PHP & Web Development Blogs

Laravel introduces eloquent relationships from laravel 5.0 onwards. We all know, while we creating an application we all have foreign keys. Each table will be connected to some other. Eloquent make easy to connect each tables easily. Here we will One to one, one to many and many to many relationships. Here we will see three types of relationships,
   
. One to one relationships
    . One to many relationships
    . Many to many relationships

Why Eloquent Relationships

Here we have 2 tables, students and marks, so for join each table,

$student = student::join(‘marks’,’marks.student_id,’=’,students.id’)->where(‘students.id’,’1’)->get();

dd($student);

the above query is to long, so when we connect more tables its too tough we will be having a big query and complicated.

Model Query using Relationships

$student_marks = student::find(1);

dd($student_marks->mark1);

The above example is a simple example of eloquent relationships. We can reduce the first query into a simple one.

ONE TO ONE RELATIOSHIPS

Here we are creating 2 tables:
* Users
* Phones

Now we can see one to one relationships using hasone() and belongsto().

We need to create table using migrations

Create migrations

users table will be created by using

Schema::create('users', function (Blueprint $table) {

 $table->increments('id');

 $table->string('name');

 $table->string('email')->unique();

 $table->string('password');

 $table->rememberToken();

 $table->timestamps();

});

Phones table will be created by

Schema::create('phones', function (Blueprint $table) {

 $table->increments('id');

 $table->integer('user_id')->unsigned();

 $table->string('phone');

 $table->timestamps();

 $table->foreign('user_id')->references('id')->on('users')

 ->onDelete('cascade');

});

After that we need to create model for each tables, as we all know if the table name is laravel table name will be ending with ‘s’ and model name will be without ‘s’ of the same table name.

User model

<?php

namespace App;

use Illuminate\Notifications\Notifiable;

use Illuminate\Foundation\Auth\User as Authenticatable;



class User extends Authenticatable

{

 use Notifiable;



 

 protected $fillable = [

 'name', 'email', 'password',

 ];



 

 protected $hidden = [

 'password', 'remember_token',

 ];



 

 public function phone()

 {

 return $this->hasOne('App\Phone');

 }

}

Phone Model

<?php

namespace App;

use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;



class Phone extends Model

{

 

 public function user()

 {

 return $this->belongsTo('App\User');

 }

}

For Creating records

$user = User::find(1);

$phone = new Phone;

$phone->phone = '9080054945';

$user->phone()->save($phone);



$phone = Phone::find(1);

$user = User::find(10);

$phone->user()->associate($user)->save();

Now we can get our records by

$phone = User::find(1)->phone;

dd($phone);



$user = Phone::find(1)->user;

dd($user);

ONE TO MANY RELATIONSHIPS

Here we will use hasMany() and belongsTo() for relationships

Now we are creating two tables, posts and comments, we will be having a foreign key towards posts table.


Migrations for posts and comments table

Schema::create('posts', function (Blueprint $table) {

 $table->increments('id');

 $table->string("name");

 $table->timestamps();

});



Schema::create('comments', function (Blueprint $table) {

 $table->increments('id');

 $table->integer('post_id')->unsigned();

 $table->string("comment");

 $table->timestamps();

 $table->foreign('post_id')->references('id')->on('posts')

 ->onDelete('cascade');

});

Now we will create Post Model and Comment Model

Post Model

<?php

namespace App;

use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;



class Post extends Model

{

 

 public function comments()

 {

 return $this->hasMany(Comment::class);

 }

}

Comment Model

<?php

namespace App;

use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;



class Comment extends Model

{

 

 public function post()

 {

 return $this->belongsTo(Post::class);

 }

}

Now we can create records

$post = Post::find(1);

$comment = new Comment;

$comment->comment = "Hi Harikrishnan";

$post = $post->comments()->save($comment);

$post = Post::find(1);



$comment1 = new Comment;

$comment1->comment = "How are You?";

$comment2 = new Comment;

$comment2->comment = "Where are you?";

$post = $post->comments()->saveMany([$comment1, $comment2]);



$comment = Comment::find(1);

$post = Post::find(2);

$comment->post()->associate($post)->save();

Now we can get records

$post = Post::find(1);

$comments = $post->comments;

dd($comments);



$comment = Comment::find(1);

$post = $comment->post;

dd($post);

MANY TO MANY RELATIONSHIPS

Many to many is little bit different and complicated than the above two.



In this example, I will create users, roles, and role, users_tables, here each table will be connected each other using the foreign keys.



