Laravel 4 database actions - controller or model

Question

just started using Laravel but want to make sure I am using it correctly.

Most of my work is CMS based so read / write / update etc to a database.

An example of what I have done so far is an insertion into the DB:

On the view I have a form with a URL of 'addNewUser'.

In my routes I then do:

Route::post('addnewuser', array('uses' => 'UserController@addNewUser'));

My user controller 'addNewUser' method is (simplified):

public function addNewUser() {
    $data = Input::all();
    $rules = array(
        'username' => 'required|alpha_dash|max:16|unique:users,username',
        );

    $validator = Validator::make($data, $rules, $messages);

    if ($validator->fails())
    {
        Input::flash();
        $errors = $validator->messages();
        return Redirect::to('/register')->withErrors($validator)->withInput();
    }

    $user = new User;
    $user->save();

    return Redirect::to('/login')->with('successLogin', '1');
}

Is this correct? I have read somewhere that all DB interaction should be in the model?

Likewise when reading from the DB to display a foreach for example, I do the following directly in the view:

$builds = DB::table('blogs')->orderBy('id', 'desc')->get();

if ($builds) {

    foreach ($builds as $build)
    {
      $safeURLSlug = stringHelpers::safeURLSlug($build->blogtitle);
      echo "
        // stuff
      ";
    }

} else {
    // no stuff
}

Should I be doing these sort of queries and showing of data directly in the view? or in a model / controller function etc?

Want to check im doing things 100% correct / the standard way of doing things before I get too involved.

Answer 1

I can see a few things that I personally would have done differently.

For example I usually put $rules as a class variable so it can be used in different functions related to your Users.

Have you tested your code yet? Any errors?

In your addNewUser function does it save any data? I know you have "simplified" above the code snippet but there should be $user->username = $data['username']; etc. in between creating your $user variable and running $user->save(); , so if you excluded this on purpose then I don't see anything else with your model.

In your view code, $builds = DB::table('blogs')->orderBy('id', 'desc')->get(); should be done in your controller and passed to your view like so return View::make('example', array('builds' => $builds))

I'd also change

$builds = DB::table('blogs')->orderBy('id', 'desc')->get();

to

$builds = Blog::orderby('id','desc')->get(); if you have a Blog model, otherwise your code is fine.

Answer 2

You could move:

$rules = array(
        'username' => 'required|alpha_dash|max:16|unique:users,username',
        );

to User model as static variable, and instead of:

$validator = Validator::make($data, $rules, $messages);

you could use:

 $validator = Validator::make($data, User::$rules, $messages);

But definitely you shouldn't get data from database in your View, this code should be in controller, for example:

$builds = DB::table('blogs')->orderBy('id', 'desc')->get();
return View::make('someview')->with('builds', $builds);

of course if you have Blog model, you should use here:

$builds = Blog::orderBy('id', 'desc')->get();
return View::make('someview')->with('builds', $builds);

It's also unclear what the following code does:

$safeURLSlug = stringHelpers::safeURLSlug($build->blogtitle);

but probably you could move it to your Blog model and use accessor to make the change:

public function getSafeSlugAttribute($value) {
   return stringHelpers::safeURLSlug($this->blogtitle);
}

and now your view could look like this:

@foreach ($builds as $build)
      {{{ $build->title }}} {{{ $build->safeSlug }}}
@endforeach

Answer 3

I suggest you take a look on Laravel Generators.

https://github.com/JeffreyWay/Laravel-4-Generators

Install and then run:

php artisan generate:scaffold customer

Laravel line command generator create a basic CRUD for you with controller, model, views and database migrations. That's good to safe time and keep your project with some default organization.