As a project grows it becomes advantageous to break down its monolythicalapp/ folder into smaller chunks called modules. You know, to keep things structured and stuff 😜
A typical approach is to replicate the Laravel folder structure in many folders. For Example
modules/ billing/ app/ database/ routes/ shop/ app/ database/ routes/ blog/ app/ database/ routes/But there's a small problem. Themake:something commands that we love 😍 and rely on every day for our spectacular productivity won't work with this structure 🙁
Well, fear not, my friend! Today, I'm going to show you how you can fix that problem and makemake:* commands play nicely with a modular folder structure!
And we're going to tackle thatin just 5 minutes of copying & pasting code around ⚡⚡⚡ Ready?
A new option for all Artisan commands
We want to be able to do something like this:
php artisan make:model--module billing--all InvoiceBut we don't want to rewrite all the*MakeCommand classes. So we're going to inject 💉 this snippet directly inside theartisan file:
require__DIR__.'/vendor/autoload.php';$app=require_once__DIR__.'/bootstrap/app.php';// <--- be sure to paste AFTER this line/*|--------------------------------------------------------------------------| Detect The Module Context|--------------------------------------------------------------------------|| If you wish to run a given command (usually a make:something) in the| context of a module, you may pass --module <name> as arguments. The| following snippet will swap the base directory with the module directory| and erase the module arguments so the command can run normally.|*/if((false!==$offset=array_search('--module',$argv))&&!empty($argv[$offset+1])){$modulePath=$app->basePath("modules/{$argv[$offset+1]}");$app->useAppPath("{$modulePath}/app");$app->useDatabasePath("{$modulePath}/database");unset($argv[$offset],$argv[$offset+1]);}We also need to make a small change at line 56:
$status=$kernel->handle($input=newSymfony\Component\Console\Input\ArgvInput($argv),// <---- add ($argv) here!newSymfony\Component\Console\Output\ConsoleOutput);Introducing a new service provider
Laravel issomewhat made to handle modules and packages, but we need to tell it how to discover them. For that, we're going to need a service provider:
php artisan make:provider ModuleServiceProviderFill it with:
namespaceApp\Providers;useIlluminate\Database\Eloquent\Factories\Factory;useIlluminate\Support\ServiceProvider;useIlluminate\Support\Str;classModuleServiceProviderextendsServiceProvider{/** * Register services. * * @return void */publicfunctionregister(){/** Fixing Factory::resolveFactoryName */Factory::guessFactoryNamesUsing(function(string$modelName){$namespace=Str::contains($modelName,"Models\\")?Str::before($modelName,"App\\Models\\"):Str::before($modelName,"App\\");$modelName=Str::contains($modelName,"Models\\")?Str::after($modelName,"App\\Models\\"):Str::after($modelName,"App\\");return$namespace."Database\\Factories\\".$modelName."Factory";});}/** * Bootstrap services. * * @return void */publicfunctionboot(){foreach(glob(base_path('modules/*'))?:[]as$dir){$this->loadMigrationsFrom("{$dir}/database/migrations");$this->loadTranslationsFrom("{$dir}/resources/lang",basename($dir));$this->loadViewsFrom("{$dir}/resources/views",basename($dir));}}}Register it inconfig/app.php:
/* * Application Service Providers... */App\Providers\AppServiceProvider::class,App\Providers\ModuleServiceProvider::class,// <--- here it is!App\Providers\AuthServiceProvider::class,// App\Providers\BroadcastServiceProvider::class,App\Providers\EventServiceProvider::class,App\Providers\RouteServiceProvider::class,Let's make our first module
We need the folder structure for our module (or model classes will be generated at the root ofmodules/name/app/):
mkdir-p modules/billing/app/ModelsAnd we need to updatecomposer.json as well:
{"autoload":{"psr-4":{"App\\":"app/","Database\\Factories\\":"database/factories/","Database\\Seeders\\":"database/seeders/","Modules\\Billing\\App\\":"modules/billing/app","Modules\\Billing\\Database\\Factories\\":"modules/billing/database/factories/","Modules\\Billing\\Database\\Seeders\\":"modules/billing/database/seeders/"}}}You're going to copy/paste those last three lines for each module you create down the road.
