june-presentation

One of our presentations, June Edition™

Getting started

composer install  # to install dependencies
make develop      # to concat assets and start the server

How this works

Once the PHP server is running you can visit localhost:8000 and the current presentation should show up. Internally here's how that page gets rendered:

The request goes to showSlides method on the SlideController (in the src directory)
The SlideController gets a glob of all .md or .html files within subdirectories within the /slides directory. So /slides/topic/foo.md is included but /slides/bar.md is not
If the slide is an HTML file, it just gets the contents of it. If the slide is Markdown (.md) file it renders it through Parsedown first
The slides each get rendered inside an article tag with a class of .slide
deck.js takes those slides and, with the help of some included CSS and other JS (a lot of other JS, actually) turns them into a presentation

Tips

Nested slides

That cool gradually rendering trick for lists or whatever is accomplished via nested slides. Simply create a .html file and do something like this:

<h2>Tagline</h2>
<ul>
    <li class="slide"><h4>First list item</h4></li>
    <li class="slide"><h4>Second list item</h4></li>
    <li class="slide"><h4>The h4s are optional</h4></li>
</ul>

The important part here is not the ul, but the .slide class.

Ordering

PHP's glob function kind of orders the slides. For now the easiest way to handle this is just to prefix each of your files with a number (e.g. 00_intro.md) and control the order that way. I'm hesitant to add anything more complex like an index file or a manifest, but if anyone thinks it's important I'll consider it.

Assets

Assets are concatenated by a superior ghetto script, build.php, in the root folder.

Possible topic ideas

Constructing a SQL query w/ joins => tested

To join is literally join two table selections together for one query Such a selection could lead to redundancy as every permutation is given. However, joining tables based on a condition allows us to specify a complex selection

In addition to the already available syntactic sugar, the advantage to the Database Query Builder is that it returns an array collection of objects. Objects that are readily available to use in your application. It persisted the database through a gateway and rendered the object from a factory.

Comparing two dates => tested

// regular PHP
$then = new DateTime("July 4th, 2014");
$now  = new DateTime();

$diff = $then->diff($now, true);

echo $diff->format("%y years, %m months, %d days");

// Laravel
echo Carbon::now()->diffForHumans(Carbon::parse("July 4th, 2014"));

Doing template inheritance (i.e. not repeating <!DOCTYPE>, <head>, etc.)

Master pages are best used when we want to avoid repetitions in our code. We can create a simple default master by creating a layouts folder with a default or master item. As your project grows larger, obviously we would want to separate other master files. In a sense, they are a default template that can be inherited by other sections of content that can then be extended.

<!-- app/views/partials/master.blade.php -->
<html lang='en'>
<head>
    <meta charset='UTF-8' />
    <title>Laravel Developers</title>
</head>
<body>
    <div class='container col-md-6 col-md-offset-3'>
        @yield('content')
    </div>
    @if ($projects)
        @yield('js')
    @endif
</body>
</html>

@extends('partials.master')

@section('content')
    <h1>Projects due for {{ date('Y') }}</h1>
    @if(isset($projects))
        @foreach($projects as $project)
            <h3>Project: {{$project->project_name}}</h3>
            <p>Due Date: {{$project->due_date}}</p>
        @endforeach
    @else
        <p>All finished!</p>
    @endif
@stop

Loading files and classes automatically
"Pretty" urls (without .php, GET params w/out ?, etc.)
Simple routing
Database migrations (reversable)

Migrations allow us to version control our database. This entails a full creation and rollback for every single database event. To handle migrations we first call: php artisan migrate:install. This will create a migration table to keep track of all migrations used. Every migration file that is made will contain a version number associated with a time stamp.

To create a migration file in our database, we call: php artisan migrate:make create_developers_table. Note how the command describes the action that our database will handle. Inside our CreateProjectsTable object, we have two methods: up and down. The up function is responsible for migrating columns to a designated table. Down is what action to take when we rollback. call php artisan migrate:rollback.

<?php

use Illuminate\Database\Migrations\Migration;
use Illuminate\Database\Schema\Blueprint;

class CreateProjectsTable extends Migration {

    public function up()
    {
        Schema::create('projects', function(Blueprint $table)
        {
            $table->increments('id');
            $table->string('project_name')->unique;
            $table->string('developer_id');
            $table->dateTime('due_date');
            $table->timestamps();
        });
    }

    public function down()
    {
        Schema::drop('projects');
    }

}

Functional testing (simulating HTTP requests)
Simple CRUD for simple models using REST
- Blade Forms
- Redirecting to routes

REST is simply cleaning your URI request into elements that are organized and easy to understand. REST allows you to create, read, update, and delete data. Sound familiar? Yes, CRUD. CRUD is used within REST to persist the database in response to a transaction. The main difference is a RESTful design allows us to keep our requests and responses organized. To take advantage of REST we will register a resource within our app/routes.php. By taking advantage of an HTTP Transport Layer, that is a controller, we can persist the database in a RESTful manner.

