Create an artisan command for generating custom classes or files - php

Question

What's the best way ( or maybe the way it's actually done ) of creating an artisan command for generating custom classes or files? Like php artisan make:console itself that creates a php class for our new artisan command.
From what I can think of, we have two options:
Add the template for that new file using php heredoc(or any string inside the new command's class file for that matter), which is really messy.
Put a template file somewhere, read it, replace what's necessary, and then create the new file. But I don't know where would be best to put the template file.
So is there a best-practice for handling this situation in Laravel? I googled it, but there was only articles and documentation for simple artisan command creation.

Answer 1

Update 04/2020: Laravel 7 comes with a way to edit the default stubs to make changes to them and have Laravel pick up those changes. If you want to make a completely different stub to publish a totally different file the process below is appropriate otherwise look at the docs at the link below.
https://laravel.com/docs/7.x/artisan#stub-customization
I know this question is a bit old but this is pretty easy if you just want to create a similar file that Laravel already does. (I wanted to create a job with some custom traits attached on creation)
So first look at the stubs Laravel comes with here on github.
Next, pick the stub of the type of class you want (I copied the job-queued stub) and paste it somewhere you can access in your app. I put mine inside App\Console\Stubs since that makes sense that commands will use the stubs.
After that, create your artisan command with php artisan make:command commandName.
Inside the command created use this file Illuminate\Console\GeneratorCommand. Now make your command extend this class instead of Command; This class is the class Laravel uses to create classes and it extends Command itself.
Inside your command create a few properties and methods as follows:
protected $name = 'make:custom-file'; The name of your command. This replaces $signature
protected $description = 'Command description.';
protected $type = 'Job'; Type of class to make
//location of your custom stub
protected function getStub()
{
return app_path().'/Console/Stubs/custom-job.stub';
}
//The root location the file should be written to
protected function getDefaultNamespace($rootNamespace)
{
return $rootNamespace.'\Jobs';
}
//option flags if any see this for how it works
protected function getOptions()
{
return [];
}
A full example of how the class should look is like this:
<?php
namespace App\Console\Commands;
use Illuminate\Console\GeneratorCommand;
class CustomJob extends GeneratorCommand
{
/**
* The name and signature of the console command.
*
* #var string
*/
protected $name = 'make:custom';
/**
* The console command description.
*
* #var string
*/
protected $description = 'Create a custom job.';
/**
* The type of class being generated.
*
* #var string
*/
protected $type = 'Job';
/**
* Get the stub file for the generator.
*
* #return string
*/
protected function getStub()
{
return app_path().'/Console/Stubs/custom-job.stub';
}
/**
* Get the default namespace for the class.
*
* #param string $rootNamespace
* #return string
*/
protected function getDefaultNamespace($rootNamespace)
{
return $rootNamespace.'\Jobs';
}
/**
* Get the console command options.
*
* #return array
*/
protected function getOptions()
{
return [];
}
}
Once you run your custom artisan command it will write your custom stub to where you specify.

Answer 2

Laravel uses .stub files as templates, and replaces the tokens inside the template.
Since you mentioned the make:console command, for reference you can take a look at the following files:
vendor/laravel/framework/src/Illuminate/Foundation/Console/stubs/console.stub
(on github)
This the template for making new console commands.
vendor/laravel/framework/src/Illuminate/Foundation/Console/ConsoleMakeCommand.php
(on github)
This is the code that is executed when you run the php artisan make:console command.
If you want to take a look at packages that have done this, as well, a good example is the generators package by Jeffrey Way at Laracasts.