There are many events that are fired throughout the applications lifecycle if they meet the requirements.

A current list of events fired are:

Frontend

• UserConfirmed
• UserLoggedIn
• UserLoggedOut
• UserRegistered
• UserProviderRegistered

Backend

• UserCreated
• UserDeactivated
• UserDeleted
• UserPasswordChanged
• UserPermanentlyDeleted
• UserReactivated
• UserRestored
• UserUpdated
• UserConfirmed
• UserUnconfirmed
• UserSocialDeleted
• RoleCreated
• RoleDeleted
• RoleUpdated

The event stubs are found in the app\Events directory and are registered in the EventServiceProvider using the Event Subscriber feature of Laravel.

The event listeners are found in the app\Listeners directory.

The events are fired using the Laravel event() helper throughout the application.

When the event helper is called with the event class, the objects needed to process the event are passed through, which are caught in the constructor of the Event classes themselves, and passed through to the listener as a property on the $event variable. (This is default Laravel behavior and not specific to this application).

Besides the default PHP Exception class, there is one custom exception that gets thrown called GeneralException.

This exception does nothing special except act as a way to change the default exception functionality when calling it.

Any custom exceptions live in the app\Exceptions directory.

Anytime you throw this exception, it will not display a "Whoops" error. Instead, it will take the error into a session variable and redirect the user to the previous page and display the message in a bootstrap danger alert box.

If a regular PHP Exception is thrown, it will still get caught and the default functionality will takeover.

Example order of events would be:

1. User tries to delete the administrator account.
2. Repository says this is not allowed and throws a GeneralException with the text explaining the reason.
3. The Handler class catches the exception and redirects the user back with old input.
4. A session variable called flash_danger is set with the exception text.
5. The page is rendered and a file called messages.blade.php checks for this session variable, and displays the proper bootstrap alert with the provided text.

Note: The withFlashDanger($text) is some Laravel magic that is parsed into with('flash_danger', $text). This functionality exists in many places around the Laravel Framework.

Note: In the case of the request classes, the default functionality when validation fails is to redirect back with errors:

From the Laravel Documentation:

"If validation fails, a redirect response will be generated to send the user back to their previous location. The errors will also be flashed to the session so they are available for display. If the request was an AJAX request, a HTTP response with a 422 status code will be returned to the user including a JSON representation of the validation errors."

The breadcrumb links in the backend are managed by the davejamesmiller/laravel-breadcrumbs package.

The parts to this package integrated are:

• The config\breadcrumbs.php file which tells the system which view file to use for the rendering.
• The views\backend\includes\partials\breadcrumbs.blade.php file which renders the links.
• The call to render the breadcrumbs.
• The breadcrumb files located in routes/breadcrumbs.
• The resources/views/backend/includes/partials/breadcrumbs.php file that the plugin looks for to render the links.

Whenever you add new routes to your project, you must add breadcrumb files to go along with them to have them rendered, it is not automatic. Use the existing files for reference.

The app\Http\Composers directory holds all view composers.

There are 2 composers that ship with the boilerplate:

• GlobalComposer: Variables sent to every view.
• SidebarComposer: Variables sent to views containing a sidebar.

The composer classes themselves are registered in the app\Providers\ComposerServiceProvider class.

The GlobalComposer binds the variable $logged_in_user to every view.

If the user is logged in, it will be an app\Models\Auth\User object, if they are not it will be false.

The only stock route file modified is routes\web.php

Lets look at web.php, line by line:

Route::get('lang/{lang}', 'LanguageController@swap');

The first line gets envoked anytime the user chooses a language from the language picker dropdown. The LanguageController's swap method switches the language code in the session and refreshes the page for it to take effect.

Route::group(['namespace' => 'Frontend', 'as' => 'frontend.'], function () {
    includeRouteFiles(__DIR__ . '/frontend/');
});

This section registers all of the frontend routes, such as login, register, etc.

