Laravel 4.2- How to Route to files in a Subfolder - laravel

This is my first time using stackoverflow. I am really stuck on a seemingly simple problem in Laravel 4.2, how to route to a bunch of files(.php view files in a subdirectory.
I have about forty .blade.php files in a subdirectory called mechanics.
When the clicks on the link
action('PagesController#mechanicspages') (Note: I don't know how to pass a value from here). The route is
Route::get('/mechanics/{id}', 'PagesController#mechanicspages');
The function at the PagesController is:
public function mechanicspages($id)
{
return View::make('/mechanics/{$id}');
}
Can I show a view with this logic?

To do this you need to use the find the object and send it to the view...
To access a view in a subfolder you just use a period "."
Here is what I would do:
Route file:
Route::get('/mechanics/{id}', 'PagesController#mechanicspages');
Controller File:
public function mechanicspages($id) {
$mechanic = Mechanics::find($id);
if($mechanic)
return View::make('mechanics.subview')->with($mechanic);
}
For more on this see:
How to pass data to view.
http://laravel.com/docs/4.2/responses (half way down. Search for "with")

Related

Laravel: Grab data from the Controller from inside a view composer

Atm I'm creating this view composer for fun. It is collecting .js filenames and then passing it to the layout to be linked. The filenames used depend on the current page. For example a lower ranked page like Slides, doesn't include ajax requests used in UserManagement. Please don't ask me why I would do this xD. Im planning to validate requests anyway. Just being bored.
Anyways, as I'm quite new to laravel I'm still looking for more efficient ways to do things.
Atm Im accessing the file names staticly. The Controller now looks like this
class Controller extends BaseController
{
public static $js_file_names = [];
use AuthorizesRequests, DispatchesJobs, ValidatesRequests;
}
In the pagecontroller I construct the filenames:
class SlidesController extends Controller
{
public function __construct()
{
parent::$js_file_names = ['ccs', 'ajax-updates'];
}
And finaly I retreive them inside the registered Viewcomposer like this:
(during development $use_filenames has all files as default)
public function __construct()
{
$filenames = Controller::$js_file_names;
if( !empty($filenames) )
$this->use_filenames = $filenames;
var_dump($this->use_filenames);die;
}
It all seems to be working fine, but the big question is, is there a better way to access controller data from inside a viewcomposer? Every time I try to google this, I get results like 'passing data to views' etc, which is not rly the problem.
Update:
Another idea I had is to store all the filenames to be used in an array inside the viewcomposer itself, and check if the current page exists in that array. This would keep the controllers cleaner.
Using a view composer doesn't really make sense in this situation. Since your controllers already 'know' which files they intent to share, you may as well just pass them to the view like so:
class SlidesController extends Controller
{
public function __construct()
{
View::share('user_filenames', ['ccs', 'ajax-updates']);
}
}
A composer is more for sharing concrete elements such as collections of users, a service provider or some other class instance, for example.

How to share object in blade template across Zizaco/Confide routes?

I'm trying to share an object across a Laravel application. I need this because I want to create a blade template which will be included everywhere and will also perform some logic/data manipulation (a dynamic menu sort of speak).
To be able to accomplish this I've created a constructor in the Base controller and used View::share facade.
While this works across all routes in the application, it's not working for Zizaco/Confide generated routes, where I get Undefined variable error for $books.
This is the constructor in the base controller:
public function __construct()
{
$books = Book::all();
View::share('books', $books);
return View::make('adminMenu')->with('books', $books);
}
What you need are View Composers!!
You can hook a view composer to a certain view name or pattern (using * wildcard). Every time before that view gets rendered the view composer will run.
You can put this anywhere. Most elegant would be a custom app/composers.php which is then required at the bottom of app/start/global.php
View::composer('adminMenu', function($view){
$books = Book::all();
$view->with('books', $books);
}

