Views | Basics Of Laravel | Laravel Tutorial

What are Views?

In Laravel, views are a crucial part of the MVC (Model-View-Controller) architecture. A view is essentially a template that is used to present data to the user. It is responsible for rendering the UI of the application. Views can be simple HTML files or can contain dynamic content generated by PHP.

Creating a View

Views in Laravel are typically stored in the resources/views directory. To create a new view, simply create a new Blade template file with the .blade.php extension. For example, to create a view named welcome, you can create a file named welcome.blade.php.

To create a view, you may use the following command:

touch resources/views/welcome.blade.php

Using Blade Syntax

Laravel uses a templating engine called Blade, which allows you to use special syntax to display data. For example, you can use curly braces to echo variables:

Here’s a simple example of a Blade view:


                    <!DOCTYPE html>

                    <html>

                    <head>

                        <title>Welcome Page</title>

                    </head>

                    <body>

                        <h1>Welcome, {{ $name }}!</h1>

                    </body>

                    </html>

In the above example, {{ $name }} will output the value of the $name variable passed from the controller.

Passing Data to Views

You can pass data to views from your controller using the view() helper function. Here’s an example controller method that passes a variable to a view:


                    public function showWelcome() {

                          $name = 'John';

                          return view('welcome', compact('name'));

                    }

In this example, the showWelcome method passes the $name variable to the welcome view.

View Composers

View composers are a great way to bind data to views when they are being rendered. You can define a view composer in the AppServiceProvider or create a separate provider for it. Here’s a simple example:


                    use Illuminate\Support\Facades\View;

                    

                    public function boot() {

                          View::composer('welcome', function ($view) {

                            $view->with('name', 'John');

                          });

                    }

This ensures that whenever the welcome view is rendered, the $name variable will always be available.

View Layouts

Laravel supports layouts, which allow you to define a common structure for your views. You can create a layout file and then extend it in your views. Here’s an example:

Layout file (layout.blade.php):


                    <!DOCTYPE html>

                    <html>

                    <head>

                        <title>My Application</title>

                    </head>

                    <body>

                        <header>Header Content</header>

                        <div>@yield('content')</div>

                        <footer>Footer Content</footer>

                    </body>

                    </html>

In your views, you can then extend this layout:

View file (welcome.blade.php):


                    @extends('layout')

                    

                    @section('content')

                        <h1>Welcome, {{ $name }}!</h1>

                    @endsection

Conclusion

Views in Laravel are powerful and flexible, allowing you to create dynamic content with ease. By utilizing Blade syntax, passing data from controllers, and using layouts, you can create robust and maintainable applications. Understanding how to work with views is essential for any Laravel developer.

Understanding Views in Laravel