Views

Basic Usage
View Composers

Basic Usage

Views contain the HTML served by your application, and serve as a convenient method of separating your controller and domain logic from your presentation logic. Views are stored in the resources/views directory.

A simple view looks like this:

<!-- View stored in resources/views/greeting.php -->

<html>
    <body>
        <h1>Hello, <?php echo $name; ?></h1>
    </body>
</html>

The view may be returned to the browser like so:

Route::get('/', function()
{
    return view('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 passed to helper is an array of data that should be made available to the view.

Of course, views may also be nested within sub-directories of the resources/views directory. For example, if your view is stored at resources/views/admin/profile.php, it should be returned like so:

return view('admin.profile', $data);

Passing Data To Views

// Using conventional approach
$view = view('greeting')->with('name', 'Victoria');

// Using Magic Methods
$view = view('greeting')->withName('Victoria');

In the example above, the variable $name is made accessible to the view and contains Victoria.

If you wish, you may pass an array of data as the second parameter to the view helper:

$view = view('greetings', $data);

When passing information in this manner, $data should be an array with key/value pairs. Inside your view, you can then access each value using it's corresponding key, like {{ $key }} (assuming $data['$key'] exists).

Sharing Data With All Views

Occasionally, you may need to share a piece of data with all views that are rendered by your application. You have several options: the view helper, the Illuminate\Contracts\View\Factory contract, or a wildcard view composer.

For example, using the view helper:

view()->share('data', [1, 2, 3]);

You may also use the View facade:

View::share('data', [1, 2, 3]);

Typically, you would place calls to the share method within a service provider's boot method. You are free to add them to the AppServiceProvider or generate a separate service provider to house them.

Note: When the view helper is called without arguments, it returns an implementation of the Illuminate\Contracts\View\Factory contract.

Determining If A View Exists

If you need to determine if a view exists, you may use the exists method:

if (view()->exists('emails.customer'))
{
    //
}

Returning A View From A File Path

If you wish, you may generate a view from a fully-qualified file path:

return view()->file($pathToFile, $data);

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 organizes that logic into a single location.

Defining A View Composer

Let's organize our view composers within a service provider. We'll use the View facade to access the underlying Illuminate\Contracts\View\Factory contract implementation:

<?php namespace App\Providers;

use View;
use Illuminate\Support\ServiceProvider;

class ComposerServiceProvider extends ServiceProvider {

    /**
     * Register bindings in the container.
     *
     * @return void
     */
    public function boot()
    {
        // Using class based composers...
        View::composer('profile', 'App\Http\ViewComposers\ProfileComposer');

        // Using Closure based composers...
        View::composer('dashboard', function($view)
        {

        });
    }

    /**
     * Register
     *
     * @return void
     */
    public function register()
    {
        //
    }

}

Note: Laravel does not include a default directory for view composers. You are free to organize them however you wish. For example, you could create an App\Http\ViewComposers directory.

Remember, you will need to add the service provider to the providers array in the config/app.php configuration file.

Now that we have registered the composer, the ProfileComposer@compose method will be executed each time the profile view is being rendered. So, let's define the composer class:

<?php namespace App\Http\ViewComposers;

use Illuminate\Contracts\View\View;
use Illuminate\Users\Repository as UserRepository;

class ProfileComposer {

    /**
     * The user repository implementation.
     *
     * @var UserRepository
     */
    protected $users;

    /**
     * Create a new profile composer.
     *
     * @param  UserRepository  $users
     * @return void
     */
    public function __construct(UserRepository $users)
    {
        // Dependencies automatically resolved by service container...
        $this->users = $users;
    }

    /**
     * Bind data to the view.
     *
     * @param  View  $view
     * @return void
     */
    public function compose(View $view)
    {
        $view->with('count', $this->users->count());
    }

}

Just before the view is rendered, the composer's compose method is called with the Illuminate\Contracts\View\View instance. You may use the with method to bind data to the view.

Note: All view composers are resolved via the service container, so you may type-hint any dependencies you need within a composer's constructor.

Wildcard View Composers

The composer method accepts the * character as a wildcard, so you may attach a composer to all views like so:

View::composer('*', function($view)
{
    //
});

Attaching A Composer To Multiple Views

You may also attach a view composer to multiple views at once:

View::composer(['profile', 'dashboard'], 'App\Http\ViewComposers\MyViewComposer');

Defining Multiple Composers

You may use the composers method to register a group of composers at the same time:

View::composers([
    'App\Http\ViewComposers\AdminComposer' => ['admin.index', 'admin.profile'],
    'App\Http\ViewComposers\UserComposer' => 'user',
    'App\Http\ViewComposers\ProductComposer' => 'product'
]);

View Creators

View creators work almost exactly like view composers; however, they are fired immediately when the view is instantiated. To register a view creator, use the creator method:

View::creator('profile', 'App\Http\ViewCreators\ProfileCreator');