// @param URI request group, controller
// Why resource and not controller, we want to explicitly define our REST
// methods with no assumptions. Combats an implicit design from Code Igniter
Route::resource('developers', 'DevelopersController');

The following resource will register a proper route for a URI request. This includes indexing, creating, storing, showing, editing, updating, putting, and destroying. These are HTTP verbs that handle our CRUD functionality. Artisan allows you to see these associations via php artisan routes:

URI	Name	Action
GET\HEAD developers	developers.index	DevelopersController@index
GET\HEAD developers/create	developers.create	DevelopersController@create
POST developers	developers.store	DevelopersController@store
GET\HEAD developers/{developers}	developers.show	DevelopersController@show
GET\HEAD developers/{developers}/edit	developers.edit	DevelopersController@edit
PUT developers/{developers}	developers.update	DevelopersController@update
PATCH developers/{developers}	developers.update	DevelopersController@update
DELETE developers/{developers}	developers.destroy	DevelopersController@destroy

Many developers get mixed up with PUT and PATCH. PUT is updating an entire entry whereas PATCH is replacing a section of data --not the whole thing.

Our first controller method, index, is primarily concern with querying the database and returning an object collection of developers. Thanks to the Eloquent ORM, we can do so with ease. Notice that we send through the view an array containing the object collection. Our view can then process this data and display it via Blade templating.

<?php

class DevelopersController extends \BaseController {

public function index()
{
	$developers = Developer::all();
	return View::make('developers.index', compact('developers'));
}

Our second controller method will return a form that will allow us to create a new developer

public function create()
{
	return View::make('developers.create');
}

Our third controller method will create a new instance of the Developer model. This model has access to Eloquent properties. We will assign the main attributes of a Developer model from the Input facade. With Input, we can explicitly define the assignment of properties. We save the instance to which then stores the value as a new entity in the database. We clean our headers and redirect back to our developers index page.

public function store()
{
	$developer = new developer;
	$developer->first_name = input::only("first_name");
	$developer->last_name = input::only("last_name");
	$developer->save();

	return redirect::route('developers.index');
}

Alternatively, you may want to take advantage of Mass Assignment. The advantage of mass assignment is the ability to easily bind data to an entity --no matter the scale of inputs.

Developer::create(Input::all());

Be sure to create a blacklist or whitelist in your models to defend against Mass Assignment Vulnerability.

<?php

class Developer extends Eloquent {
	protected $fillable = ['first_name', 'last_name'];
}

Our fourth controller method will grab an identifier from our URI and use it as a parameter to find a developer and then return that specific developer to a view.

public function show($id)
{
	$developer = Developer::findOrFail($id);
	return View::make('developers.show', compact('developer');
}

Our fifth controller method will grab an identifier from our URI and specific action. In this example, we want to edit a developer with a certain identity. REST allows a clean and explicit URI. We find the developer base on that identity and display a view with a form to edit out entity.

public function edit($id)
{
	$developer = Developer::findOrFail($id);
	return View::make('developers.edit', compact('developer');
}

We can use form-model binding to bind a model's current instance variables to a form. That is, list the current values of a model in input tag values.

@section('content')
	{{ Form::model($developer, ['method' => 'PATCH', 'route' =>
	['developers.update', $developer->id]]) }}
		<div>
			{{ Form::label('first_name', 'First Name:') }}
			{{ Form::text('first_name') }}
		</div>
		<div>
			{{ Form::label('last_name', 'Last Name:') }}
			{{ Form::text('last_name') }}
		</div>
		<div>
			{{ Form::submit('Update Developer') }}
		</div>
@stop

Our sixth controller method takes advantage of spoofing a PATCH action. That is updating a section of data. Once we edit our form, we can then update our current developer object by grabbing a current model from persistence, fill-in the new attributes, and save them. Notice we redirect back using that original identifier, we can now view our changes immediately

public function update($id)
{
	$developer = Developer::findOrFail($id);
	$developer->fill(Input::all());
	$developer->save();

		return Redirect::route('developers.show', ['id' => $id]);
	}

Our seventh, and final controller, will remove a developer from storage. We first find the user base on their identity. Then we delete the entity from persistence. That simple. We redirect back to the developers index to see our current list of developers.