Using belongsToMany() we will use see a demo of Many to many relationship

Create Migrations

Schema::create('users', function (Blueprint $table) {

 $table->increments('id');

 $table->string('name');

 $table->string('email')->unique();

 $table->string('password');

 $table->rememberToken();

 $table->timestamps();

});



Schema::create('roles', function (Blueprint $table) {

 $table->increments('id');

 $table->string('name');

 $table->timestamps();

});



Schema::create('role_user', function (Blueprint $table) {

 $table->integer('user_id')->unsigned();

 $table->integer('role_id')->unsigned();

 $table->foreign('user_id')->references('id')->on('users')

 ->onDelete('cascade');

 $table->foreign('role_id')->references('id')->on('roles')

 ->onDelete('cascade');

});

Create Models

User Model

<?php

namespace App;

use Illuminate\Notifications\Notifiable;

use Illuminate\Foundation\Auth\User as Authenticatable;



class User extends Authenticatable

{

 use Notifiable;



 

 protected $fillable = [

 'name', 'email', 'password',

 ];



 

 protected $hidden = [

 'password', 'remember_token',

 ];



 

 public function roles()

 {

 return $this->belongsToMany(Role::class, 'role_user');

 }

}

Role Model

<?php

namespace App;

use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;



class Role extends Model

{

 

 public function users()

 {

 return $this->belongsToMany(User::class, 'role_user');

 }

}

UserRole Model

<?php

namespace App;

use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;



class UserRole extends Model

{

}

Now we can create records

$user = User::find(2); 

$roleIds = [1, 2];

$user->roles()->attach($roleIds);



$user = User::find(3); 

$roleIds = [1, 2];

$user->roles()->sync($roleIds);



$role = Role::find(1); 

$userIds = [10, 11];

$role->users()->attach($userIds);



$role = Role::find(2); 

$userIds = [10, 11];

$role->users()->sync($userIds);

Now we can retrieve records

$user = User::find(1); 

dd($user->roles);



$role = Role::find(1);

dd($role->users);

Hence laravel Eloquent is more powerful and we do relationships easily compared to native query. We will be having three more relationships in laravel. Ie.., has many, one to many polymorphic and many to many polymorphic. With eloquent relationship we can easily connect the tables each other. One to one relationships we can connect two tables with their basic functionalities. In one to many we will connect with single table with multiple options. In Many to many we will be having more tables.

Hi Guys,

I am sharing you a standalone class for managing a session based cart system. In this class I have provided multiple methods for adding, updating and deleting the products. and By using this class you may manage multiple cart objects with different data only you need to pass a different key in constructor of that class.

Let me share you the How can we use that Class:

Include The cart class

require 'PhpKart.class.php';

Create a Cart Object initializing the Cart base key name, by using different keys we can manage multiple cart data in a same project , like main cart or wishlist

$obj1 = new PhpKart("MainCart");

Here Maincart is the keyname in which $obj1 insert/modify/delete the data

Adding any product inside cart

$obj1->add_to_cart($product_id=123,$quantity=2,$product_information=array("product_name"=>"Tomato","Price"=>20));

Where parameter1 is product, id,parameter 2 is quantity, and Parameter 3 is product information Array

Now If we want to update the quantity in product_id=123 with quantity 5 then use following:

$obj1->add_to_cart($product_id=123,$quantity=5);

Here we did not pass the information array again because no matter you pass or not if the product information is already added in the cart then if won't be affected So no ned to pass this, only pass product id and its Quantity

If we want to add another product:

$obj1->add_to_cart($product_id=145,$quantity=3,$product_information=array("product_name"=>"Potato","Price"=>30));

Now we have a case what if our product is already having some quantity and we want to increase into it or decrease into it, Then to retrieve the already added product information, using AlreadyExists method by passing product id,it will return array if it exists and it will return boolean false if not exists:

$already_exists=$obj1->AlreadyExists($product_id=145); 
if($already_exists !== false )
{
print_r($already_exists);
}

If we want to remove any product from cart:

$obj1->remove_from_cart($product_id=145);

If we want to get all products from the current cart

print_r( $obj1->getAllItems() );

It will return you an array with all the items exist in the current cart

Getting all item's count inside the current cart

echo $obj1->getTotalItems(); 

If we want to get calculate total amount in the current cart

echo $obj1->getCartTotalAmount($priceKeyName='Price')

