Laravel: Where to store global arrays data and constants? - php

I just started working with Laravel. I need to rewrite a whole system I made some years ago, using Laravel 4 as base framework. In my old system, I used to have a constant.php file with some constants declared, and a globals.php file which contained lots of array sets (for example, categories statuses, type of events, langs, etc.). By doing so, I could use something like
foreach ( $langs as $code => $domain ) {
// Some stuff
}
anywhere in my app.
My question is, how can I store that info in the so called "laravel way". I tried using some sort of object to store this info, setting this as a service and creating for it a facade:
app/libraries/Project/Constants.php
namespace PJ;
class Constants {
public static $langs = [
'es' => 'www.domain.es',
'en' => 'www.domain.us',
'uk' => 'www.domain.uk',
'br' => 'www.domain.br',
'it' => 'www.domain.it',
'de' => 'www.domain.de',
'fr' => 'www.domain.fr'
];
}
app/libraries/Project/ConstantsServiceProvider.php
namespace PJ;
use Illuminate\Support\ServiceProvider;
class ConstantsServiceProvider extends ServiceProvider {
public function register() {
$this->app->singleton('PJConstants', function() {
return new Constants;
});
}
}
app/libraries/Project/ConstantsFacade.php
namespace PJ;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Facade;
class ConstantsFacade extends Facade {
protected static function getFacadeAccessor() {
return 'PJConstants';
}
}
composer.json
"psr-4": {
"PJ\\": "app/libraries/Project"
},
and so I access that property as PJ\Constants::$langs.
This works, but I doubt it is the most efficient or correct way of doing it. I mean, is it the right way to "propagate" a variable by creating a whole Service Provider and facades and all such stuff? Or where should I put this data?
Thanks for any advice.
EDIT # 01
Data I want to pass to all controllers and views can be directly set in script, like in the example at the beginning of my post, but it can also be generated dynamically, from a database for example. This data could be a list of categories. I need them in all views to generate a navigation bar, but I also need them to define some routing patterns (like /category/subcategory/product), and also to parse some info in several controllers (Like get info from the category that holds X product).
My array is something like:
$categories = [
1 => ['name' => 'General', 'parent' => 0, 'description' => 'Lorem ipsum...'],
2 => ['name' => 'Nature', 'parent' => 0, 'description' => 'Lorem ipsum...'],
3 => ['name' => 'World', 'parent' => 0, 'description' => 'Lorem ipsum...'],
4 => ['name' => 'Animals', 'parent' => 2, 'description' => 'Lorem ipsum...']
]
Just as an example. Index is the id of the category, and the Value is info associated with the category.
I need this array, also, available in all Controllers and Views.
So, should I save it as a Config variable? How else could I store these data; what would be the best and semantically correct way?

For most constants used globally across the application, storing them in config files is sufficient. It is also pretty simple
Create a new file in the app/config directory. Let's call it constants.php
In there you have to return an array of config values.
return [
'langs' => [
'es' => 'www.domain.es',
'en' => 'www.domain.us'
// etc
]
];
And you can access them as follows
Config::get('constants.langs');
// or if you want a specific one
Config::get('constants.langs.en');
And you can set them as well
Config::set('foo.bar', 'test');
Note that the values you set will not persist. They are only available for the current request.
Update
The config is probably not the right place to store information generated from the database. You could just use an Eloquent Model like:
class Category extends Eloquent {
// db table 'categories' will be assumed
}
And query all categories
Category::all();
If the whole Model thing for some reason isn't working out you can start thinking about creating your own class and a facade. Or you could just create a class with all static variables and methods and then use it without the facade stuff.

For Constants
Create constants.php file in the config directory:-
define('YOUR_DEFINED_CONST', 'Your defined constant value!');
return [
'your-returned-const' => 'Your returned constant value!'
];
You can use them like:-
echo YOUR_DEFINED_CONST . '<br>';
echo config('constants.your-returned-const');
For Static Arrays
Create static_arrays.php file in the config directory:-
class StaticArray
{
public static $langs = [
'es' => 'www.domain.es',
'en' => 'www.domain.us',
'uk' => 'www.domain.uk',
'br' => 'www.domain.br',
'it' => 'www.domain.it',
'de' => 'www.domain.de',
'fr' => 'www.domain.fr'
];
}
You can use it like:-
echo StaticArray::$langs['en'];
Note: Laravel includes all config files automatically, so no need of manual include :)

