MVC Core #

MVC core is a module that contains components for transforming leaf into a full-blown MVC framework. MVC Core is used in Leaf MVC, Leaf API and skeleton. It comes with features like controllers, models, eloquent from laravel, factories and more.

Installation #

You can quickly install MVC core using composer or leaf cli.

composer require leafs/mvc-core

Or with leaf CLI:

leaf install mvc-core

Config #

Autoloader #

MVC core comes with an autoloader that uses the class names and namespaces of classes you use in your code to dynamically load classes. This saves you the trouble of having to require every file you create in your application. This is done for you by default and there's no need to initialize any class or function.

Controllers #

Leaf MVC Core comes in with two (2) controller classes. Leaf\Controller for creating controllers in web projects and Leaf\ApiController for creating controllers geared towards API development.

Models #

Leaf MVC Core comes with a base model from which all models in your leaf API, leaf MVC and skeleton apps are created. This model is directly built unto laravel's eloquent and so we'll recommend checking out laravel models for detailed documentation. Models in your app will look something like this:

<?php
namespace App\Models;

class ClassName extends Model {

}

Factories #

Factories provide a quickl way to populate your database with test information. All the functionality for doing this has been implemented in the Leaf\Factory class. To create a factory, you simply need to extend this class.

<?php

namespace App\Database\Factories;

use App\Models\User;
use Leaf\Factory;
use Illuminate\Support\Str;

class UserFactory extends Factory
{
  /**
   * The name of the factory's corresponding model.
   *
   * @var string
   */
  public $model = User::class;

  /**
   * Define the model's default state.
   *
   * @return array
   */
  public function definition()
  {
    return [
      'username' => strtolower($this->faker->firstName),
      'name' => $this->faker->name,
      'email' => $this->faker->unique()->safeEmail,
      'email_verified_at' => \Leaf\Date::now(),
      'password' => '$2y$10$92IXUNpkjO0rOQ5byMi.Ye4oKoEa3Ro9llC/.og/at2.uheWG/igi', // password
      'remember_token' => Str::random(10),
    ];
  }
}

The definition method returns the default set of attribute values that should be applied when creating a model using the factory.

As a side note, if the model property isn't defined, Leaf tries to determine the model class name from the factory name, if however, that doesn't work, an error would be thrown, and the seeding process halted.

Via the faker property, factories have access to the Faker PHP library, which allows you to conveniently generate various kinds of random data for testing.

Running your factories #

Factories are used in your seeds, so to use a factory, head over to it's corresponding Seed, eg: UserFactory would be used by the UsersSeeder. From there, you just need to initialize the Factory in the run method of your seeder. This is in 3 simple parts:

(new UserFactory)->create(20)->save();

The (new UserFactory) part initializes the factory, create() takes in a number which defines how many dummy records to generate, finally save() instantiates model instances and persists them to the database using Eloquent's save method:

// Create a single App\Models\User instance...
(new UserFactory)->save();

// Create three App\Models\User instances...
(new UserFactory)->create(3)->save();

To see the results of this, you just need to seed your database with the db:seed command.

You may override the factory's default model attributes by passing an array of attributes to the create method:

(new UserFactory)->save([
  'name' => 'Mychi',
]);

Note that if you're creating multiple records, they'll all have the same data passed into save, so it's not recommended to override save when using multiple records.

In some cases, for whatever reason, you may want to return the users generated instead of saving them in the database directly. You can do this with the get method:

$randomUsers = (new UserFactory)->create(3)->get();

Schema #

Schema is a new way to create database migrations. Typing code for migrations the regular way is quite annoying: thinking of the types of data, setting default values and other items. Schema allows you to create migration schemas based on example JSON output.

{
  "id": 1,
  "username?": "mychi.darko",
  "name": "Mychi Darko",
  "email?": "mickdd22@gmail.com",
  "email_verified_at?": "2021-07-23T16:18:35.947712157Z",
  "password": "poekojdenwjwiojweojojweoijoewoj",
  "remember_token?": "deiwoj",
  "timestamps": ""
}

This will generate a migration equivalent to this:

$table->increments('id');
$table->string('username')->nullable();
$table->string('name');
$table->string('email')->nullable();
$table->timestamp('email_verified_at')->nullable();
$table->string('password');
$table->string('remember_token')->nullable();
$table->timestamps();

Schema takes care of all the work involved and generates a migration based on sample data. This means that if you have an idea of what your database should look like, leaf will take care of the rest.

Using leaf schema #

To get started with leaf schema, simply call Leaf\Schema::build in your migration. It takes in the capsule to build your migrations with and the json schema to build.

Using the example above (users.json):

{
  "id": 1,
  "username?": "mychi.darko",
  "name": "Mychi Darko",
  "email?": "mickdd22@gmail.com",
  "email_verified_at?": "2021-07-23T16:18:35.947712157Z",
  "password": "poekojdenwjwiojweojojweoijoewoj",
  "remember_token?": "deiwoj",
  "timestamps": ""
}

user_migration.php

...
use Leaf\Schema;

class CreateUsers extends Database {
  /**
   * Run the migrations.
   *
   * @return void
   */
  public function up()  {
    Schema::build(static::$capsule, "/Schema/users.json");
  }
  ...

In this case leaf will generate a migration to the users table since our filename is users.json. Note that leaf schema will always use the filename as the table name. You can go a different route by directly pasting your json into the build method. In that case, you will need to specify a table name.

public function up()  {
  Schema::build(static::$capsule, "users", json_encode([
    ...
  ]));
}

You don't need to do anything after building your schema. Leaf will do the rest.

Globals #

Leaf MVC core comes with the most global functions in all of leaf. This includes functions for configurations, paths and other essentials in MVC applications.

• AppPaths: This is a function which holds all of the paths in your application. This is usually used by leaf, as you will be using some of the functions below.

$paths = AppPaths();

• ConfigPath: This global returns the path to your configuration folder in Leaf MVC, Leaf API or skeleton.

$dbConfigFile = ConfigPath("db.php");
// -> Config/db.php

• CommandsPath: This returns the path to your commands defined.

$command = CommandsPath("MainCommand.php");
// -> App/Commands/MainCommand.php

• ControllersPath: Path to your controllers

• DatabasePath: Path to your database files (migrations, schema, factories...)

• FactoriesPath: Path to your model factories

• HelpersPath: Path to your helpers

• LibPath: Path to your lib folder if it exists.

• MigrationsPath: Path to your mirations

• ModelsPath: Path to your models

• RoutesPath: Path to your routes

• SeedsPath: Path to your seed files

• StoragePath: Path to storage directory

• ViewsPath: Path to your view files