Note: In the above snippet we need to provide teh same key name which we have used for product price in project information array at the time of adding items in cart array, and need to take the same key name in all the products inserting in Same Cart

If we want to clear/reset the current cart then use following:

$obj1->clear_cart(); 

Now if we want to save some other user interested items separately which use likes but don't want to buy now so that items can be Add into wishlist So we need to create new object with different cart ket name and that list will be manage separately using it's object. Like Following:

Create new Object by passing different Key

$obj2=new PhpKart("MyWishlist"); 

Add a new item to $obj2 object containing the items user want to add in his/her wishlist

$obj2->add_to_cart($product_id=159,$quantity=8,$product_information=array("product_name"=>"Baby Toy","Price"=>100));

Show the total cart Amount

echo $obj2->getCartTotalAmount("Price"); 

Full Source Code

Following is the full code for that cart managing Class . Just create a file named PhpKart.class.php and add following code in it:

<?php 
if(!session_id()){
 @session_start();
}


class PhpKart{

private $cart_key;

public function __construct($CartkeyName)
{
$this->cart_key=$CartkeyName;
}
public function add_to_cart($product_id,$quantity='1',$product_information=array())
{
$_SESSION[$this->cart_key][$product_id]['product_id']=$product_id;
$_SESSION[$this->cart_key][$product_id]['quantity']=$quantity;
if(!isset($_SESSION[$this->cart_key][$product_id]['product_information']) && !empty($product_information)){
$_SESSION[$this->cart_key][$product_id]['product_information']=$product_information;
}
}
public function remove_from_cart($product_id)
{
unset($_SESSION[$this->cart_key][$product_id]);
}
public function clear_cart()
{
unset($_SESSION[$this->cart_key]);
}
public function getTotalItems()
{
return count($_SESSION[$this->cart_key]);
}
public function getCartTotalAmount($price_key_name)
{
$total=0;
foreach($_SESSION[$this->cart_key] as $row)
{
$total += ($row['product_information'][$price_key_name]*$row['quantity']);
}

return $total;
}
public function AlreadyExists($product_id)
{
 if (isset($_SESSION[$this->cart_key][$product_id]))
 {
	return $_SESSION[$this->cart_key][$product_id];
 }
 else
 {
	return false;
 }
}
public function getAllItems()
{
return $_SESSION[$this->cart_key];
}


}

?>

Hi Guys,
I am sharing you the way to create simple resful apis using php and mysql. We are creating 2 apis here
First is to Loggin a existing user and second is to get list of written blogs by logged in user.

Create any database, i am taking

news

as the database name here, After it create following 2 tables inside it.

CREATE TABLE <code>users</code> (
 <code>id</code> int(11) UNSIGNED AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY, 
 <code>name</code> varchar(100),
 <code>email</code> varchar(100),
 <code>password</code> varchar(100),
 <code>createdAt</code> datetime NOT NULL,
 <code>updatedAt</code> timestamp NOT NULL DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP
);

CREATE TABLE <code>blogs</code> (
 <code>id</code> int(11) UNSIGNED AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY, 
 <code>user_id</code> int(11),
 <code>title</code> varchar(255),
 <code>summary</code> Tinytext,
 <code>body</code> Text,
 <code>createdAt</code> datetime NOT NULL,
 <code>updatedAt</code> timestamp NOT NULL DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP
);

Now putting some dummy data to read via the api

--create 2 entries in users table--
INSERT INTO <code>news</code>.<code>users</code> (<code>id</code>, <code>name</code>, <code>email</code>, <code>password</code>, <code>createdAt</code>, <code>updatedAt</code>) VALUES (1, 'jeetendra singh', '[email protected]', MD5('123456'), '2018-12-28 02:05:12', CURRENT_TIMESTAMP), (2, 'Manvik Singh chaudhary', '[email protected]', MD5('654321'), '2018-12-28 03:08:11', CURRENT_TIMESTAMP);


-- create 2 blogs by userid 1--

INSERT INTO <code>news</code>.<code>blogs</code> (<code>id</code>, <code>user_id</code>, <code>title</code>, <code>summary</code>, <code>body</code>, <code>createdAt</code>, <code>updatedAt</code>) VALUES (1, '1', 'Blog title 1 by jeetendra', 'Blog summary 1 by jeetendra', 'Blog body 1 by jeetendra', '2018-12-28 02:00:00', CURRENT_TIMESTAMP), (2, '1', 'Blog Title 2 by jeetendra ', 'Blog summary 2 by jeetendra ', 'Blog body 2 by jeetendra ', '2018-12-28 05:10:21', CURRENT_TIMESTAMP);

