laravel_3v4.md

Differences Between Laravel 3 and 4

Run a server to show Laravel data (need php 5.4.x):

L3: php -S localhost:8888 -t public     (go to localhost:8888 to get to the page)
L4: php artisan serve

Route declarations:

L3: Route::get('users/(:num)', function(id){ var_dump( $id ); });
L4: Route::get('users/{id}', function(id){ var_dump( $id ); })
          ->where('id','\d+');        // regular expression, 1+ digits

Templates:

L3: Route::get('/', 'Home@index');

    Home_Controller
      public $layout='master';
      public function action_index() {
          $this->layout->content = View::make('home.index');
          (or return View::make('home.index'), with @layout('master') in index.blade.php)
   
    master.blade.php:
        <div>@yield('content')
    index.blade.php:
        @layout('master')          // if layout not specified in controller
        @section('content')
            Home Page here
        @endsection

L4: Route::get('/', 'HomeController@index');

    HomeController:
      protected $layout='master';
      public function index() {
          $this->layout->content = View::make('home.index')
          (or return View::make('home.index'), with @extends('master') in index.blade.php)
 
    master.blade.php:
        <div>@yield('content')
    index.blade.php:
        @extends('master')       // if layout not specified in controller
        @section('content')
            Home Page here
        @stop  (to declare the end of a section)

Forms:

L3:   {{ Form::open('users') }}
        {{ Form::label('firstname', 'First Name') }}
        {{ Form::text('firstname') }}
      {{ Form::close() }}

L4:   <currently unavailable>

L3:  HTML::link
L4:  HTML::to

Migrations:

L3:
    php artisan migrate:install                         // install the migrations table
    php artisan migrate:make create_posts_table         // then update the table
    artisan migrate:rollback                            // roll back the previous migration
    artisan migrate:reset                               // roll back all migrations

L4: (all of the L3 commands will work...)
    php artisan migrate:make create_posts_table --table=posts --create
        (does not need artisan migrate:install)
    artisan migrate:refresh                       // roll back everything, and re-run
    artisan migrate:refresh --seed                // do the above, and run all seeds

Seeding tables:

L3: <does not have that functionality>
L4: Prepare seed files as described above, then enter:

        artisan db:seed

    or:

        artisan migrate:refresh --seed

Laravel 4 includes Route Model Binding (inject model instances into route closures) It automatically returns all collections from a method or closure as JSON

Routes (without route model binding):

L3:   Route::get('users', function() { return User::all(); }});
L4:   Route::get('users/{id}', function($id) { return User::find($id); }})
        ->where('id', '\d+');

Routes (with route model binding):

L4:   Route::model('user', 'User');
or:   Route::bind('user', function($id, $route) { return User::where('id', $id)->first(); }));
      Route::get('users/{user}', function (User $user) { return $user; }));

Linking to routes in a view:

L3:   HTML::link_to_route('routeName', 'Display')
L4:   <a href="{{URL::route('routeName')}}>Display</a>
or:   HTML::to(URL::route('routeName'), 'Display')

Redirection:

L3:   Redirect::to_route('routeName')
L4:   Redirect::route('routeName')

Redirection with errors and input:

L3:   Redirect::with_errors()->with_input()
L4:   Redirect::withErrors()->withInput()

Reporting errors in a view:

L3:   @if($errors->has())
        <p>The following errors have occurred:</p>
 
        <ul id="form-errors">
            {{ $errors->first('username','<li>:message</li>')}}
            {{ $errors->first('password','<li>:message</li>')}}
        </ul>
      @endif

L4:   The L3 way still works, or:
      @if($errors->has())                    // or @if(count($errors)>0)
        <ul id="form-errors">
            <li>{{ $errors->first('username') }}</li>
            <li>{{ $errors->first('password') }}</li>
       </ul>
      @endif

Laravel creates everything for REST. Refer to individual objects like this:

<a href="{{ route('questions.show', ['questions'=>$question->id]) }}">

Updating data:

L3:   Questions::update($id, array(
        'question' => Input::get('question'),
        'solved' => Input::get('solved'),
      ));

L4:   Questions::where('id','=',$id)->update(array(
        'question' => Input::get('question'),
        'solved' => Input::get('solved'),
      ));

Including stylesheets:

L3:   {{ HTML::style('css/main.css') }}
L4:   <link href="{{route('home')}}/css/main.css" media="all" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet">