How to use Laravel models in an external application? - php

Question

I currently have two applications that run on the same server, under separate virtualhosts. The first is a Laravel 4 app and the second is a older PHP project that doesn't use a framework, but follows a rough MVC pattern.
I'd like to find a way to interact with and use some of the models from the Laravel app inside of the older PHP project.
Obviously it's not going to be as simple as just including the model files, as they will have various dependencies, so are there any general approaches or patterns that I should be looking at when trying to do this?

Answer 1

You can add illuminate/database to your composer.json. That way you can use database module of laravel without installing whole framework.
Read the instructions in README.md for code examples and more details.

Answer 2

Can Vural is right, you can just use these components, take a look at http://www.slimframework.com/news/slim-and-laravel-eloquent-orm.
Here are the main extracts:
INSTALLATION
First, prepare the composer.json file so it will pull down and install the Slim Framework and the Eloquent ORM. The composer.json file should look like this:
{
"require": {
"slim/slim": "*",
"illuminate/database": "*"
}
}
When this is done, run composer install to install the application dependencies.
BOOTSTRAP THE ELOQUENT ORM
Next, I tell Composer to autoload the application’s dependencies by requiring Composer’s autoload.php file.
<?php
// Autoload our dependencies with Composer
require '../vendor/autoload.php';
And now I bootstrap the Eloquent ORM and pass it my database connection information (be sure you add your own username, password, and database name).
<?php
// Database information
$settings = array(
'driver' => 'mysql',
'host' => '127.0.0.1',
'database' => '',
'username' => '',
'password' => '',
'collation' => 'utf8_general_ci',
'prefix' => ''
);
// Bootstrap Eloquent ORM
$connFactory = new \Illuminate\Database\Connectors\ConnectionFactory();
$conn = $connFactory->make($settings);
$resolver = new \Illuminate\Database\ConnectionResolver();
$resolver->addConnection('default', $conn);
$resolver->setDefaultConnection('default');
\Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model::setConnectionResolver($resolver);
Now that the Eloquent ORM is bootstrapped, I can create and use models that extend the Eloquent abstract model. This example assumes your database contains a table named books with columns title and author.
<?php
class Book extends \Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model
{
}
Extract taken from the website mentioned above, this is so if it gets removed the information still remains.
To load from a different project, you will most likely have to autoload the models with a custom autoloader. Or include the autoloader from the Laravel framework if you have dependencies within the models.