-- create 2 blogs by userid 2
INSERT INTO <code>news</code>.<code>blogs</code> (<code>id</code>, <code>user_id</code>, <code>title</code>, <code>summary</code>, <code>body</code>, <code>createdAt</code>, <code>updatedAt</code>) VALUES (3, '2', 'Blog title 1 by manvik', 'Blog summary 1 by manvik', 'Blog body 1 by manvik', '2018-12-28 02:00:00', CURRENT_TIMESTAMP), (4, '2', 'Blog Title 2 by manvik ', 'Blog summary 2 by manvik ', 'Blog body 2 by manvik ', '2018-12-28 05:10:21', CURRENT_TIMESTAMP);

After creating this create a index.php and put this code for Db connection, login and get all blog method

<?php 
header("Content-Type: application/json; charset=UTF-8");

class DBClass {

 private $host = "localhost";
 private $username = "root";
 private $password = ""; private $database = "news";

 public $connection;

 public function connect(){

 $this->connection = null;

 try{
 $this->connection = new PDO("mysql:host=" . $this->host . ";dbname=" . $this->database, $this->username, $this->password);
 $this->connection->exec("set names utf8");
 }catch(PDOException $exception){
 echo "Error: " . $exception->getMessage();
 }

 return $this->connection;
 }

 public function login($email,$password){

 if($this->connection==null)
 {
 $this->connect();
 }
 
 $query = "SELECT id,name,email,createdAt,updatedAt from users where email= ? and password= ?";
 $stmt = $this->connection->prepare($query);
 $stmt->execute(array($email,md5($password)));
 $ret= $stmt->fetchAll(PDO::FETCH_ASSOC);
 return $ret;
 }

 public function get_all_blogs($Uid){

 if($this->connection==null)
 {
 $this->connect();
 }
 
 $query = "SELECT b.*,u.id as Uid,u.email as Uemail,u.name as Uname from blogs b join users u on u.id=b.user_id where b.user_id= ?";
 $stmt = $this->connection->prepare($query);
 $stmt->execute(array($Uid));
 $ret= $stmt->fetchAll(PDO::FETCH_ASSOC);
 return $ret;
 }

 public function response($array)
 {
 echo json_encode($array);
 exit;
 }
}

$return=array();
$obj = new DBClass();
if(isset($_GET['action']) && $_GET['action']!='')
{
if($_GET['action']=="login")
{
 if(isset($_POST['email']) && isset($_POST['password']))
 {
 $UserData=$obj->login($_POST['email'],$_POST['password']);
 if(count($UserData)>0)
 {
 $return['status']=1;
 $return['_data_']=$UserData[0];
 $return['message']='User Logged in Successfully.';
 }
 else
 {
	$return['status']=0;
	$return['message']='Error:Invalid Email or Password!';
 }
 }
 else
 {
 $return['status']=0;
 $return['message']='Error:Email or Password not provided!';
 }
}
elseif($_GET['action']=="UserBlogs")
{
 if(isset($_POST['Uid']))
 {
 $blogs=$obj->get_all_blogs($_POST['Uid']);
 if(count($blogs)>0)
 {
 $return['status']=1;
 $return['_data_']=$blogs;
 $return['message']='Success.';
 }
 else
 {
	$return['status']=0;
	$return['message']='Error:Invalid UserId!';
 }
 }
 else
 {
 $return['status']=0;
 $return['message']='Error:User Id not provided!';
 }
}
}
else
{
$return['status']=0;
$return['message']='Error:Action not provided!';
}
$obj->response($return);
$obj->connection=null;
?>

Now api file is set, just make the urls pretty(readable form) using .htaccess file, put following code in it

RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule ^api/(.*) index.php?action=

Now your Simple Restful Apis are ready to use, Now Let me show you the postman screenshot where i have used these apis.

Login Api Call:

User Post/Blog Api Call

Models and controllers are one of the most essential programming handlers in the Laravel MVC framework, and both are used vastly for different functional operations. Models in Laravel are created inside the app folder and are mostly used to interact with the database using Eloquent ORM, while the controllers are located inside the directory App/Http/Controllers.

As a programmer, you should have the knowledge how to keep the balance in between the programming usage of Models and controllers. As which one should be more utilized for allowing functional tasks in applications deployed on any PHP MySQL hosting.