 */
public function destroy($id)
{
	$developer = Developer::findOrFail($id);
	$developer->delete();

	return Redirect::route('developers.index');
	}

JSON responses (headers too)
Redirecting

A redirect is a special type of response object which redirects the flow of the application to another route. With Laravel, redirecting couldn't be easier. We have the option to redirect using a route resource, a named route, or even a controller action:

// Redirect to a route
return Redirect::to('developer/login');

// Redirect to a named route
return Redirect::to('login');

// Redirect to a Controller action
return Redirect::action('DevelopersController@index');

The ability to redirect comes with the ease of use that Laravel offers internally. Behind the scenes, Laravel will handle your redirect in addition to keeping your headers clean. Think F5 on a POST. In addition to this, you can easily pass through session data through flash:

return Redirect::to('developer/login')->with('message', 'Login Failed');

CSRF tokens
Authentication (password hashing, encryption)

Authentication is absolutely essential in any application that requires private, but moderated, user interaction. The most well known application of authentication is login a user for an interactive session.

Laravel's Authentication facade allows for easy authentication and session creation. However, before we go through the process of authenticating a user, we need an entity with a password that has been hashed. Password hashing is essential in keeping your database credentials secure and difficult to compromise. Let's use our database seeder to demonstrate how easy it is to hash a password:

<?php

use \Developer;

class DeveloperTableSeeder extends Seeder {

	public function run()
	{
		Developer::truncate();

		Developer::create([
			'email'		 => 'ciaran@ciarandowney.com',
			'username'	 => 'ciarand',
			'password'   => Hash::make('1234'),
		]);
	}
}

// Alternatively, if you were creating an account via form:
Developer::create([
	'username'   => Input::only('username'),
	'email'      => Input::only('email'),
	'password'   => Hash::make(Input::only('password')),
]);

password
'$2y$10$pTfWG6LZoSU4P86Ksw3SMuabv.g92Z75RMa8cO98llVYr8AZvZJ12'

Notice how easy it is to generate a random key, hash it, salt it, and much more, for a proper encryption. Now that we generated a developer account with a hashed passoword, let's authenticate it for a application session.

Wihin our route, we will register a login and logout route that will use our Session Controller to automate a user's life-cycle. We register a resource to combat any other requests in our URI that may be made. Remember, it always good to be explicit versus allowing implicit request. We also include a developer admin section to simulate a moderated view.

Route::get('login', 'SessionsController@create');
Route::get('logout', 'SessionsController@destroy');

Route::resource('sessions', 'SessionsController');

Route::get('projects', function()
{
	return 'List of Super Secret Projects';
})->before('auth');

Notice we apply a before filter. This filter will check to see if a user is a guest. By default, a user who has not logged-in, is a guest. We then redirect the user to a login route. Else, we can safely come to the deduction that the user is a developer and therefore can see the projects view.

Route::filter('auth', function()
{
    if (Auth::guest())
    {
		return Redirect::guest('login');
    }
});

Within our Session Controller, we will be primarily concern with login and logout. Our create method will check to see if a user is authenticated, if they are, then they can be redirected to the projects view. Else, we will return a developer login view.

public function create()
{
	if (Auth::check()) return Redirect::to('/projects');
	return View::make('developers.login');
}

Once we submit our form for login, our store method will attempt to login the user base on their credentials provided. Notice we explicitly define which inputs to use. We then return a greeting to the developer to simulate a successful login. If the attempt failed, we can redirect back with the input and a flash message.

public function store()
{
	if (Auth::attempt(Input::only('email', 'password'))) {
		return "Get to work, " . Auth::user()->username . "!";
	}
	return Redirect::back()->with('message', 'Invalid
	credentials')->withInput();
}

Finally, to logout a user, we use the destroy method to destroy the current login session.

public function destroy()
{
	Auth::logout();
	return Redirect::home()->with('message', 'Logged out');
}

With a few basic methods, the Auth facade offers an easy and natural way to authenticate user. No longer do you have to concern yourself with writing an authentication module for your users. Like many things in Laravel, it just works.

The IoC Container and Dependency Injection

To really thrive as a Laravel Developer, it's important to know about Laravel's IoC Container and how it allows us to more easily use Dependency Injection.

