/laravel

Code Guidelines

To have a consistent code base will not only benefit you, but any team member or developer who happens to read your code will be thankful to you for keeping a consistent convention throughout the project or projects.

To help you with this, I have listed some code conventions to follow when coding using Laravel framework. These conventions were developed from years of coding and maintaining experience. Of course, you are welcome to suggest more.

  1. Generally, use pint package with psr-12 preset.
  2. Use snake case for variable naming eg: $snake_case = "correct";
  3. Use plural pascal case for Controller names. Eg: CourtCasesController
  4. Do not use return statement in scopes and type hint its return type as void.
   public function scopePublished($query): void
   {
      $query->...
   }
  1. Properly type everything wherever possible, do not add to doc block.
  2. In general, do not add doc blocks unless necessary.
  3. Enums
    1. Enum class names should be in plural pascal case.
    2. Enum values should use constant case.
enum UserStatuses: string
{
    case APPROVED = 'approved';
    case PENDING = 'pending';
    case NOT_APPROVED = 'banned'; // just to show you constant case
}
  1. Always use constructor property promotion.
  2. Always use curly brackets for code blocks, eg:
function ($condition) {
    // code
}
  1. Use early returns wherever possible.
  2. Avoid else whenever possible.
  3. Method Ordering In Models:
    When ordering the attributes and methods in a model, follow the below convention
    1. Attributes
    2. Boot Method
    3. Relations
    4. Scopes
    5. Mutators (when writing separately, prioritize set over get)
    6. Custom Functions
  4. Action classes must be suffixed with "Action". Eg: UpdateOrCreateUserAction
  5. Action classes should be in singular pascal case. Eg: UpdateOrCreateUserAction
  6. Request classes must be in plural pascal case. Eg: AddressesRequest
  7. Policy classes must be in singular pascal case. Eg: CourtCasePolicy
  8. Service classes must be in singular pascal case and must be suffixed with "Service". Eg: CourtCaseService
  9. Seeder classes must be in plural pascal case. Eg: DefaultUsersSeeder

Note:

  1. You may use custom query builder classes to extract scopes out of the model.
  2. You may use Presenter classes to extract mutators out of the model.
  3. Use Actions to extract out custom functions (if extraction serves a purpose).
  4. You may use a single request class for both update and store if the there is not much difference in the rules and conditionally add or remove classes. You may use $this->route('model-route-parameter'); to get the currently editing model.

TODO: Views, routes and test conventions