Key Points:

• The namespaces of the routes indicate the folder structure. In the above case the routes that will be included live in routes\frontend.
• The as property prepends the value to all routes inside the closure, so in the above case all included route names will be prepended with frontend..
• The includeRouteFiles() is a helper function located in app\helpers.php and autoloaded by composer. (Learn about the helpers here). This takes all files in the specified directory and includes them in the closure so you can add new routes without having to touch the web.php routes file.

Route::group(['namespace' => 'Backend', 'prefix' => 'admin', 'as' => 'admin.', 'middleware' => 'admin'], function () {
    includeRouteFiles(__DIR__ . '/backend/');
});

All of the controllers live in the default Laravel controller location of app\Http\Controllers and follow a namespacing convention of the folders they're in.

The controllers are very clean, so there is not much to say, some key points and different sections to read about are:

• All controller methods use injected Request Classes to both validate and act as a second security check after the middleware.
• All database logic is extracted out to Repositories.
• Controllers are only comprised of CRUD methods, any other methods have been extracted to other controllers for cleanliness.
• Any data table has its own dedicated controller.
• Any data being bound or returned to views are using Laravel magic with() method just like elsewhere in the application.
  • Example: withUser($user) is converted to with('user', $user)

Laravel Boilerplate ships with 2 additional middleware out of the box.

• LocaleMiddleware
• PasswordExpires

There is also one extra middleware group:

• Middleware Groups

Any controller method throught the application that either needs validation or a security check, will have its own injected Request class.

App requests are stored in the app\Http\Request folder and their namespaces match the folder structure.

public function store(StoreUserRequest $request)
{
    $this->userRepository->create($request->only(
        'first_name',
        'last_name',
        'email',
        'password',
        'timezone',
        'active',
        'confirmed',
        'confirmation_email',
        'roles',
        'permissions'
    ));

    return redirect()->route('admin.auth.user.index')->withFlashSuccess(__('alerts.backend.users.created'));
}

class StoreUserRequest extends FormRequest
{
    /**
     * Determine if the user is authorized to make this request.
     *
     * @return bool
     */
    public function authorize()
    {
        return $this->user()->isAdmin();
    }

    /**
     * Get the validation rules that apply to the request.
     *
     * @return array
     */
    public function rules()
    {
        return [
            'first_name'     => 'required|max:191',
            'last_name'  => 'required|max:191',
            'email'    => ['required', 'email', 'max:191', Rule::unique('users')],
            'timezone' => 'required|max:191',
            'password' => 'required|min:6|confirmed',
            'roles' => 'required|array',
        ];
    }
}

Any controller method that needs to validate data or permission should use a request class for an extra layer of security.

Note: This project uses more general permissions for CRUD operations, meaning the default requests for a manage-users permission would be:

• ManageUserRequest - for any requests that do not have validation but want to assure the user can manage-users
• StoreUserRequest - for creating a user and assuring the user can manage-users
• UpdateUserRequest - for updating a user and assuring the user can manage-users

If you were to get more granular, and have separate permissions for all stages of CRUD, you may have controller methods that are injecting the following request classes:

• ViewUserRequest - auth()->can('view-users')
• StoreUserRequest - auth()->can('store-users')
• EditUserRequest - auth()->can('edit-users')
• UpdateUserRequest - auth()->can('update-users')
• DeleteUserRequest - auth()->can('delete-users')

Learn more about Laravel request classes here.

Models in Laravel Boilerplate live in the app\Models directory instead of the root for organizational purposes.

The folder structure of the Model indicates its namespace as always.

The majority of the models share the same characteristics:

• The $table property houses the table name, whether static or pulling from a config file.
• The $fillable property defines the columns that can be mass assigned. This is preferred over guarded as it is more specific.
• Some models have a $hidden property to hide certain information from being displayed, in such ways as in an API.
• Some models have a $dates property to cast certain columns as Carbon objects, such as when using the Laravel SoftDeletes trait.
• Many models have traits that extend or include other functionality, see below.

Laravel Boilerplate ships with a few Models that utilize the Notifiable trait, and in turn there are a few notifications that get sent.

• UserNeedsConfirmation - Send when a user registers and email confirmation is on.
• UserNeedsPasswordReset- Send when the user requests a password reset.

All notifications are stored in the app\Notifications directory by default.