The Inversion of Control container is a powerful tool for managing class dependencies. These dependencies allow the developer to easily bind an interface to a concrete example and thus manage class dependencies. At it's most simple term, it defines how our application should implement a class or interface. As Taylor Otwell expressed, "an IoC container is simply a convenience mechanism for achieving the software design pattern: dependency injection.

Laravel's Illuminate\Foundation\Application class ties all of Laravel together. It offers us the ability to access our class with attributes and methods like an array. In turn, this flexibility is what allows for Illuminate packages to interact with each other.

Why should we use Dependency Injection? If we look at an earlier example:

class DevelopersController extends \BaseController {

/**
 * Display a listing of the developers
 * GET /developers
 *
 * @return Response
 */
public function index()
{
	$developers = Developer::all();
	return View::make('developers.index', compact('developers'));
}

While this code is concise, we are unable to test it without hitting the database. In other words, the Eloquent ORM is tightly coupled to our controller. We have no way to use or test this controller without also using the entire Eloquent ORM. This code also violates Single Responsibility. Our controller knows too much! Controller do not need to know where data comes from, but only how to access it. That is why its an HTTP transport layer, not the force behind persistence. The controller does not have to know that the data is available via MySQL, but only that is available somewhere.

The bulk of a monitor's functionality is independent of the cable. The cable is just a transport mechanism like HTTP is a transport mechanism for your applications. We don't want clutter our controller with application logic.

To solve this problem, we will use dependency injection with the aid of the Inversion of Control container:

interface DeveloperRepositoryInterface
{
	public function all();
}

class DBDeveloperRepository implements DeveloperRepositoryInterface
{
	protected function all()
	{
		return Developer::all();
	}
}

class DevelopersController extends \BaseController {

	protected $developers;

	public function __construct(DeveloperRepositoryInterface $developers)
	{
		$this->developers = $developers;
	}

	public function index()
	{
		$developers = $this->developers->all();
		return View::make('developers.index', compact('developers'));
	}
}

App::bind('OC\Repositories\DeveloperRepositoryInterface',
	'OC\Repositories\DBDeveloperRepository');

// Sometimes you may wish to resolve only one instance of a given class
// throughout your entire application.

App::singleton('OC\Repositories\DeveloperRepositoryInterface',
'OC\Repositories\DBDeveloperRepository');

// Or you may wish to pass through an already existing instance
App::singleton('OC\Repositories\DeveloperRepositoryInterface', $developer);

Why would we want to specify an interface as a dependency instead of a concrete example? We want to because any class dependency given to the constructor to be a subclass of an interface. In this way, we can change implementation at will without effecting other portions of our application. This encourages polymorphism. An interface can have multiple implementations. In addition, Interfaces are helpful in the design phase of building a component.

Artisan

Artisan contains a number of useful commands to provide shortcuts or additional functionality to the framework. It is driven by the powerful Symfony Console component.

A few helpful commands we will look at include: migrate, tinker, serve. To see all commands, just run php artisan from the root directory of your Laravel application. As you can see, there are a handful of commands with additional options to take advantage.

The easiest way to create a migration in Laravel is to use the artisan migrate command. No longer are we subjected to building our schema manually. To create a migration for a projects table, we run: php artisan migrate:make create_projects_table. Laravel will generate a new migration template within the app/database/migrations directory. The file will be named after your command and a time stamp.

After you have build your migration object with your bi-directional options. What goes up, must come down. It is now time to install a migration table to keep track of all your migrations in the database. We can do this with php artisan migrate:install. Now we are ready to run through our migrations, building each table and column as specified in our migrations folder. We can do so by calling php artisan migrate. And just like that, we have a version controlled database that keeps track of current tables.

What if we wanted to rollback the last database migration? No problem, we call php artisan migrate:rollback.

What if I want to reset the entire database so nothing was migrated? We can call php artisan migrate:reset.