Pass data from routes.php to a controller in Laravel

I am attempting to create a route in Laravel for a dynamic URL to load a particular controller action. I am able to get it to route to a controller using the following code:
Route::get('/something.html', array('uses' => 'MyController#getView'));
What I am having trouble figuring out is how I can pass a variable from this route to the controller. In this case I would like to pass along an id value to the controller action.
Is this possible in Laravel? Is there another way to do this?
You are not giving us enough information, so you need to ask yourself two basic questions: where this information coming from? Can you have access to this information inside your controller without passing it via the routes.php file?
If you are about to produce this information somehow in your ´routes.php´ file:
$information = WhateverService::getInformation();
You cannot pass it here to your controller, because your controller is not really being fired in this file, this is just a list of available routes, wich may or may not be hit at some point. When a route is hit, Laravel will fire the route via another internal service.
But you probably will be able to use the very same line of code in your controller:
class MyController extends BaseController {
function getView()
{
$information = WhateverService::getInformation();
return View::make('myview')->with(compact('information'));
}
}
In MVC, Controllers are meant to receive HTTP requests and produce information via Models (or services or repositores) to pass to your Views, which can produce new web pages.
If this information is something you have in your page and you want to sneak it to your something.html route, use a POST method instead of GET:
Route::post('/something.html', array('uses' => 'MyController#getView'));
And inside your controller receive that information via:
class MyController extends BaseController {
function getView()
{
$information = Input::get('information');
return View::make('myview')->with(compact('information'));
}
}

Laravel views do not output anything

I'm new to PHP Laravel framework. I'm studying it and playing with simple examples of code. My problem is that my views do not output anything - a blank white screen appears when I try to reach controller methods, for example, localhost/my-application/cms/action1
My routes file:
Route::controller('cms', 'CmsController');
My controller:
class CmsController extends BaseController {
public function getIndex()
{
View::make('cms.index');
}
public function getAction1()
{
View::make('cms.action1');
}
public function getAction2()
{
View::make('cms.action2');
}
}
My views are located in views/cms. They are very simple, for example:
<h1>Action1</h1>
<?php echo 'this is Action1'; ?>
And these views do not output anything, just simple blank white page appears. I tried to:
1) rename views files, and Laravel threw exception - "view not found", or so.
2) move view::make() methods to Routes file - the views were displayed then.
So where is the problem?
The bootstrap index.php file in laravel is inside the public folder.
So unless you've created a vhost for your application, you have to access it like
localhost/my-application/public/cms/action1
EDIT
Forget it. The problem is that you do not return the view::make from each function.
return View::make('cms.index');

Codeigniter common templates

Let's say that I have a website that has 100 different pages. Each page uses a common header and footer. Inside the header is some dynamic content that comes from a database.
I'd like to avoid having to have code in every single controller and action that passes this common code into the view.
function index()
{
// It sucks to have to include this on every controller action.
data['title'] = "This is the index page";
data['currentUserName'] = "John Smith";
$this->load->view("main_view", data);
}
function comments()
{
// It sucks to have to include this on every controller action.
data['title'] = "Comment list";
data['currentUserName'] = "John Smith";
$this->load->view("comment_view", data);
}
I realize that I could refactor the code so that the common parts are in a single function and the function is called by the action. Doing so would reduce SOME of the pain, but it still doesn't feel right since I'd still have to make a call to that function every time.
What's the correct way to handle this?
One way I have been doing this is to extend the default controller class. You can read up on extending classes with MY_Controller in the user guide. Inside this extended class you can include something that you ALWAYS want to do, like render the page header template before the main content, or authorise a users access etc.
class MY_Controller extends Controller {
function __construct()
{
parent::Controller();
//code to always do goes here
echo 'Always print this comment';
$this->load->view('partials/template_start');
}
}
Then you can have your normal controller class extend THIS class by using
class MyControllerNameHere extends MY_Controller {
function __construct()
{
//setup here
}
function index()
{
echo 'Only print this bit when this method is called';
$this->load->view('partials/MYPAGENAMEHERE');
}
}
There are other ways of doing this, I use a mixture of the above and William's Concepts Codeigniter Template library. Do a bit of searching - there are a few solutions for you.
I had a similar situation. I created an 'includes' folder, and in there put a file that had the repetitive code from my controllers. Then in the controllers just include('/path/to/includeFile.php');
Don't know if it's the "correct" way, but it works well for me.
I ran across this after a search of their site. http://codeigniter.com/wiki/Header_and_footer_and_menu_on_every_page/ I'll review this page and its links, then post my thoughts.

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