What is the Concept of Thin Controller and FAT Models

The concept of the thin controller and fat model is that we do less work in our controllers and more work in our models. Like we use our controllers to validate our data and then pass it to the models. While in models, we define our actual functional logic and main coding operations of the desired application. This code structuring process is also a very basic concept of MVC and also the differentiating factor from the conventional complex programming which we mistakenly ignore sometimes.

Why FAT Controllers Are Bad For Handling Code

Controllers are always meant to be defined short and concise, and it should only be used for receiving requests and return responses to it. Anything else further should be programmed in Models, which is actually made for main functional operations.

Placing functional logic in controllers can be bad for many reasons for your applications deployed on anyhosting for PHP. As it not only makes code structure long but also makes it complex sometimes. Further placing code in Controllers is also not recommended because if same functionality is needed somewhere else in route, then pulling out the whole code from their becomes difficult and so its reusability in the application.

Though Laravel is an MVC framework while developing on laravel, we sometimes ignore this and write mostly all our code including the extending of App\Model and all our functional logic in controller route methods. What we can do here is we can create a sub model of our parent model. For example, our parent model is User then we can create another sub model of username in CustomerModel if you are using the same User model for all types of users. In this model, we will write all the logic related to user type Customer.

So now let's take an example of my existing blog creating comment system with laravel and vuejs. In that article, you can see I have made so much mess in my controller methods. Mostly, I have written all my comments logic in my methods, so to shorten that let's clean them in this article. Inside app folder, I will create a new file with name CommentModel.php. Inside this file, I will write my whole logic for comment functions. This is my basic file:

<?php
namespace App;

use App\Comment;
use App\CommentVote;
use App\CommentSpam;
use App\User;
use Auth;

class CommentModel
{


}

?>

Right now it contains no function but has the reference of all my models which I required for this model. Let's first add a function namedgetallcomments passing$pageId as a parameter inside it. The function will get all the comments for the given page:

public function getAllComments($pageId)
 {
 $comments = Comment::where('page_id',$pageId)->get();

 $commentsData = [];


 foreach ($comments as $key) {
 $user = User::find($key->users_id);
 $name = $user->name;
 $replies = $this->replies($key->id);
 $photo = $user->first()->photo_url;
 $reply = 0;
 $vote = 0;
 $voteStatus = 0;
 $spam = 0;
 if(Auth::user()){
 $voteByUser = CommentVote::where('comment_id',$key->id)->where('user_id',Auth::user()->id)->first();
 $spamComment = CommentSpam::where('comment_id',$key->id)->where('user_id',Auth::user()->id)->first();


 if($voteByUser){
 $vote = 1;
 $voteStatus = $voteByUser->vote;
 }

 if($spamComment){
 $spam = 1;
 }
 }


 if(sizeof($replies) > 0){
 $reply = 1;
 }

 if(!$spam){
 array_push($commentsData,[
 "name" => $name,
 "photo_url" => (string)$photo,
 "commentid" => $key->id,
 "comment" => $key->comment,
 "votes" => $key->votes,
 "reply" => $reply,
 "votedByUser" =>$vote,
 "vote" =>$voteStatus,
 "spam" => $spam,
 "replies" => $replies,
 "date" => $key->created_at->toDateTimeString()
 ]);
 } 


 }
 $collection = collect($commentsData);
 return $collection->sortBy('votes');
 }

Now I will create another function namedreplies which takes$commentId as a parameter. The function is more or less programmed in the same manner as the upper function get all comments.

protected function replies($commentId)
 {
 $comments = Comment::where('reply_id',$commentId)->get();
 $replies = [];



 foreach ($comments as $key) {
 $user = User::find($key->users_id);
 $name = $user->name;
 $photo = $user->first()->photo_url;

 $vote = 0;
 $voteStatus = 0;
 $spam = 0; 


 if(Auth::user()){
 $voteByUser = CommentVote::where('comment_id',$key->id)->where('user_id',Auth::user()->id)->first();
 $spamComment = CommentSpam::where('comment_id',$key->id)->where('user_id',Auth::user()->id)->first();

 if($voteByUser){
 $vote = 1;
 $voteStatus = $voteByUser->vote;
 }

 if($spamComment){
 $spam = 1;
 }
 }
 if(!$spam){


 array_push($replies,[
 "name" => $name,
 "photo_url" => $photo,
 "commentid" => $key->id,
 "comment" => $key->comment,
 "votes" => $key->votes,
 "votedByUser" => $vote,
 "vote" => $voteStatus,
 "spam" => $spam,
 "date" => $key->created_at->toDateTimeString()
 ]);
 }




 }


 $collection = collect($replies);
 return $collection->sortBy('votes');
 }

Now lets create a functioncreate comment which passes$array as a parameter in it:

public function createComment($arary)
 {
 $comment = Comment::create($array);


 if($comment)
 return [ "status" => "true","commentId" => $comment->id ];
 else
 return [ "status" => "false" ]; 
 }

Similarly, Now I will create all the function for comment in myCommentModel, so that all the functions gets accumulated in one model.

