laravel4-powerpack

Brings back the helper classes and methods from Laravel 3 to Laravel 4... and all that in a single, convenient package!

laravel4-powerpack contains Laravel 4 ports of the following helper classes:

• HTML

• Form

• Str

Installation

Open up the Laravel 4 composer.json file and add the laravelbook/laravel4-powerpack package to the require section:

{
	"require": {
		"laravel/framework": "4.0.*",
		...
		"laravelbook/laravel4-powerpack": "dev-master"
	}
	...
}

Run the composer install or update task, which will make composer download requested packages and setup initial environment:

$ composer update

You'll now have a composer.json, composer.lock as well as a vendor folder which contains:

vendor/autoload.php
vendor/composer
vendor/laravel
vendor/laravelbook/laravel4-powerpack
...

The folder vendor/laravelbook/laravel4-powerpack contain the Laravel 4 PowerPack components:

vendor/laravelbook/laravel4-powerpack/src/LaravelBook/Laravel4Powerpack/HTML.php
vendor/laravelbook/laravel4-powerpack/src/LaravelBook/Laravel4Powerpack/Form.php
vendor/laravelbook/laravel4-powerpack/src/LaravelBook/Laravel4Powerpack/Str.php

By default, composer will autoload the required classes. If you encounter any error, run the following command to force composer re-generate the autoload file:

$ composer dump-autoload

Next, we need to install the package in your Laravel 4 application. Open up the the app/config/app.php file and append the following code to the providers array:

"LaravelBook\Laravel4Powerpack\Providers\PowerpackServiceProvider",

The providers section should look like the following snippet:

'providers' => array(
    ...
    'LaravelBook\Laravel4Powerpack\Providers\PowerpackServiceProvider',
),

Next, add the following code to the aliases array in the app/config/app.php file:

'HTML' => 'LaravelBook\Laravel4Powerpack\Facades\HTMLFacade',
'Form' => 'LaravelBook\Laravel4Powerpack\Facades\FormFacade',
'Str' => 'LaravelBook\Laravel4Powerpack\Facades\StrFacade',

The aliases array should now look like the snippet below:

'aliases' => array(
    ...
	'HTML' => 'LaravelBook\Laravel4Powerpack\Facades\HTMLFacade',
	'Form' => 'LaravelBook\Laravel4Powerpack\Facades\FormFacade',
	'Str' => 'LaravelBook\Laravel4Powerpack\Facades\StrFacade',	
),

Laravel 4 Powerpack is now ready to be used in your web application!

You can verify the installation by running some simple test code like this:

Route::get('/', function() {
	echo Form::open( '/' );
	echo HTML::image( 'img/hello.jpg' );
	echo Form::text( Str::upper('hello world!') );
	echo Form::close();
	echo dd( $_REQUEST );
});

Building HTML

Content

• Entities
• Scripts And Style Sheets
• Links
• Links To Named Routes
• Links To Controller Actions
• Mail-To Links
• Images
• Lists
• Custom Macros

Entities

When displaying user input in your Views, it is important to convert all characters which have significance in HTML to their "entity" representation.

For example, the < symbol should be converted to its entity representation. Converting HTML characters to their entity representation helps protect your application from cross-site scripting:

Converting a string to its entity representation:

echo HTML::entities('<script>alert(\'hi\');</script>');

Scripts And Style Sheets

Generating a reference to a JavaScript file:

echo HTML::script('js/scrollTo.js');

Generating a reference to a CSS file:

echo HTML::style('css/common.css');

Generating a reference to a CSS file using a given media type:

echo HTML::style('css/common.css', array('media' => 'print'));

Further Reading:

• Managing Assets

Links

Generating a link from a URI:

echo HTML::link('user/profile', 'User Profile');

Generating a link that should use HTTPS:

echo HTML::secure('user/profile', 'User Profile');

Generating a link and specifying extra HTML attributes:

echo HTML::link('user/profile', 'User Profile', array('id' => 'profile_link'));

Links To Named Routes

Generating a link to a named route:

echo HTML::route('profile');

Generating a link to a named route with wildcard values:

$url = HTML::route('profile', 'User Profile', array($username));

Further Reading:

• Named Routes

Links To Controller Actions

Generating a link to a controller action:

echo HTML::action('home@index');

Generating a link to a controller action with wildcard values:

echo HTML::action('user@profile', 'User Profile', array($username));

Mail-To Links

The "mailto" method on the HTML class obfuscates the given e-mail address so it is not sniffed by bots.