I want to add a due date column to the project's table. We can use the following command: `php artisan migrate:make add_due_dates_to_projects_table --table=projects

Laravel offers a low-barrier to entry. However, there are times where you may want to interact with the framework and tinker with its components. Artisan's tinker command offers a REPL solution for testing and understanding your code. It truly allows you to interact with your application. To run tinker, just call: php artisan tinker

Use Artisan tinker to test models and helper methods.

vagrant@homestead:~/code/june-presentation$ php artisan tinker
[1] > $project = Project::first();
// object(Project)(
//   'incrementing' => true,
//   'timestamps' => true,
//   'exists' => true
// )
[2] > echo $project;
{"id":"1","project_name":"Laravel
Presentation","developer_id":"1","due_date":"2014-07-04
07:14:36","created_at":"2014-06-25 07:14:36","updated_at":"2014-06-25
07:14:36"}
[3] > $project->updated_at;
// object(Carbon\Carbon)(
//   'date' => '2014-06-25 07:14:36',
//   'timezone_type' => 3,
//   'timezone' => 'UTC'
// )

Learning Laravel

Perhaps one of the strongest aspects of the Laravel is its own community of developers. I can't stress how many times I needed help with some aspect of Laravel or PHP development, and the community was right there, ready to help. If you are serious about delving into the world of Laravel and improving your PHP experience, this community rocks!

Your first go-to resource for learning laravel is its documentation: Laravel Docs. Now, If we can be a bit bias, the documentation is very clean. In many ways, it reflects Laravel's expressive, elegant syntax. I find myself constantly going back to the documentation for clarification and updates on the latest Laravel release. If you need API information on Laravel and its components, check out the newly released, searchable documentation, from devdocs. The biggest benefit using devdocs is that you'll find hidden gems and features from within the properties of these many Objects.

How many here use IRC? If you are a developer and are not taking advantage of Internet Relay chat, you are missing out! Taylor Otwell from the onset of Laravel wanted to encourage growth and development in Laravel, it couldn't be possible without developers like us. Go on #laravel. There you will find active members in the community who are always willing to offer help -many are from around the world.

StackOverflow has 6,775 Laravel 4 associated tags listed as of 10:00am this morning.

Packagist reports 1.57 Million downloads thus far.

Laracon has a dedicated convention: Laracon 2014 NYC and Laracon 2014 Amsterdam

But that is only the start. Jeffrey Way became a huge supporter of Laravel and an overall advocate for the PHP community. One of the biggest contributions has been Laracasts. Laracasts is netflix for developers. It features up-to-date and concise screencasts on developing software for the web. With hundreds of videos to offer, there is a video for every level of experience.

Leanpub offers some cool books: So there is a few quality books I bought that I think will improve your Laravel development:

Laravel: Code Bright by Dayle Rees. Laravel: From Apprentice To Artisan by Taylor Otwell. Build APIs You Won't Hate by Phil Sturgeon. Laravel Testing Decoded by Jeffrey Way. Implementing Laravel by Chris Fidao. Laravel 4 Cookbook by Christopher Pitt and Taylor Otwell.

Podcast are amazing on your off time --I like to listen to them while working out. Two that relate to Laravel and PHP development as a whole are: Laravel.io Podcast featuring the best of the best in Laravel, news, and developer's questions! PHP Town Hall for a good time in the current events of the PHP world.

As you can see, there is a lot to digest. Pick a route and stay active daily on Laravel. Only with persistence and hard work can you master the eloquence of Laravel.

Quotes

Every class should have a single responsibility, and that responsibility should be entirely encapsulated by the class.

— Taylor Otwell

Dependency Injection" is a 25-dollar term for a 5-cent concept. [...] Dependency injection means giving an object its instance variables. [...].

— Martin Fowler

Author Blurbs

The PHP world has been rocked by an explosion of new frameworks, best practices, coding guidelines, and more database management tools than you can shake a stick at. Laravel, especially, seems to be one of the biggest trends in PHP right now. But what benefit does this new framework actually bring to the table?

Your hosts Ciaran Downey and Justin Page will be discussing some of the common problems that you as a developer might experience and how to solve them both within a framework like Laravel and in vanilla PHP.

Ciaran Downey has been developing in PHP for over 3 years, and he's only had 2 brain aneurysms in that whole time. He occasionally blogs at ciarand.me and frequently codes at github.com/ciarand.

Justin Page (@KLVTZ on both Twitter and GitHub) is a passionate student of PHP, always willing to learn and share that knowledge with others. He's currently earning his Computer Science degree at UCI.

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
Latest commit History 144 Commits
app		app
bootstrap		bootstrap
dist @ 53f6a78		dist @ 53f6a78
public		public
slides		slides
src		src
.editorconfig		.editorconfig
.gitattributes		.gitattributes
.gitignore		.gitignore
.gitmodules		.gitmodules
LICENSE		LICENSE
Makefile		Makefile
README.md		README.md
artisan		artisan
build.php		build.php
composer.json		composer.json
composer.lock		composer.lock
phpunit.xml		phpunit.xml
server.php		server.php

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