All notifications are self-explanatory, for more information view the Laravel Documentation.

Service Providers are classes that sort of "bootstrap" your application. Laravel ships with many, there are some new ones, and some default ones have been modified.

• AppServiceProvider - Modified
• AuthServiceProvider - Untouched
• BladeServiceProvider - New
• BroadcastServiceProvider - Untouched
• ComposerServiceProvider - New
• EventServiceProvider - Modified
• ObserverServiceProvider - New
• RouteServiceProvider - Modified

Repositories are a way of extracting database logic into their own classes so you can have slim easy to read controllers.

Repositories are injected into any controller that needs them via the constructor, and are resolved out of the service container.

You do not have to use repositories, or repository/contract patterns, but it is good to learn ways to better structure your code instead of having bloated controllers.

Key Points

• Repositories extend a base repository class to get included helper methods.
• If you extend the base repository you must have a method called model() that returns the model that you will be working with.

Role/Permission control has been replaced with spatie/laravel-permission in this version of the boilerplate.

Laravel Boilerplate ships with other access features as well:

Features:

• Register/Login/Logout/Password Reset
• Third party login (Github/Facebook/Twitter/Google/Linked In/BitBucket)
• Account Confirmation By E-mail
• Resend Confirmation E-mail
• Option for Manual Account Confirmation by Admin
• Login Throttling
• Enable/Disable Registration
• Force Single Session
• Clear User Session
• Password History
• Password Expiration
• Password Exposed
• Administrator Management
  • User Index
  • Activate/Deactivate Users
  • Soft & Permanently Delete Users
  • Resend User Confirmation E-mails
  • Change Users Password
  • Create/Manage Roles
  • Manage Users Roles/Permissions
  • "Login As" User

• Configuration
• Middleware

/*
 * Application captcha specific settings
 */
'captcha' => [
    /*
     * Whether the registration captcha is on or off
     */
    'registration' => env('REGISTRATION_CAPTCHA_STATUS', false),
],

/*
 * Whether or not registration is enabled
 */
'registration' => env('ENABLE_REGISTRATION', true),

/*
 * Table names for access tables
 */
'table_names' => [
    'users' => 'users',
],

/*
 * Configurations for the user
 */
'users' => [
    /*
     * Whether or not the user has to confirm their email when signing up
     */
    'confirm_email' => env('CONFIRM_EMAIL', false),

    /*
     * Whether or not the users email can be changed on the edit profile screen
     */
    'change_email' => env('CHANGE_EMAIL', false),

    /*
     * The name of the super administrator role
     */
    'admin_role' => 'administrator',

    /*
     * The default role all new registered users get added to
     */
    'default_role' => 'user',

    /*
     * Whether or not new users need to be approved by an administrator before logging in
     * If this is set to true, then confirm_email is not in effect
     */
    'requires_approval' => env('REQUIRES_APPROVAL', false),

    /*
     * Login username to be used by the controller.
     */
    'username' => 'email',

    /*
     * Session Database Driver Only
     * When active, a user can only have one session active at a time
     * That is all other sessions for that user will be deleted when they log in
     * (They can only be logged into one place at a time, all others will be logged out)
     */
    'single_login' => true,

    /*
     * How many days before users have to change their passwords
     * false is off
     */
    'password_expires_days' => env('PASSWORD_EXPIRES_DAYS', 30),

	/*
	 * The number of most recent previous passwords to check against when changing/resetting a password
	 * false is off which doesn't log password changes or check against them
	 */
	'password_history' => env('PASSWORD_HISTORY', 3),
],

/*
* Configuration for roles
*/
'roles' => [
    /*
     * Whether a role must contain a permission or can be used standalone as a label
     */
    'role_must_contain_permission' => true,
],

/*
 * Socialite session variable name
 * Contains the name of the currently logged in provider in the users session
 * Makes it so social logins can not change passwords, etc.
 */
'socialite_session_name' => 'socialite_provider',

See BladeServiceProvider.

Laravel Boilerplate comes in many languages, each language has it's own folder as usual, the language files are very well organized and indented.

If you would like to contribute a language, please make a pull request based on the requirements.