Create common constants file in Laravel
app/constants.php
define('YOUR_CONSTANT_VAR', 'VALUE');
//EX
define('COLOR_TWO', 'red');
composer.json
add file location at autoload in composer.json
"autoload": {
"files": [
"app/constants.php"
]
}
Before this change can take effect, you must run the following command in Terminal to regenerate Laravel’s autoload files:
composer dump-autoload

For global constants in Laravel 5, I don't like calling Config for them. I define them in Route group like this:
// global contants for all requests
Route::group(['prefix' => ''], function() {
define('USER_ROLE_ADMIN','1');
define('USER_ROLE_ACCOUNT','2');
});

I think the best way is to use localization.
Create a new file messages.php in resources/lang/en (en because that is what is set in my config/app 'locale'=>'en')
return an array of all your values
return [
'welcome' => 'Welcome to our application'
];
to retrieve for laravel 5.3 and below
echo trans('messages.welcome');
or
echo Lang::get('messages.welcome');
for 5.4 use
echo __('messages.welcome')
laravel 5.0 localization
or
laravel 5.4 localization

Just to add to the above answer you will have to include the config class before you could start using it in Laravel 5.3
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Config;

Atleast in Laravel 5.4, in your constructor you can create them;
public function __construct()
{
\Config::set('privileged', array('user1','user2');
\Config::set('SomeOtherConstant', 'my constant');
}
Then you can call them like this in your methods;
\Config::get('privileged');
Especially useful for static methods in the Model, etc...
Reference on Laracasts.com https://laracasts.com/discuss/channels/general-discussion/class-apphttpcontrollersconfig-not-found

Just put a file constants.php file into the config directory and define your constants in that file, that file will be auto loaded,
Tested in Laravel 6+

Create a constants class:
<?php
namespace App\Support;
class Constants {
/* UNITS */
public const UNIT_METRIC = 0;
public const UNIT_IMPERIAL = 1;
public const UNIT_DEFAULT = UNIT_METRIC;
}
Then use it in your model, controller, whatever:
<?php
namespace App\Models;
use App\Support\Constants;
class Model
{
public function units()
{
return Constants::UNIT_DEFAULT;
}
}

Related

How to separate each action in a different file in Yii2

I'm new in Yii2 framework. To give structure to my web application, I want to put each controller in a subfolder and make a separate controller for each action in each subfolder. Like that one!
controllers
**User**
IndexController
EditController
UpdateController
**Profile**
IndexController
EditController
UpdateController
How can I arrange that in Yii2.
thanks in advance
Well your example is right.
controllers/user/IndexController.php
views/user/index/index.php
Then in IndexController/EditController/UpdateController you have actionIndex and if you run domain.com/user/index or domain.com/user/edit it will execute actionIndex in current controller (IndexController or EditController)
domain.com/user/index = domain.com/user/index/index
and
domain.com/user/edit = domain.com/user/edit/index
Not sure if there are other more effective ways, but one that works would be the following.
Note: This example assumes that you're using https://github.com/yiisoft/yii2-app-advanced but it can work for the basic app also, just changing the namespaces.
So, let's say you say we have a controller, and we want to store some of its actions into different php files.
<?php
// frontend\controllers\SiteController.php
namespace frontend\controllers;
use yii\web\Controller;
class SiteController extends Controller {
public function actions() {
return [
'error' => [
'class' => 'yii\web\ErrorAction',
],
'captcha' => [
'class' => 'yii\captcha\CaptchaAction',
'fixedVerifyCode' => YII_ENV_TEST ? 'testme' : null,
],
'hello-world' => [
'class' => 'frontend\controllers\site\HelloWorldAction',
],
];
}
public function actionIndex() {
// ...
}
So you can see we've got 3 external actions and one internal one.
The first two ones, are framework's tools for Error page and Captcha generation, actually they've inspired my answer.
And the third one, is defined by us:
'hello-world' => [
'class' => 'frontend\controllers\site\HelloWorldAction',
],
So we've named the action and we created our new action class into a separate directory.
<?php
// frontend\controllers\site\HelloWorldAction.php
namespace frontend\controllers\site;
use yii\base\Action;
class HelloWorldAction extends Action {
public function run($planet='Earth') {
return $this->controller->render('hello-world', [
'planet'=>$planet,
]);
}
}
And last, our view:
<?php
// frontend\views\site\hello-world.php
/* #var $this yii\web\View */
use yii\helpers\Html;
$this->title = 'Hello world page';
?>
<h1>Hello world!</h1>
<p>We're on planet <?php echo Html::encode($planet); ?></p>
And seeing it in action:
Update
After posting the answer I realized that maybe you could benefit from another technique also.
The previous answer is good if you want to do just that: Extract actions into individual files.
But, if your application will be of certain size, maybe you should consider using Modules.
You can create them manually or generate them with Gii:
And once generated, include it in your config:
<?php
......
'modules' => [
'profile' => [
'class' => 'frontend\modules\profile\Module',
],
],
......
Modules do just that, group application logic into one directory, controllers, models, views, components, etc.
Two more tips:
Now to access your module, simply visit http://www.your-site.local/profile/default/index, as you can see, it goes like module/controller/action.
And if you want to generate links to actions inside modules, you would do:
<?php
echo Url::to([
'profile/default/index',
'param'=>'value',
]);
?>
Again as you can see we're using module/controller/action as the route.
Last thing, if you're inside a module, let's say profile/picture/edit, and you want to link to Contact page from SiteController, you would do:
<?php
echo Url::to([
'//site/contact',
'param'=>'value',
]);
?>
Note the double slash // at the beginning of the route. Without it, it will generate the url to the current module profile/site/contact.