Now we can make our model and its associated classes:
php artisan make:model--module billing--all InvoiceThe result?
billing/app/ Http/Controllers/OrderController.php Models/Order.php Policies/OrderPolicy.phpbilling/database/ factories/OrderFactory.php migrations/2021_09_21_203852_create_orders_table.php seeders/OrderSeeder.phpFixing some stuff
Some make commands won't generate the correct namespace, no matter whatbase_path() we're using (for the seeder stub, it's even hardcoded 🤦). They were simply not intended to work this way. So let's fix that.
Inmodules/billing/database/factories/InvoiceFactory.php:
namespaceModules\Billing\Database\Factories;// <--- add the Modules\Billing prefixDo exactly the same inmodules/billing/database/seeders/InvoiceSeeder.php.
That's it. Now if you runphp artisan migrate, you'll see somehting like:
Migrating: 2021_09_21_203852_create_invoices_tableMigrated: 2021_09_21_203852_create_invoices_table (38.79ms)And if you try to generate an invoice using tinker:
Psy Shell v0.10.8 (PHP 8.0.9 — cli) by Justin Hileman>>> Modules\Billing\App\Models\Invoice::factory()->create()=> Modules\Billing\App\Models\Invoice {#3518 updated_at: "2021-09-21 21:32:15", created_at: "2021-09-21 21:32:15", id: 1, }Looks like everything works well in our database 👌
Congratulations, you're done!
Well, that's pretty much it. I tested all the vanillamake:* commands available, and most of them work fine (except for the database ones we had to fix, of course.)
Now if your module needs views, routes, events etc. I suggest you abuse themake:provider command.
php artisan make:provider--module billing RouteServiceProviderThanks for reading
I hope you enjoyed reading this article! If so, please leave a ❤️ or a 🦄 andconsider subscribing! I write posts on PHP, architecture, and Laravel monthly.
Disclaimer I had this idea this morning taking my shower 🚿I haven't thoroughly tested the implications of this, and I suggest you exert caution applying this method. Let me know in the comment what you found out 👍
Top comments(16)
- LocationSkopje, Macedonia
- WorkSenior PHP Contractor via Adeva
- Joined
Interesting idea, I am currently working on my personal website and blog API, and one of the things I am experimenting is something similar to what you've done here, complicating it for educational purposes mainly.
Here's the repository if you want to check it out.
It's in early development but I'll clean things up as I develop it further.
Hey Davor, thanks for your comment 👍
I see you've restructured Laravel's default folder structure entirely. How does that work for you?
- LocationSkopje, Macedonia
- WorkSenior PHP Contractor via Adeva
- Joined
It's been working great in the past when I had to work on a project from scratch and think of something modular like this one. I'll see how it will work in the near future, even though this repository won't grow too much, but I do plan to use these ideas for other side projects as well and see if it will be a good idea or not.
Good work! I've been using a laravel-modules package for a while now which works wonders. Registers new commands calledphp artisan module-make:x Name
Thanks for your comment 👍
There are a lot of packages like this out there, which one is it?
Will play with it, looks promising, the whole idea of DDD in laravel needs more development. I really like zend's approach and this article reminded me of it
Hey@saltibarsciai thanks for you comment 👍
Glad you like it. You’ll find some more articles on DDD and Laravel on my page. Don’t forget to follow me to stay updated 😎 and as always, your input & notes are welcome 🙏
You should make a package with this in order to get this in any project with just a composer require.
I love it!
Thanks for your comment 👍
Several other packages 📦 already exists to deal with Laravel modules. I want to see if people are actually interested before investing time and efforts into making another one 😉
Hey@ltsochevdev thanks for your message 👍
I'm not sureartisan updates when you upgrade the framework 🤔 Anyway at this stage it's just a hack. If I see people are interessted, I may make a package out of it.
great info, you can usegithub.com/shunnmugam/laravel-admin
for achieving modular structure with admin feature s
Thanks for your comment 🙂
I think this architectural pattern would be interesting to you:
github.com/Mahmoudz/Porto
And there is an implementation of it for Laravel:
github.com/apiato/apiato
Thanks for your comment Mohamed 👍
For further actions, you may consider blocking this person and/orreporting abuse
