Laravel View Models

A straight forward pattern for using mappers/view models instead of database model in your blade files and JSON responses.

Installation

composer require engageinteractive/laravel-view-models

Mappers

Create a mapper that can build view models for your Eloquent model:

namespace App\Domain\Posts;

use EngageInteractive\LaravelViewModels\Mapper;

use App\Domain\Posts\Post;

class PostShowMapper extends Mapper
{
    /**
     * Map a Post to a basic PHP array.
     *
     * @param \App\Domain\Posts\Post
     * @return array
     */
    public function map(Post $post)
    {
        return $post->only('title', 'author_name');
    }
}

Ask for an instance of the Mapper in your controller via the container:

namespace App\Domain\Posts;

use App\Domain\Posts\Post;
use App\Domain\Posts\PostMapper;
use App\Http\Controllers\Controller;

class PostController extends Controller
{
    /**
     * Show a Post.
     *
     * @param \App\Domain\Posts\Post
     * @param \App\Domain\Posts\PostMapper
     * @return \Illuminate\Views\View
     */
    public function show(Post $post, PostShowMapper $model)
    {
        return view('post.show', [
            'model' => $mapper->one($post),
        ]),
    }
}

View models

Create a view model, to build data to pass into your view:

namespace App\Domain\Posts;

use EngageInteractive\LaravelViewModels\ViewModel;
use Illuminate\Support\Str;

class PostViewModel extends ViewModel
{
    protected $post;

    /**
     * Intialise the View ViewModel.
     *
     * @param \App\Domain\Posts\Post
     * @return void
     */
    public function __construct(Post $post): void
    {
        $this->post = $post;
    }
    
    /**
     * Returns the post title in title-case.
     *
     * @return string
     */
    public function postTitle(): string
    {
        if (!isset($this->post->title)) {
            return 'Untitled';
        }

        return Str::title($this->post->title);
    }
}

Pass the ViewModel array into the view:

namespace App\Domain\Posts;

use App\Domain\Posts\Post;
use App\Domain\Posts\PostViewModel;
use App\Http\Controllers\Controller;

class PostController extends Controller
{
    /**
     * Show a Post.
     *
     * @param \App\Domain\Posts\Post
     * @return \Illuminate\Views\View
     */
    public function show(Post $post)
    {
        $model = new PostViewModel($post);

        return view('post.show', $model->array()),
    }
}

Below is an example of the data passed into the view:

[
    'model' => [
        'post_title' => 'This Is The Title',
    ],
]

Combining View models and Mappers

First, create a mapper for posts.

namespace App\Domain\Posts;

use EngageInteractive\LaravelViewModels\Mapper;

use App\Domain\Posts\Post;

class PostsMapper extends Mapper
{
    /**
     * Map a Post to a basic PHP array.
     *
     * @param \App\Domain\Posts\Post
     * @return array
     */
    public function map(Post $post)
    {
        return $post->only('title', 'author_name');
    }
}

Create a ViewModel, and call the mapper.

namespace App\Domain\Posts;

use EngageInteractive\LaravelViewModels\ViewModel;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Collection;
use Illuminate\Support\Str;

class PostArchiveViewModel extends ViewModel
{
    protected $posts;

    /**
     * Initialise the View model.
     *
     * @param \Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Collection
     * @return void
     */
    public function __construct(Collection $posts): void
    {
        $this->posts = $posts;
    }
    
    /**
     * Returns an array of posts.
     *
     * @return string
     */
    public function posts(): array
    {
        return (new PostsMapper)->all($this->posts);
    }

    /**
     * Returns the application home URI.
     *
     * @return string
     */
    public function HomeUri(): string
    {
        return route('home');
    }
}

Pass the view model into the view, with the posts mapped into the required format.

namespace App\Domain\Posts;

use App\Domain\Posts\Post;
use App\Domain\Posts\PostArchiveViewModel;
use App\Http\Controllers\Controller;

class PostArchiveController extends Controller
{
    /**
     * Show a Post.
     *
     * @return \Illuminate\Views\View
     */
    public function show()
    {
        $posts = Post::all();
        $model = new PostArchiveViewModel($posts);

        return view('post-archive.show', $model->array()),
    }
}

Laravel Compatibility

Works on Laravel 5.5+.

License

Laravel View Models is open-sourced software licensed under the MIT license.