<?php
namespace App;

use App\Comment;
use App\CommentSpam;
use App\CommentVote;
use App\User;
use Auth;

class CommentModel
{
 public function getAllComments($pageId)
 {
 $comments = Comment::where('page_id', $pageId)->get();

 $commentsData = [];

 foreach ($comments as $key) {
 $user = User::find($key->users_id);
 $name = $user->name;
 $replies = $this->replies($key->id);
 $photo = $user->first()->photo_url;
 $reply = 0;
 $vote = 0;
 $voteStatus = 0;
 $spam = 0;
 if (Auth::user()) {
 $voteByUser = CommentVote::where('comment_id', $key->id)->where('user_id', Auth::user()->id)->first();
 $spamComment = CommentSpam::where('comment_id', $key->id)->where('user_id', Auth::user()->id)->first();

 if ($voteByUser) {
 $vote = 1;
 $voteStatus = $voteByUser->vote;
 }

 if ($spamComment) {
 $spam = 1;
 }
 }

 if (sizeof($replies) > 0) {
 $reply = 1;
 }

 if (!$spam) {
 array_push($commentsData, [
 "name" => $name,
 "photo_url" => (string) $photo,
 "commentid" => $key->id,
 "comment" => $key->comment,
 "votes" => $key->votes,
 "reply" => $reply,
 "votedByUser" => $vote,
 "vote" => $voteStatus,
 "spam" => $spam,
 "replies" => $replies,
 "date" => $key->created_at->toDateTimeString(),
 ]);
 }

 }
 $collection = collect($commentsData);
 return $collection->sortBy('votes');
 }

 protected function replies($commentId)
 {
 $comments = Comment::where('reply_id', $commentId)->get();
 $replies = [];

 foreach ($comments as $key) {
 $user = User::find($key->users_id);
 $name = $user->name;
 $photo = $user->first()->photo_url;

 $vote = 0;
 $voteStatus = 0;
 $spam = 0;

 if (Auth::user()) {
 $voteByUser = CommentVote::where('comment_id', $key->id)->where('user_id', Auth::user()->id)->first();
 $spamComment = CommentSpam::where('comment_id', $key->id)->where('user_id', Auth::user()->id)->first();

 if ($voteByUser) {
 $vote = 1;
 $voteStatus = $voteByUser->vote;
 }

 if ($spamComment) {
 $spam = 1;
 }
 }
 if (!$spam) {

 array_push($replies, [
 "name" => $name,
 "photo_url" => $photo,
 "commentid" => $key->id,
 "comment" => $key->comment,
 "votes" => $key->votes,
 "votedByUser" => $vote,
 "vote" => $voteStatus,
 "spam" => $spam,
 "date" => $key->created_at->toDateTimeString(),
 ]);
 }

 }

 $collection = collect($replies);
 return $collection->sortBy('votes');
 }

 public function createComment($arary)
 {
 $comment = Comment::create($array);

 if ($comment) {
 return ["status" => "true", "commentId" => $comment->id];
 } else {
 return ["status" => "false"];
 }

 }

 public function voteComment($commentId, $array)
 {
 $comments = Comment::find($commentId);
 $data = [
 "comment_id" => $commentId,
 'vote' => $array->vote,
 'user_id' => $array->users_id,
 ];

 if ($array->vote == "up") {
 $comment = $comments->first();
 $vote = $comment->votes;
 $vote++;
 $comments->votes = $vote;
 $comments->save();
 }

 if ($array->vote == "down") {
 $comment = $comments->first();
 $vote = $comment->votes;
 $vote--;
 $comments->votes = $vote;
 $comments->save();
 }

 if (CommentVote::create($data)) {
 return true;
 }

 }

 public function spamComment($commentId, $array)
 {
 $comments = Comment::find($commentId);