Creating a mail-to link:

echo HTML::mailto('example@gmail.com', 'E-Mail Me!');

Creating a mail-to link using the e-mail address as the link text:

echo HTML::mailto('example@gmail.com');

Images

Generating an HTML image tag:

echo HTML::image('img/smile.jpg', $alt_text);

Generating an HTML image tag with extra HTML attributes:

echo HTML::image('img/smile.jpg', $alt_text, array('id' => 'smile'));

Lists

Creating lists from an array of items:

echo HTML::ol(array('Get Peanut Butter', 'Get Chocolate', 'Feast'));

echo HTML::ul(array('Ubuntu', 'Snow Leopard', 'Windows'));

echo HTML::dl(array('Ubuntu' => 'Canonical', 'Windows' => 'Microsoft'));

Custom Macros

It's easy to define your own custom HTML class helpers called "macros". Here's how it works. First, simply register the macro with a given name and a Closure:

Registering a HTML macro:

HTML::macro('myElement', function()
{
	return '<article type="awesome">';
});

Now you can call your macro using its name:

Calling a custom HTML macro:

echo HTML::myElement();

Building Forms

Contents

• Opening A Form
• CSRF Protection
• Labels
• Text, Text Area, Password & Hidden Fields
• File Input
• Checkboxes and Radio Buttons
• Drop-Down Lists
• Buttons
• Custom Macros

Note: All input data displayed in form elements is filtered through the HTML::entities method.

Opening A Form

Opening a form to POST to the current URL:

echo Form::open();

Opening a form using a given URI and request method:

echo Form::open('user/profile', 'PUT');

Opening a Form that POSTS to a HTTPS URL:

echo Form::openSecure('user/profile');

Specifying extra HTML attributes on a form open tag:

echo Form::open('user/profile', 'POST', array('class' => 'awesome'));

Opening a form that accepts file uploads:

echo Form::openForFiles('users/profile');

Opening a form that accepts file uploads and uses HTTPS:

echo Form::openSecureForFiles('users/profile');

Closing a form:

echo Form::close();

CSRF Protection

Laravel provides an easy method of protecting your application from cross-site request forgeries. First, a random token is placed in your user's session. Don't sweat it, this is done automatically. Next, use the token method to generate a hidden form input field containing the random token on your form:

Generating a hidden field containing the session's CSRF token:

echo Form::token();

Attaching the CSRF filter to a route:

Route::post('profile', array('before' => 'csrf', function()
{
	//
}));

Retrieving the CSRF token string:

$token = Session::getToken();

Note: You must specify a session driver before using the Laravel CSRF protection facilities.

Further Reading:

• Route Filters
• Cross-Site Request Forgery

Labels

Generating a label element:

echo Form::label('email', 'E-Mail Address');

Specifying extra HTML attributes for a label:

echo Form::label('email', 'E-Mail Address', array('class' => 'awesome'));

Note: After creating a label, any form element you create with a name matching the label name will automatically receive an ID matching the label name as well.

Text, Text Area, Password & Hidden Fields

Generate a text input element:

echo Form::text('username');

Specifying a default value for a text input element:

echo Form::text('email', 'example@gmail.com');

Note: The hidden and textarea methods have the same signature as the text method. You just learned three methods for the price of one!