How to set a value to $_SERVER['var'] on a functional testing?

I have an action to make an 'autologin' based in a id that the system gets from $_SERVER['AUTH_USER']. In my business server that value is always set for authenticated user. Now, I am trying test my autologin (and so many other things that depends the autologin to work) so I need to set some user to that global (just a string).
What I tryed
$_SERVER['AUTH_USER'] = 'someUser';
$I->amOnPage('some-route'); // this page redirects to autologin action where $_SERVER is used to get the user logged.
But when the action autologin is loaded that value is no more inside $_SERVER global and my test crashes.
What I would like to know
Where or how I can set that global value so that my page could behave normally, reading the value and just going on.
I will appreciate any help.
Thank you.
It looks like lack of proper abstraction. You should avoid accessing $_SERVER['AUTH_USER'] directly in your app and do it in at most in one place - in component which will provide abstraction for this. So you should probably extend yii\web\Request and add related method for $_SERVER['AUTH_USER'] abstraction:
class MyRequest extends \yii\web\Request {
private $_myAuthUser;
public function getMyAuthUser() {
if ($this->_myAuthUser === null) {
$this->_myAuthUser = $_SERVER['AUTH_USER'];
}
return $this->_myAuthUser;
}
public function setMyAuthUser($value) {
$this->_myAuthUser = $value;
}
}
Use new class in your config:
return [
'id' => 'app-web',
// ...
'components' => [
'request' => [
'class' => MyRequest::class,
],
// ...
],
];
And use abstraction in your action:
$authUser = explode('\\', Yii::$app->request->getMyAuthUser())[0];
In your tests you can set value using setter in MyRequest:
Yii::$app->request->setMyAuthUser('domain\x12345');
Or configure this at config level:
return [
'id' => 'app-test',
// ...
'components' => [
'request' => [
'class' => MyRequest::class,
'myAuthUser' => 'domain\x12345',
],
// ...
],
];
UPDATE:
According to slinstj comments, Codeception may loose state of request component, including myAuthUser value. In that case it may be a good idea to implement getMyAuthUser() and setMyAuthUser() on different component (for example Yii::$app->user) or create separate component for that:
return [
'id' => 'app-web',
// ...
'components' => [
'authRequest' => [
'class' => MyRequest::class,
],
// ...
],
];
For now, I am using a workaround because there is only one place where that variable value it is checked:
//Inside my action autologin:
$authUser = explode('\\', ($_SERVER['AUTH_USER'] ?? (YII_ENV_TEST ? 'domain\x12345' : 'domain\xInvalid')))[1];
The only relevant point here is YII_ENV_TEST that is true when testing. Using this I can set get an specific value that is enough to that simple test.
However I hope to see any other better idea here!
Thanks.

