Laravel extend Form class - php

Question

I'm trying to extend the Form class in L4.1 but I seem to be missing something. My file is named FormBuilder.php based on the API and is saved in app/libraries/extended/FormBuilder.php.
<?php namespace Extended;
class FormBuilder extends \Illuminate\Html\FormBuilder {
/**
* Create a text input field.
*
* #param string $name
* #param string $value
* #param array $options
* #return string
*/
public function text($name, $value = null, $options = array())
{
$options = $options + array('id'=>"field-{$name}");
return $this->input('text', $name, $value, $options);
}
}
This is actually the first time I've tried extending a core class in Laravel. I can't seem to put my finger on how to properly extend core classes like this Form class.
Edit:
I added "app/libraries/extended" to my composer.json file and ran both composer.phar update and composer.phar dump-autoload but it still seemed to be using the core class instead of my extended one. What am I forgetting to do?

Answer 1

To extend/swap a Laravel core class, you can create a Service Provider:
File: app/App/Libraries/Extensions/FormBuilder/FormBuilderServiceProvider.php
<?php namespace App\Libraries\Extensions\FormBuilder;
use Illuminate\Support\ServiceProvider as IlluminateServiceProvider;
use App\Libraries\Extensions\FormBuilder\FormBuilder;
class FormBuilderServiceProvider extends IlluminateServiceProvider {
/**
* Indicates if loading of the provider is deferred.
*
* #var bool
*/
protected $defer = true;
/**
* Register the service provider.
*
* #return void
*/
public function register()
{
$this->app->bindShared('formbuilder', function($app)
{
$form = new FormBuilder($app['html'], $app['url'], $app['session.store']->getToken());
return $form->setSessionStore($app['session.store']);
});
}
/**
* Get the services provided by the provider.
*
* #return array
*/
public function provides()
{
return array('formbuilder');
}
}
Create a Facade for it:
File: app/App/Libraries/Extensions/FormBuilder/FormBuilderFacade.php
<?php namespace App\Libraries\Extensions\FormBuilder;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Facade as IlluminateFacade;
class FormBuilderFacade extends IlluminateFacade {
/**
* Get the registered name of the component.
*
* #return string
*/
protected static function getFacadeAccessor() { return 'formbuilder'; }
}
This would be your namespaced service class:
File: app/App/Libraries/Extensions/FormBuilder/FormBuilder.php
<?php namespace App\Libraries\Extensions\FormBuilder;
use \Illuminate\Html\FormBuilder as IlluminateFormBuilder;
class FormBuilder extends IlluminateFormBuilder {
public function text($name, $value = null, $options = array())
{
$options = $options + array('id'=>"field-{$name}");
return $this->input('text', $name, $value, $options);
}
}
Open app/config/app.php and your Service Provider to the list
'App\Libraries\Extensions\FormBuilder\FormBuilderServiceProvider',
And replace Laravel's Form alias with yours
'Form' => 'App\Libraries\Extensions\FormBuilder\FormBuilderFacade',
To test I created a router like this:
Route::any('test', function() {
return e(Form::text('first_name'));
});
And it gave me this result:
<input id="field-first_name" name="first_name" type="text">