Generating a password input element:

echo Form::password('password');

Checkboxes and Radio Buttons

Generating a checkbox input element:

echo Form::checkbox('name', 'value');

Generating a checkbox that is checked by default:

echo Form::checkbox('name', 'value', true);

Note: The radio method has the same signature as the checkbox method. Two for one!

File Input

Generate a file input element:

echo Form::file('image');

Drop-Down Lists

Generating a drop-down list from an array of items:

echo Form::select('size', array('L' => 'Large', 'S' => 'Small'));

Generating a drop-down list with an item selected by default:

echo Form::select('size', array('L' => 'Large', 'S' => 'Small'), 'S');

Buttons

Generating a submit button element:

echo Form::submit('Click Me!');

Note: Need to create a button element? Try the button method. It has the same signature as submit.

Custom Macros

It's easy to define your own custom Form class helpers called "macros". Here's how it works. First, simply register the macro with a given name and a Closure:

Registering a Form macro:

Form::macro('myField', function()
{
	return '<input type="awesome">';
});

Now you can call your macro using its name:

Calling a custom Form macro:

echo Form::myField();

Working With Strings

Contents

• Capitalization, Etc.
• Word & Character Limiting
• Generating Random Strings
• Singular & Plural
• Slugs
• Case Conversion
• String Searching

Capitalization, Etc.

The Str class provides three convenient methods for manipulating string capitalization: upper, lower, and title. These are more intelligent versions of the PHP strtoupper, strtolower, and ucwords methods. More intelligent because they can handle UTF-8 input if the multi-byte string PHP extension is installed on your web server. To use them, just pass a string to the method:

echo Str::lower('I am a string.');
// i am a string.

echo Str::upper('I am a string.');
// I AM A STRING.

echo Str::title('I am a string.');
// I Am A String.

Additional methods:

length( $string ): Get the length of a string.

// Get the length of a string
$length = Str::length('Taylor Otwell');

// Get the length of a multi-byte string
$length = Str::length('Τάχιστη')

upperWords( $string ): Convert first letter of each word to uppercase.

Word & Character Limiting

Limiting the number of characters in a string:

echo Str::limit("Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet", 10);
// Lorem ipsu...

echo Str::limitExact("Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet", 10);
// Lorem i...

// Limit the number of characters and append a custom ending
echo Str::limitExact('Taylor Otwell', 9, '---');

Limiting the number of words in a string:

echo Str::words("Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet", 3);
// Lorem ipsum dolor...

// Limit the number of words and append a custom ending
echo Str::words('This is a sentence.', 3, '---');

wordwrap( $string, $length ): Adds a space to a string after a given amount of contiguous, non-whitespace characters.

Generating Random Strings

Generating a random string of alpha-numeric characters:

echo Str::random(32);

Generating a random string of alphabetic characters:

echo Str::random(32, 'alpha');

Singular & Plural

Getting the plural form of a word:

echo Str::plural('user');
// users

Getting the singular form of a word:

echo Str::singular('users');
// user

Getting the plural form if specified value is greater than one:

echo Str::plural('comment', count($comments));

Slugs

Generating a URL friendly slug:

return Str::slug('My First Blog Post!');
// my-first-blog-post

Generating a URL friendly slug using a given separator:

return Str::slug('My First Blog Post!', '_');
// my_first_blog_post

Case Conversion

ascii( $value ): Convert a string to 7-bit ASCII.

classify( $value ): Convert a string to an underscored, camel-cased class name.

$class = Str::classify('task_name'); // Returns "Task_Name"

$class = Str::classify('taylor otwell') // Returns "Taylor_Otwell"

camelCase( $value ): Convert a value to camel case.

String Searching

is( $pattern, $value ): Determine if a given string matches a given pattern.

endsWith( $haystack, $needle ): Determine if a given string ends with a given needle.

startsWith( $haystack, $needle ): Determine if a string starts with a given needle.

contains( $haystack, $needle ): Determine if a given string contains a given sub-string.

Additional Helper Methods

dd( $value ): Dumps the given value. Execution will halt after call to this function.