Laravel Best Practice Coding Standards

Laravel is a popular PHP framework that is known for its ease of use and flexibility. In order to make your Laravel applications maintainable and easy to work with, it is important to follow best practice coding standards. Here are some of the best practice coding standards for Laravel:

PSR Standards

Laravel follows the PSR standards set by the PHP-FIG group. These standards provide guidelines for coding style, autoloading, and class file naming. By following these standards, you can ensure that your code is consistent and easy to understand.

PSR-12

PSR-12 is a coding standards specification for the PHP language. It is specifically focuses on coding style and code structure. It provides guidelines for the placement of braces, indentation, the use of whitespaces, class and method naming, and other coding conventions. By following PSR-12, developers can write PHP code consistently and legibly, making it easier to collaborate on projects and for other programmers to understand the code.

Use four spaces for indentation.

Use camelCase for variable names, function and method names

Use StudlyCaps for class names.

Use snake_case for database table and column names.


<?php

namespace App;

class UserController
{
    private $userRepository;

    public function __construct(UserRepository $userRepository)
    {
        $this->userRepository = $userRepository;
    }

    public function listUsers()
    {
        $users = $this->userRepository->getAllUsers();

        if (count($users) > 0) {
            foreach ($users as $user) {
                echo "User ID: " . $user->getId() . ", Name: " . $user->getName() . PHP_EOL;
            }
        } else {
            echo "No users found." . PHP_EOL;
        }
    }

    public function getUserById(int $userId)
    {
        $user = $this->userRepository->getUserById($userId);

        if ($user !== null) {
            echo "User ID: " . $user->getId() . ", Name: " . $user->getName() . PHP_EOL;
        } else {
            echo "User not found." . PHP_EOL;
        }
    }
}

example of PSR-12 in UserController.php

Code Organization

Laravel provides a clear and organized structure for organizing your code. It is important to follow this structure to make your code easy to navigate and understand. Here are some examples of how to organize your code in Laravel:

Place models in the app/Models directory.

Place controllers in the app/Http/Controllers directory.

Place views in the resources/views directory.

Place routes in the routes directory.

Variable Names

Variable names should be descriptive and should reflect the purpose of the variable. Avoid using vague or generic variable names. By using descriptive variable names, you can make your code more understandable and less error-prone. Here are some examples of good variable names:

$user instead of $u

$post instead of $p

$commentCount instead of $c

Function and Method Names

Function and method names should be descriptive and should describe what the function or method does. Avoid using vague or generic function and method names. By using descriptive function and method names, you can make your code more understandable and less error-prone. Here are some examples of good function and method names:

getUserById instead of getUser

createPost instead of create

deleteCommentById instead of deleteComment

Comments

Comments should only be used to explain complex or unclear code. Avoid using comments to explain obvious code. By using comments effectively, you can make your code more understandable and easier to maintain. Here are some examples of good commenting practices:

Use comments to explain why something is being done, not what is being done.

Use comments to document edge cases or unusual behavior.

Avoid using comments to explain obvious code.

Testing

Testing is an important part of any software project, and Laravel makes it easy to write and run tests for your APIs. Laravel provides built-in support for testing, making it easy to write tests for your controllers, models, and routes. Here are some examples of how to write tests for your Laravel APIs:


// Test a controller method
public function testIndex()
{
    $response = $this->get('/users');

    $response->assertStatus(200);
    $response->assertJsonCount(10, 'data');
}

// Test a model method
public function testGetFullNameAttribute()
{
    $user = factory(User::class)->make([
        'first_name' => 'John',
        'last_name' => 'Doe',
    ]);

    $this->assertEquals('John Doe', $user->full_name);
}

// Test a route
public function testUsersRoute()
{
    $user = factory(User::class)->create();

    $response = $this->actingAs($user)->get('/api/users');

    $response->assertStatus(200);
    $response->assertJsonCount(1, 'data');
}

Example of testing in Laravel

By following these best practices, you can make your Laravel code more maintainable, easier to understand, and less error-prone.