 $comment = $comments->first();
 $spam = $comment->spam;
 $spam++;
 $comments->spam = $spam;
 $comments->save();

 $data = [
 "comment_id" => $commentId,
 'user_id' => $array->users_id,
 ];

 if (CommentSpam::create($data)) {
 return true;
 }

 }
}
?>

Now we have all our required methods inCommentModel. So now let's clean upCommentController which is currently bit complex and lengthy in code structure. As right nowCommentController look like this:

<?php

namespace App\Http\Controllers;

use Illuminate\Http\Request;
use App\Http\Requests;
use App\Comment;
use App\CommentVote;
use App\CommentSpam;
use App\User;
use Auth;

class CommentController extends Controller
{


 
 public function index($pageId)
 {
 $comments = Comment::where('page_id',$pageId)->get();

 $commentsData = [];




 foreach ($comments as $key) {
 $user = User::find($key->users_id);
 $name = $user->name;
 $replies = $this->replies($key->id);
 $photo = $user->first()->photo_url;
 $reply = 0;
 $vote = 0;
 $voteStatus = 0;
 $spam = 0;
 if(Auth::user()){
 $voteByUser = CommentVote::where('comment_id',$key->id)->where('user_id',Auth::user()->id)->first();
 $spamComment = CommentSpam::where('comment_id',$key->id)->where('user_id',Auth::user()->id)->first();


 if($voteByUser){
 $vote = 1;
 $voteStatus = $voteByUser->vote;
 }

 if($spamComment){
 $spam = 1;
 }
 }


 if(sizeof($replies) > 0){
 $reply = 1;
 }

 if(!$spam){
 array_push($commentsData,[
 "name" => $name,
 "photo_url" => (string)$photo,
 "commentid" => $key->id,
 "comment" => $key->comment,
 "votes" => $key->votes,
 "reply" => $reply,
 "votedByUser" =>$vote,
 "vote" =>$voteStatus,
 "spam" => $spam,
 "replies" => $replies,
 "date" => $key->created_at->toDateTimeString()
 ]);
 } 


 }
 $collection = collect($commentsData);
 return $collection->sortBy('votes');
 }

 protected function replies($commentId)
 {
 $comments = Comment::where('reply_id',$commentId)->get();
 $replies = [];



 foreach ($comments as $key) {
 $user = User::find($key->users_id);
 $name = $user->name;
 $photo = $user->first()->photo_url;

 $vote = 0;
 $voteStatus = 0;
 $spam = 0; 


 if(Auth::user()){
 $voteByUser = CommentVote::where('comment_id',$key->id)->where('user_id',Auth::user()->id)->first();
 $spamComment = CommentSpam::where('comment_id',$key->id)->where('user_id',Auth::user()->id)->first();

 if($voteByUser){
 $vote = 1;
 $voteStatus = $voteByUser->vote;
 }

 if($spamComment){
 $spam = 1;
 }
 }
 if(!$spam){


 array_push($replies,[
 "name" => $name,
 "photo_url" => $photo,
 "commentid" => $key->id,
 "comment" => $key->comment,
 "votes" => $key->votes,
 "votedByUser" => $vote,
 "vote" => $voteStatus,
 "spam" => $spam,
 "date" => $key->created_at->toDateTimeString()
 ]);
 }




 }


 $collection = collect($replies);
 return $collection->sortBy('votes');
 }

 
 public function store(Request $request)
 {
 $this->validate($request, [
 'comment' => 'required',
 'reply_id' => 'filled',
 'page_id' => 'filled',
 'users_id' => 'required',
 ]);
 $comment = Comment::create($request->all());
 if($comment)
 return [ "status" => "true","commentId" => $comment->id ];
 }

 
 public function update(Request $request, $commentId,$type)
 {
 if($type == "vote"){


 $this->validate($request, [
 'vote' => 'required',
 'users_id' => 'required',
 ]);

 $comments = Comment::find($commentId);
 $data = [
 "comment_id" => $commentId,
 'vote' => $request->vote,
 'user_id' => $request->users_id,
 ];

 if($request->vote == "up"){
 $comment = $comments->first();
 $vote = $comment->votes;
 $vote++;
 $comments->votes = $vote;
 $comments->save();
 }

 if($request->vote == "down"){
 $comment = $comments->first();
 $vote = $comment->votes;
 $vote--;
 $comments->votes = $vote;
 $comments->save();
 }

 if(CommentVote::create($data))
 return "true";
 }

 if($type == "spam"){


 $this->validate($request, [
 'users_id' => 'required',
 ]);

