Laravel: Where to store global arrays data and constants?

Title: Efficiently Storing Global Data and Constants in Laravel Applications

Introduction: One of the common challenges that developers face while building Laravel applications is the efficient management of global data and constants across their codebase. This post will explore various approaches to store such information, as well as how to integrate them with Laravel’s Service Providers and Facades for a cleaner architecture.

Considering your example, you may have a Constants class containing the $langs array:

namespace PJ;

class Constants {
    public static $langs = [
            'es' => 'www.domain.es',
            'en' => 'www.domain.us',
            'uk' => 'www.domain.uk',
            'br' => 'www.domain.br',
            'it' => 'www.domain.it',
            'de' => 'www.domain.de',
            'fr' => 'www.domain.fr'
        ];
}

Here, you have a static class with an array of language domains. This approach is simple yet efficient for a small number of constants. However, when dealing with larger amounts or more complex datasets, we need to look into other options.

Option 1: Laravel Configuration Files Laravel provides various configuration file options out of the box that can be leveraged for storing global data and constants. These include config/app.php, config/database.php and config/mail.php. You could create a new configuration file, such as config/general_settings.php, to store your categories data:

return [
    'categories' => [
        1 => ['name' => 'General', 'parent' => 0, 'description' => 'Lorem ipsum...'],
        2 => ['name' => 'Nature', 'parent' => 0, 'description' => 'Lorem ipsum...'],
        3 => ['name' => 'World', 'parent' => 0, 'description' => 'Lorem ipsum...'],
        4 => ['name' => 'Animals', 'parent' => 2, 'description' => 'Lorem ipsum...']
    ]
];

Option 2: Laravel Service Providers and Facades An alternative approach is to define a new Laravel service provider for handling constants, followed by creating a facade that allows access from anywhere in your application. For instance:

1. Create a PJ\CategoryServiceProvider with an array of categories:

   namespace PJ;
   
   

public function register() {
    $this->app->singleton('PJCategory', function() {
        return new CategoryService;
    });
}

} 2. Add config/app.php:

return [
    'providers' => [
                       ...
                       PJ\CategoryServiceProvider::class,
                   ],
];

3. Create the actual service that holds your categories in app/PJ/Constants.php:

   namespace PJ;
   
   

class Constants { public static $langs = [ ‘es’ => ‘www.domain.es’, ‘en’ => ‘www.domain.us’, ‘uk’ => ‘www.domain.uk’, ‘br’ => ‘www.domain.br’, ‘it’ => ‘www.domain.it’, ‘de’ => ‘www.domain.de’, ‘fr’ => ‘www.domain.fr’ ]; public static $categories = [ 1 => [‘name’ => ‘General’, ‘parent’ => 0, ‘description’ => ‘Lorem ipsum…’], 2 => [‘name’ => ‘Nature’, ‘parent’ => 0, ‘description’ => ‘Lorem ipsum…’], 3 => [‘name’ => ‘World’, ‘parent’ => 0, ‘description’ => ‘Lorem ipsum…’], 4 => [‘name’ => ‘Animals’, ‘parent’ => 2, ‘description’ => ‘Lorem ipsum…’] ] } 4. Update your composer.json file to include the new provider:

"autoload" : {
    "classmap" : [
        "app/PJ/Constants.php",
        "..."
    ],
},

5. In your application, define constants and make use of the facade:

   use PJ\Constants;
   
   

// … somewhere in your code $generalCategory = Constants::$categories[1]; echo $generalCategory[‘name’];

Conclusion: There are multiple ways to store global data and constants within a Laravel application. You can choose the most appropriate approach based on the complexity of your data, as well as its intended usage across controllers and views. Remember to always maintain a clean and efficient codebase by leveraging the Laravel’s powerful configuration and service provider features.