Having constants for all pages in Laravel

I want to have some constants to have IP, platform, browser to be placed in a single file and to be used in all views and controllers like so:
// inside app/config/constants.php
return [
'IP' => 'some ip'
];
// inside controller
echo Config::get('constants.IP');
But instead of 'some ip', I want to use Request::ip() at least or even better, to use parse_user_agent()['platform'] that its code link is here
Simply you may put something like this in your config file:
return [
'ip' => app('request')->ip()
];
I use a little customized one for my sitewise configs, for example, let's say you want to use something like this:
/**
* Get config/constants.php
*
* [
* 'person' => [
* 'name' => 'Me',
* 'age' => 1000
* ]
* ];
*/
$name = constants('person.name');
So, to achieve this you need to write a function like:
// Helpers/Common.php
function constants($key = null)
{
$constants = config('constants');
return is_null($key) ? $constants : array_get($constants, $key);
}
Now, in your composer.json file you may add the following files entry:
"psr-4": {
"App\\": "app/"
},
"files": ["Helpers/Common.php"]
Then you need to add the constants.php in config directory for example:
<?php
return [
"ip" => app('request')->ip(),
"person" => [
"name" => "Sheikh Heera",
"age" => 10000
],
];
Finally, just run composer-dump from terminal and you are done. So, if the ip key is available in the array then you may just try this:
$ip = constants('ip');
From the view (Blade), you may use following to echo out the ip:
{{ constants('ip') }}
Let's sum up the whole process:
Create a directory in your project root (or inside app if you wish) as Helpers.
Create the Common.php file in that directory and put the array (return it)
Put the constants function (given above) in the Common.php file
Add the files (given above) key in your composer.json file
Run composer-dump to update autoload files
That's it. Use the file name and helper function name that describes your domian, so instead of constants you may use for example: site or your domain name as well.
You can create (or use an existing) a service provider and in the register method use the following code:
view()->share('constants', config('constants', []));
Using share on the view helper function will share the variable over all views.
You can now access this variable in any view, for instance with blade:
{{ array_get($constants, 'ip') }}

how to set common code once in YII

i wanted to know in which file we can set common code, for example i wanted to set timezone to UTC, instead of putting same code in all controllers file is there any way to put the code once and it will be reflect in all files.
You may create your file in ''components'' folder. You can see this folder in "protected" folder.
Or you can write your code in controller.php
File path: webroot/protected/components/Controller.php
Can you please try to add the codes in bootstrap.php file
If you need to set the server time you can check here.It is a simple method
Change time zone
Use application params, ie:
// config part
return array(
// ...
'params' => array(
'myParam' => 123
)
// ...
);
// Then in app use
Yii::app()->params['myParam'] // Will return 123
You can also create your own params holder as component, ie:
// config part
'components' => array(
'myConfigs' => array(
'class' => 'ext.MyConfigs'
'myParam1' => 123,
'myParam2' => 'blah'
)
)
// Component in extensions
class MyConfigs extends CComponent
{
public $myParam1;
public $myParam2 = 'defaultValue';
}
// Then in app use it:
Yii::app()->myConfigs->myParam1 // will return 123

Using model constants in config file (CodeIgniter)

I'm new to CodeIgniter. I'm using it for my personal project.
One of the things I would like to follow is to stick to the best coding practices. One of them is DRY rule (Don't Repeat Yourself). I try to define some constants in proper model class and use them everywhere else in the code, so when it comes to a little change, it has to be done only in one place.
I have this class Hero_attributes, which has several constants, e.g.:
class Hero_attributes
{
const ID = 'id';
const NAME = 'name';
const LEVEL = 'level';
const MAG_LEVEL = 'maglevel';
const VOCATION = 'vocation';
const GENDER = 'sex';
const SPEED = 'speed'
(...)
}
I have also made a custom config file tenkai_config.php which is autoloaded. In the config array I'd like to use constants from Hero_attributes class as keys, i.e.:
$config['vocations']['default'] = array(
'hero' => array(
Hero_attributes::LAST_LOGIN => 0,
Hero_attributes::LEVEL => 1,
Hero_attributes::MAG_LEVEL => 80,
Hero_attributes::RESIDENCE => 1,
Hero_attributes::POSITION_X => 73,
Hero_attributes::POSITION_Y => 181,
Hero_attributes::POSITION_Z => 6,
(...)
)
);
However, I get Fatal error: Class 'Hero_attributes' not found in C:\wamp_new\www\yourwodb\application\config\tenkai_config.php on line 29 message.
How can I use constants in config file?
If you only need to define constants. You can define them in ./application/config/constants.php file they are available throughout the application
you need to autoload the Hero_attributes model class. probably have to do that before autoloading the config file.
sorry my previous reply got deleted by moderator because i asked a question.

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