Else Statement returned Blank in Laravel - laravel

Question

I want to implement a simple search on my Laravel Application
public function search()
{
$search = request()->query('search');
if ($search) {
$books = Book::where('name', 'LIKE', "%{$search}%")->simplepaginate(12);
}
else {
echo "<h2>Book Not Found, please try using another search term</h2>";
$books = Book::orderBy('created_at', 'desc')->simplepaginate(12);
}
return view('search')->with('books', $books);
}
But the else returned a blank screen when the search terms can't be found
UPDATE
Here is my view file
<div class="container">
<div class="row">
<div class="col-sm-12 col-md-10 offset-md-1">
<div class="row">
#foreach($books as $book)
<div class="col-md-3">
<div class="home-catalog-image">
<a href="{{ route('book', $book->id) }}" target="_blank">
<!-- <img src="{{ $book->image }}" alt="trending image" /> -->
<img src="{{ $book->image_url }}" class="img-responsive" alt="{{$book->image_url}}">
</a>
</div>
<p class="author">{{ $book->author->name }}</p>
<h1 class="book-title">{{str_limit($book -> name, 20) }}</h1>
</div>
#endforeach
</div>
<p style="text-align:center;>"> {!! $books->render() !!} </p>
</div>
</div>
</div>

Answer 1

Check how to use the request() helper to get the input.
Also you can use when() method for conditional clauses instead if else.
public function search()
{
$search = request('search', null);
$books = Book::when($search, function ($query, $search) {
return $query->where('name', 'LIKE', "%{$search}%");
})
->orderBy('created_at', 'desc')
->simplePaginate(12);
return view('search')->with('books', $books);
}
Then in Blade you can use #forelse directive to loop the collection, or if it's empty, show the message.
<div class="container">
<div class="row">
<div class="col-sm-12 col-md-10 offset-md-1">
<div class="row">
#forelse ($books as $book)
<div class="col-md-3">
<div class="home-catalog-image">
<a href="{{ route('book', $book->id) }}" target="_blank">
<!-- <img src="{{ $book->image }}" alt="trending image" /> -->
<img src="{{ $book->image_url }}" class="img-responsive" alt="{{$book->image_url}}">
</a>
</div>
<p class="author">{{ $book->author->name }}</p>
<h1 class="book-title">{{str_limit($book -> name, 20) }}</h1>
</div>
#empty
<h2>Book Not Found, please try using another search term</h2>
#endforelse
</div>
<p style="text-align:center;>"> {!! $books->render() !!} </p>
</div>
</div>
</div>

Answer 2

To solve my problem, I use forelse instead of foreach a
#forelse($books as $book)
<div class="col-md-3">
<div class="home-catalog-image">
<a href="{{ route('book', $book->id) }}" target="_blank">
<!-- <img src="{{ $book->image }}" alt="trending image" /> -->
<img src="{{ $book->image_url }}" class="img-responsive" alt="{{$book->image_url}}">
</a>
</div>
<p class="author">{{ $book->author->name }}</p>
<h1 class="book-title">{{str_limit($book -> name, 20) }}</h1>
</div>
#empty
<h2>Book Not Found, please try using another search term</h2>
#endforelse
In my controller, I used
public function search()
{
$search = request('search', null);
$books = Book::when($search, function ($query, $search) {
return $query->where('name', 'LIKE', "%{$search}%");
})
->orderBy('created_at', 'desc')
->simplePaginate(12);
return view('search')->with('books', $books);
}