_BEGINNER_GUIDE.md

Beginner guide

Note: update the laravel docs references to the currently used version (see "laravel/framework" in composer.json)

The basic things you will need as a beginner:

• Controllers: app/Http/Controllers - the main functionalities of the backend
• Database:
  • Migrations: database/migrations - the database structure can be modified with migrations
  • Seeders: database/seeders, database/factories - the database can be seeded with dummy data which are set in factories
  • Read the documentation of queries to understand how to insert/update/delete data in the database. Laravel also has particular functions for inserting and updating models. The queries will mostly return Collections, which are similar to arrays but with custom functions.
• Models: app/Models - the database is mapped to php classes using Models (ORM - Object Relational Mapping). Models are the main way to interact with the database. To create Models, use php artisan make:model ModelName -a to generate the model and a corresponding controller, factory, etc. Also take a look at Relationships to define relations between Models.
• Routes: routes/web - to map the requests from the browser to controller functions
• Frontend: resources/views - the webpage is generated from these blade files. To return a webpage, use return view('path.to.view', ['additional_data' => $data, ...]);. Blade files are html codes with additional php functionalities: loops, variables, etc. Writing {{ something }} is equivalent to php's print: echo something;. When writing forms, add @csrf to the form for security reasons (without it, the request will not work). Blade files can also be nested, included, etc (eg. @include('path.to.file'))). Our front-end framework is Materialize.
• Language files: resources/lang - to translate the webpage. Use __('filename.key') in the backend and @lang('filename.key') in blades. To add variables: __('filename.key', ['variable' => 'value']), prefix the variable name with : in the language files. We translate to English and Hungarian, other languages are handled by the localization contribution model.
• Validation: It is recommended to validate every user input: for example, in the controller: $request->validate(['title' => 'required|string|max:255']);. Available validation rules.
• Debugging: log files: storage/logs/laravel.log - use Log::info('something happened', ['additional_data' => $data]) to log (also: error, warning, etc.). Alternatively, in the controllers, you can type return response()->json(...); to print something in the browser. In blades, type {{ var_dump($data) }} to display some data. It is worth to take a look at the query debugging options also.

You can use php artisan db command to enter into the database directly or php artisan tinker to get a runtime laravel evaluation tool.

Official documentations

• Laravel
• Materialize