Creating nested comments in laravel - laravel

Question

I have the following blog control
public function show($slug)
{
$post = Blog::where('slugs', '=', $slug)->first();
$vars['pageTitle'] = Config::get('site.pageTitle') . $post['title'];
// The breadcrumbs... needs to be repopulated every page
$vars['breadCrumbs'] = [[
'url' => action('SimpleController#index'),
'title' => 'CovertDEV'
],[
'url' => action('BlogController#index'),
'title' => 'Blog'
],[
'url' => route('blog_post', ['slug' => $slug]),
'title' => $post['title']
]];
$vars['blog'] = $post;
$vars['comments'] = $post->Blog_comments->groupBy('comment_id');
return view('blog', $vars);
}
And the following scary view for the comments
#php
function display_comments($main, $depth = "\t")
{
foreach($main[0] as $mcomment)
{
#endphp
<div class="media">
<img class="m-3 avatar-sm rounded-1 border border-thick-1 shadow" src="../public/css/images/avatar-placeholder.png" alt="<?=$mcomment->firstname;?> <?=$mcomment->lastname;?>'s Avatar">
<div class="media-body">
<h6 class="mt-0 p-1 lead m-0 border-bottom"><?=$mcomment->firstname;?> <?=$mcomment->lastname;?></h6>
<div class="p-2">
<p><?=$mcomment->comment;?></p>
</div>
#php
if(isset($main[$mcomment->id]))
{
display_child($main, $main[$mcomment->id], $depth);
}
#endphp
</div>
</div>
#php
}
}
function display_child($main, $comment, $depth)
{
foreach($comment as $ccomment)
{
#endphp
<div class="media">
<img class="m-3 avatar-sm rounded-1 border border-thick-1 shadow" src="../public/css/images/avatar-placeholder.png" alt="<?=$ccomment->firstname;?> <?=$ccomment->lastname;?>'s Avatar">
<div class="media-body">
<h6 class="mt-0 p-1 lead m-0 border-bottom"><?=$ccomment->firstname;?> <?=$ccomment->lastname;?></h6>
<div class="p-2">
<p><?=$ccomment->comment;?></p>
</div>
#php
if(isset($main[$ccomment->id]))
{
display_child($main, $main[$ccomment->id], $depth."\t");
}
#endphp
</div>
</div>
#php
}
}
display_comments($comments);
#endphp
That is as ugly as it gets. It generates how I want it, but that is ugly, terribly ugly.
This is an image of the created nested comments
What is the best way to make this work elegantly in the blade template? I tried extending the blade template thing according to the docs, but that didn't prove fruitful for me. I simply couldn't figure out how to do it.
With this, I can't call asset, or anything like that... those are already out of scope.

Answer 1

I finally found my solution I'm satisfied with. If anyone has a better solution, do feel free to suggest.
My Blog controller is the same, only thing that changed is my view. In my blog view (where I see those comments as a user):
blog.blade.php
#foreach($comments[0] as $comment)
<div class="media comment">
#if(!is_null($comment->users['avatar']))
<img class="m-3 avatar-sm rounded-1 border border-thick-1 shadow" src="{{ asset( Config::get('site.asset_folder') . 'users/images/' . $comment->users['avatar']) }}" alt="{{ $comment->users['firstname'] }} {{ $comment->users['lastname'] }}'s Avatar">
#else
<img class="m-3 avatar-sm rounded-1 border border-thick-1 shadow" src="{{ asset( Config::get('site.asset_folder') . 'css/images/avatar-placeholder.png') }}" alt="{{ $comment->users['firstname'] }} {{ $comment->users['lastname'] }}'s Avatar">
#endif
<div class="media-body">
<h6 class="mt-0 p-1 lead m-0 border-bottom">{{ $comment->users['firstname'] }} {{ $comment->users['lastname'] }}</h6>
<div class="p-2">
<p>{{ $comment->comment }}</p>
</div>
#if(isset($comments[$comment->id]))
#include('block.comments', ['comments' => $comments, 'parent_id' => $comment->id, 'depth' => 0])
#endif
</div>
</div>
#endforeach
And then, my block/comments.blade.php
#foreach($comments[$parent_id] as $comment)
#if($depth >= Config::get('site.max_nested'))
</div>
</div>
#endif
<div class="media comment">
#if(!is_null($comment->users['avatar']))
<img class="m-3 avatar-sm rounded-1 border border-thick-1 shadow" src="{{ asset( Config::get('site.asset_folder') . 'users/images/' . $comment->users['avatar']) }}" alt="{{ $comment->users['firstname'] }} {{ $comment->users['lastname'] }}'s Avatar">
#else
<img class="m-3 avatar-sm rounded-1 border border-thick-1 shadow" src="{{ asset( Config::get('site.asset_folder') . 'css/images/avatar-placeholder.png') }}" alt="{{ $comment->users['firstname'] }} {{ $comment->users['lastname'] }}'s Avatar">
#endif
<div class="media-body">
<h6 class="mt-0 p-1 lead m-0 border-bottom">{{ $comment->users['firstname'] }} {{ $comment->users['lastname'] }}</h6>
<div class="p-2">
<p>{{ $comment->comment }}</p>
</div>
#if(isset($comments[$comment->id]))
#include('block.comments', ['comments' => $comments, 'parent_id' => $comment->id, 'depth' => $depth + 1])
#endif
#if($depth < Config::get('site.max_nested'))
</div>
</div>
#endif
#endforeach
And then I have a config file site in the config folder with the following contents
return [
// We define the max depth for the nested comments
// You could obviously define this value in database and be retrieving it from there
'max_nested' => 3,
];
The way my $comments array is set-up, the parent comments are always going to be in $comments[0] while the child comments would be in $comments[$parent_id]
I think that's fairly simple yet effectively functional!