The parts of the localization system are:

• The AppServiceProvider boot method
• The LocaleMiddleware
• The language files
• The language dropdowns

The language files try to be as organized as possible first by file name, then by keys frontend, backend, or global. Then by the 'type' they may be display, i.e. 'auth'. Please try to keep them organized if you are contributing to them on GitHub.

The resources section has the same high level folder structure as a default installation, with many new items inside:

• webpack.mix.js
• assets
• lang
• views

const mix = require('laravel-mix');

/*
 |--------------------------------------------------------------------------
 | Mix Asset Management
 |--------------------------------------------------------------------------
 |
 | Mix provides a clean, fluent API for defining some Webpack build steps
 | for your Laravel application. By default, we are compiling the Sass
 | file for the application as well as bundling up all the JS files.
 |
 */

mix.setPublicPath('public');

mix.sass('resources/sass/frontend/app.scss', 'css/frontend.css')
    .sass('resources/sass/backend/app.scss', 'css/backend.css')
    .js('resources/js/frontend/app.js', 'js/frontend.js')
    .js([
        'resources/js/backend/before.js',
        'resources/js/backend/app.js',
        'resources/js/backend/after.js'
    ], 'js/backend.js')
    .extract([
        'jquery',
        'bootstrap',
        'popper.js/dist/umd/popper',
        'axios',
        'sweetalert2',
        'lodash',
        '@fortawesome/fontawesome-svg-core',
        '@fortawesome/free-brands-svg-icons',
        '@fortawesome/free-regular-svg-icons',
        '@fortawesome/free-solid-svg-icons'
    ]);

if (mix.inProduction() || process.env.npm_lifecycle_event !== 'hot') {
    mix.version();
}

The test suite is currently comprised of over 100 tests and 500 assertions to test all of the sections in this documentation.

We will not go into detail here since they change so often, but with a fresh installation everything should pass if you have the right configurations.

To run the tests run phpunit from the command line in the root of the project.

Note: You will need to set up mail for all the tests to pass. I suggest a Mailtrap account for testing.

Flash Messages

The messages.blade.php file is included after the body of all master app layouts in this project, and takes care of displaying any errors from a session, validation, etc using bootstrap alert boxes.

If not a validation error, or message bag error, then the following session variables are supported:

• flash_success - Bootstrap alert-success box.
• flash_warning - Bootstrap alert-warning box.
• flash_info - Bootstrap alert-info box.
• flash_danger - Bootstrap alert-danger box.
• flash_message - Bootstrap alert box.

You will see these used in many controller methods, or in exception handling except they use Laravel's magic method syntax.

Magic Methods

This application makes use of Laravel's magic methods in many places, especially controllers.

For example, you may see a controller return that looks like this:

return redirect()->route('admin.auth.user.index')->withFlashSuccess(trans('alerts.backend.users.created'));

or:

return view('backend.auth.show')->withUser($user);

In both of these examples you will see a compound function call, that doesn't exist in the documentation.

• withFlashSuccess
• withUser

Laravel will convert both of these methods to a default with() method when it compiles, so both of the above examples will output the following code.

return redirect()->route('admin.auth.user.index')->with('flash_success', trans('alerts.backend.users.created'));

or:

return view('backend.auth.show')->with('user', $user);

Both methods work, but I think the magic makes it more elegant so I use that throughout.

Action Buttons

Anywhere throughout the system that there is a table that allows CRUD operations, with associated buttons, the buttons (called action buttons) are held within a trait on the model.

We use this approach to make it easy to output buttons for each resource without having duplicate markup in multiple places, plus it takes care of the entity ID's and other stuff, such as converting all delete buttons for links that trigger a form instead of a form themselves. (This uses a method included in the global javascript plugin file.)

For example the buttons to the right of the users table in the backend, are generated in this trait.

public function getShowButtonAttribute()
{
    return '<a href="' . route('admin.auth.user.show', $this) . '" class="btn btn-xs btn-info"><i class="fa fa-search" data-toggle="tooltip" data-placement="top" title="' . trans('buttons.general.crud.view') . '"></i></a> ';
}

This outputs the show button for each user row in the table with their respective ID and looks like this .

