Laravel 4 : trying to get variable from same page - php

Question

I'm new to Laravel and I'm getting an error which I think has more to do with logic than anything else but I can't quite seem to grasp how to overcome it.
So, I have a page with a simple form to search for a particular string in my database. But I want to have the result show up on the same page.
Here's what I have so far:
This is my Route.php:
Route::get('/', 'HomeController#index');
Route::post('find', 'HomeController#find');
This is my HomeController:
public function index()
{
return View::make('index');
}
public function search()
{
return View::make('index');
}
public function find()
{
$match = Input::get('find');
if($match) {
$results = Book::where('title', 'like', '%'.$match.'%')
->orWhere('author', 'like', '%'.$match.'%')
->get();
return View::make('index', array('results', $results));
} else {
return Redirect::to('/')->with('flash_error', 'No string added!');
}
}
And my View (index.blade.php):
{{ Form::open(array('url' => 'find', 'method' => 'POST')) }}
{{ Form::text('find', '', array('class' => 'search-query', 'placeholder' => 'Search')) }}
{{ Form::submit('Submit', array('class' => 'btn btn-info')) }}
{{ Form::close() }}
#if (Session::has('flash_error'))
{{ Session::get('flash_error') }}
#endif
#foreach ($results as $result)
{{$result->title}}
#endforeach
(eventually the foreach will be replaced by some ajax loading to display each result)
And the error says "undefined variable: results" and shows the foreach.
I get why that error shows up since on the first pass to this page the results haven't been loaded yet but how can I overcome this? I really want the data to be shown on the same page without having to go to another page to display them.
Like I said, I think this is mostly logic related (although I'm very new to Laravel so it might be that too)
Any help would be greatly appreciated !

Answer 1

you need to pass an associative array as your second param of the make method
return View::make('index', array('results' => $results);

Answer 2

The problem here is that in your use of index.blade.php in multiple controllers, you forgot which controllers provide which variables (and as a result, which variables may be omitted).
When you request / (HomeController#index), index.blade.php is rendered, but since no $results are passed to the view, you see the Undefined Variable warning. This is not a problem in HomeController#find, because you define $results. To combat this, you'll need to do something along the lines of an isset() check on $results before you foreach over it. Like so:
#if(isset($results))
#foreach ($results as $result)
{{$result->title}}
#endforeach
#endif
Your logic may vary based on your page's layout (you might want to add an else and display some alternate placeholder content).
Also, if abstracting the call to View::make() with $results into index_gen() isn't keeping your code DRY, then I'd suggest replacing it in find() with the call to View::make().