AlphaWidget — Widgets For Laravel 5

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This is a very simple, easy to use Widget manager for Laravel 5

Installation

First, install the package via Composer.

$ composer require breda/laravel-alpha-widget

in the config/app.php file, add the Service Provider

	'providers' => [
		// Other providers...
		'BReda\AlphaWidget\ServiceProvider',
	]

Then, register the alias :

	'aliases' => [
		// Other aliases...
		'AlphaWidget' => 'BReda\AlphaWidget\Facades\AlphaWidget',
		// Of course, you can name the alias to whatever you want.
		// ex:
		// 'Widget' => 'BReda\AlphaWidget\Facades\AlphaWidget',
	]

And, lastly... publish the AlphaWidget configuration file to your config directory:

$ php artisan vendor:publish

And you're ready to use AlphaWidget!

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Walk Through

Now, when I said that this is a simple Widget manager, I meant it! It's as simple as registering a widget alias, and it's class inside the configuration file. Like this :

	'widgets' => [
		// Other widgets...
		'myRecentUsersWidget' => 'RecentUsers',
	]

One note to take here before we move on, is that I'am only referencing the class name, not the complete namespace. And that's what the namespace field in the config/alphaWidget.php file is here for.

To shorten class names, put your desired namespace in the config file, just make sure that all of your widget classes declare that namespace, that's all!

And then, calling the widget is as simple as :

	AlphaWidget::render('myRecentUsersWidget');
	
	// Or, a much better way:
	AlphaWidget::myRecentUsersWidget();

Now, what does that RecentUsers look like, I hear you say! It's a simple class implementing the AlphaWidget Contract (interface), stating that it must have the render method. That method, is responsible of rendering the widget contents.

<?php namespace App\Widgets;

use BReda\AlphaWidget\Contracts\AlphaWidget as WidgetContract;

class RecentUsers implements WidgetContract
{

   /**
    * Render the Widget
    *
    * @return string
    */
   public function render(){
		return "Hello from the widget!";
   }

}

One note to take here! Is that the render method, should return the contents, and NOT echo them out! Remember! No echo! Just return.

Another note

Passing Arguments To Widget Calls

You can of course, pass arguments to widget calls. Like this for example:

	AlphaWidget::render('myRecentUsersWidget', [5]);
	
	// Or, a much better way:
	AlphaWidget::myRecentUsersWidget(5);

And then in your class:

<?php namespace App\Widgets;

use BReda\AlphaWidget\Contracts\AlphaWidget as WidgetContract;

class RecentUsers implements WidgetContract
{
	/**
	 * How much should we limit the displayed users.
	 *
	 * @var string
	 */
	protected $limit;

	/**
	 * Create a new RecentUsers Widget instance
	 *
	 * @return void
	 */
	public function __construct($limit)
	{
		$this->limit = $limit;
	}

   /**
    * Render the Widget
    *
    * @return mixed
    */
   public function render(){
		return "Displaying the {$this->limit} recently registerd users...";
   }

}

Now! One last thing to note! Since all widgets are resolved through the Laravel's IoC container, you can type-hint any Laravel Service to be used in your Widget class!

Practical Example

An good example, would be fetching the 5 recently registered users.

<?php namespace App\Widgets;

use App\Repositories\UsersRepository;
use BReda\AlphaWidget\Contracts\AlphaWidget as WidgetContract;

class RecentUsers implements WidgetContract
{
	/**
	 * How much should we limit the displayed users.
	 *
	 * @var string
	 */
	protected $limit;

	/**
	 * Create a new RecentUsers Widget instance
	 *
	 * @return void
	 */
	public function __construct($limit, UsersRepository $users)
	{
		$this->limit = $limit;
		$this->users = $users;
	}

   /**
    * Render the Widget
    *
    * @return mixed
    */
   public function render(){
		$users = $this->users->getRecentUsers($this->limit);

		return view('widgets.recent-users', ['users' => $users]);
   }

}

And that's it really!

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Contributing

Anything from bug fixes, improvements or anything similar! Pull requests are welcome! Just make sure to submit them to the develop branch, rather to the master branch, as this later only has production-ready code.