On interesting button to look at is the delete button:

public function getDeleteButtonAttribute()
{
    if ($this->id != auth()->id()) {
        return '<a href="' . route('admin.auth.user.destroy', $this) . '"
             data-method="delete"
             data-trans-button-cancel="' . trans('buttons.general.cancel') . '"
             data-trans-button-confirm="' . trans('buttons.general.crud.delete') . '"
             data-trans-title="' . trans('strings.backend.general.are_you_sure') . '"
             class="btn btn-xs btn-danger"><i class="fa fa-trash" data-toggle="tooltip" data-placement="top" title="' . trans('buttons.general.crud.delete') . '"></i></a> ';
    }

    return '';
}

Ignoring the if statement for this example, you can see that the delete button is actually a link. But that's insecure, isn't it? Actually no, take note of the data-method="delete" property of the link.

If you look at the source of the delete button you will see this:

<a data-method="delete" data-trans-button-cancel="Cancel" data-trans-button-confirm="Delete" data-trans-title="Are you sure?" class="btn btn-xs btn-danger" style="cursor:pointer;" onclick="$(this).find("form").submit();"><i class="fa fa-trash" data-toggle="tooltip" data-placement="top" title="" data-original-title="Delete"></i>
<form action="http://l5boilerplate.dev/admin/access/user/1" method="POST" name="delete_item" style="display:none">
   <input type="hidden" name="_method" value="delete">
   <input type="hidden" name="_token" value="YOUR_CSRF_TOKEN">
</form>
</a>

Because of this function, all data-method="delete" property get a form injected inside them that calls a DELETE route, it also takes care of popping up an "are you sure you want to delete?" alert box before resuming.

Note: The other data-* methods on the link take care of injecting the appropriate language into the sweetalert alert box that pops up which looks like this:

Finally each attribute trait has a last method called getActionButtonsAttribute() which concatinates all of the button methods together and displays all of the buttons at once like:

$user->action_buttons

Displays: (Actual look may vary between versions)

Note: The getActionButtonsAttribute() method is another example of Laravel magic.

Socialite

To configure socialite, add your credentials to your .env file. The redirects must follow the convention http://mysite.com/login/SERVICE. Available services are github, facebook, linkedin, bitbucket, twitter, and google. The links on the login page are generated based on which credentials are provided in the .env file.

BitBucket

You must set permissions of your OAuth consumer to at least Account: Read and Repositories: Read

Also: In order for this option to work, email must be nullable on the users table, as well as the unique email table key removed. Do this at your own risk. There is no other option I know of for now.

GitHub

No known quirks, should work as is.

Google

If you are getting an Access Not Configured error message:

Activate the Google+ API from the Google Developers Console.

Facebook

For the Given URL is not allowed by the Application error message:

1. Go to basic settings for your app
2. Select Add Platform
3. Select Website
4. Put URL in the Site URL

Linked In

r_basicprofile and r_emailaddress must be selected in Default Application Permissions.

The callback URL must be submitted under the OAuth 2.0 section.

Twitter

For Twitter to grab the user's email address for you application, it must be whitelisted as explained here: https://dev.twitter.com/rest/reference/get/account/verify_credentials

Other

If you are getting a cURL error 60 on localhost, follow these directions.

Troubleshooting

If for any reason something goes wrong, try each of the following:

Delete the composer.lock file

Run the dumpautoload command

$ composer dumpautoload -o

If the above fails to fix, and the command line is referencing errors in compiled.php, do the following:

Delete the storage/framework/compiled.php file

If all of the above don't work please report here.

Deployment

When pushing your app to production, you should make sure you run the following:

yarn prod

Compress all of you assets into a single file specified in webpack.mix.js.

Config Caching php artisan config:cache

Caches all of your configuration files into a single file.

Route Caching php artisan route:cache

If your application is exclusively using controller based routes, you should take advantage of Laravel's route cache. Using the route cache will drastically decrease the amount of time it takes to register all of your application's routes. In some cases, your route registration may even be up to 100x faster!