="article" type="hidden" value="@json($article)"> Or <button class="js-fav-article" data-article="@json($article)">{{ $article->name }}<button>

In a Javascript file:

let article = $('#article').val();

The best way is to use specialized PHP to JS package to transfer the data.

Use config and language files, constants instead of text in the code

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'));

Use IoC container or facades instead of new Class

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());

Do not get data from the .env file directly

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');

Store dates in the standard format. Use accessors and mutators to modify date format

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 }}

Other good practices

Never put any logic in routes files.

Minimize usage of vanilla PHP in Blade templates.