 $comments = Comment::find($commentId);


 $comment = $comments->first();
 $spam = $comment->spam;
 $spam++;
 $comments->spam = $spam;
 $comments->save();

 $data = [
 "comment_id" => $commentId,
 'user_id' => $request->users_id,
 ];

 if(CommentSpam::create($data))
 return "true";
 }
 }

 
 public function destroy($id)
 {
 }
}?>

After cleaning up the controller it will look much simpler and easy to understand like this:

<?php

namespace App\Http\Controllers;

use App\CommentModel;
use Illuminate\Http\Request;

class CommentController extends Controller
{

 private $commentModel = null;
 private function __construct()
 {
 $this->commentModel = new CommentModel();
 }

 
 public function index($pageId)
 {
 return $this->commentModel->getAllComments($pageId);
 }

 
 public function store(Request $request)
 {
 $this->validate($request, [
 'comment' => 'required',
 'reply_id' => 'filled',
 'page_id' => 'filled',
 'users_id' => 'required',
 ]);
 return $this->commentModel->createComment($request->all());
 }

 
 public function update(Request $request, $commentId, $type)
 {
 if ($type == "vote") {

 $this->validate($request, [
 'vote' => 'required',
 'users_id' => 'required',
 ]);

 return $this->commentModel->voteComment($commentId, $request->all());
 }

 if ($type == "spam") {

 $this->validate($request, [
 'users_id' => 'required',
 ]);

 return $this->commentModel->spamComment($commentId, $request->all());
 }
 }

}
?>

Wrap Up!

So Isn't it looking much cleaner and simpler to understand now? This is what actually a thin controller and fat model looks like. We have all our logic related to Comment system programmed in ourCommentModel and our controller is now just used to transfer data from the user to our model and returning the response which is coming from our model.

So this is how the structuring of the thin controller and fat model is made. Give your thoughts in the comments below.

Hello folks! This post is for those of you using Laravel. This beautiful framework makes web development super-easy compared to most of competitors. In the heart of Laravel is the Application class, which is responsible for bootstrapping, registering services and also serves as a dependency injection container. What I do with my Laravel apps, is that I take a slight detour from the common path by adding a custom Application class. While this is not really necessary, I find this approach nice, and will try to share my thought below.

It's normal practice in Laravel world to build all kinds of objects like this:

$cache = app("cache");

I find it a bit confusing to call app("cache"") and expect a Cache\Repository instance as result. If I pass the result of this call to a function that requires a Cache\Repository as parameter, I will probably have a code inspection warning from IDE. Moreover, if I want proper autocompletion, I will have to add additional comment:

$cache = app("cache");

This is where a custom application class might be handy:

namespace App;
class MyApp extends Application
{
 public function cacheRepository(): Repository
 {
 return $this->make(Repository::class);
 }
}

This way I get a TypeError in case of a misconfiguration, and I have a type-hint which allows the IDE to recognize the return value. Bye-bye nasty comment lines and IDE warnings! I make a method per service, with type-hints, like dbConnection() or viewFactory() - works really well for me!

I also thought that, if I have a custom class, then all the custom setup that normally you have in bootstrap/app.php, should reside in that custom class:

namespace App;
class MyApp extends Application
{
 public function __construct()
 {
 define('LARAVEL_START', microtime(true));
 define("APP_ROOT", realpath(__DIR__ . "/../"));
 parent::__construct(APP_ROOT);
 $this->setUp();
 }
 private function setUp()
 {
 $this->singleton(
 Contracts\Http\Kernel::class,
 \App\Http\Kernel::class
 );
 }
}

Then your bootstrap/app.php becomes just this:

return new \App\MyApp;

The Laravel app() function will also return an instance of MyApp from now on. However, it's @phpdoc says it returns \Illuminate\Foundation\Application, so for better clarity, I also added my own accessor method:

namespace App;
class MyApp extends Application
{
 public static function app(): self
 {
 
 $ret = parent::getInstance();
 return $ret;
 }
}

I tend to limit the use of global/static functions and methods, but sometimes it can be handy, and whenever I need an instance of MyApp, I just call MyApp::app(). The IDE wil be aware of the return type due to the type-hint, so I get everything I want for clean and clear development.

With your projects in Laravel, you may or may not want to follow this particular advice, but just be aware that extending a framework built-in classes for your team's comfort, is definitely something that can make your life easier. See you around, don't forget to leave comments!