README

File-based fields for Laravel Nova

Important: This package is still in development/pre-release mode. Please do not use in production yet.

Personally, I'm not a fan of configuring all of my Nova fields within the 'fields' array that Nova expects.

Additionally, most of the fields used across Nova projects tend to have a lot in common...

So isn't there a better way than having to repeat all this logic for each project, plus needing to configure each field with an array and having to (visually) parse through all fields to find the one you're looking for each time? That's what this package aims to fix.

So, instead of something like this in your Nova project:

<?php

namespace App\Nova\Resources;

use Laravel\Nova\Fields\Text;

class NovaUser extends Resource
{
    //...
    
    public function fields(NovaRequest $request): array
    {
        return [
            Text::make('Full Name')
                ->sortable()
                ->rules('required', 'string', 'min:6', 'max:25', function ($attr, $value, $fail) {
                    if (!(filled($value) && is_string($value))) {
                        return;
                    }
    
                    preg_match('#\s#', $value, $whitespaceMatches);
    
                    if (empty($whitespaceMatches)) {
                        $fail("Full name must contain a first and last name with a space in between");
                    }
                    
                    //etc.
                }),
                
            // ...other fields
        ];
    }
}

fyi...rescueQuietly() is just a helper function from my jh-laravel-helpers package

To something like this:

use App\Nova\Resources\Fields\Internet\Name;

namespace App\Nova\Resources;

use Laravel\Nova\Fields\Text;

class NovaUser extends Resource
{
    public function fields(NovaRequest $request): array
    {
        return [
            FullName::field(),
            
            // ...other fields
        ];
    }
}

aahhh 🤗, that's much better!

Let's dive in...

Installation

You can install the package via composer:

composer require jhavenz/nova-extended-fields

Config

You can publish the config file with:

php artisan vendor:publish --tag="nova-extended-fields"

General Usage and Configuration

As mentioned, each extended field now has its own class and can be easily configured using this package's config file.

As you'll see, I've listed out some sane defaults which you'll find in the config file. Feel free to change any of the configurations to the needs of your app.

Additionally, you'll notice that the static ::field() method is used whenever instantiating a field. This is because each extended field has its own binding within the container, bound by its respective class-string. e.g. the FullName field can be resolved using app(FullName::class) and so on.

Should you need to completely rewire the way that a field is being resolved, you can overwrite any/all the bindings as you see fit (though this shouldn't be necessary most of the time).

note: you can look at the tests for any examples

Advanced Usage

In situations where you require custom logic that's beyond the capabilities of what we can pass into the config file or the ::fields() parameters, you can extend any of the fields in this package and begin writing your own custom logic. This opens up a lot of doors too!

One example of this would be the need to use custom fillUsing logic on one of your fields.

This would look something like this:

<?php

namespace App\Nova\Resources\Fields\Shared;

use Jhavenz\NovaExtendedFields\Fields\Named\FullName;

class MyAppFullName extends FullName
{
    /**
     * Maybe our database only has [first_name] and [last_name] columns. 
     * So we need to split the full name before saving it the database...
     */
    protected function fillAttributeFromRequest(NovaRequest $request, $requestAttribute, $model, $attribute)
    {
        [$firstName, $lastName] = $request->input($requestAttribute);
          
        $model->first_name = $firstName;
        $model->last_name = $lastName;
        
        # Note:
        # Laravel will call the save() method automatically after this method completes
    }
}

Tip: There are a lot of other methods on a Fields instance that, once knowing the specific type of field we're working with, can then be overridden which helps to significantly DRY up your code!

In cases where you may have two different models that share the same field, it helps to create a specific file for each model. For example, a UserEmail field may have its own requirements/logic vs a CompanyEmail field. Creating a file for each of these models allows you to write the logic that's specific to each one. These fields can then be used as the source of truth throughout all your Nova projects!

Developer Note

I've only recently started (as of 07/2022) pulling out the common fields that I use in my own Nova projects, but eventually I plan to move all into this package. You'll find a lot of the common fields in here, and I'd welcome contributions for more!

A non-exhaustive list of the fields included are:

FullName
FirstName
LastName
Email
NumericPrimaryKey
UsersRole (based a very basic authorization system)
UserPassword
UserPasswordConfirmation
Avatar

More may have been added since the time of writing

Testing

composer test

Changelog

Please see CHANGELOG for more information on what has changed recently.

Contributing

All contributions are welcome!

Security Vulnerabilities

Please email me at mail@jhavens.tech asap if any security vulnerabilities are discovered

Credits

Jonathan Havens

License

The MIT License (MIT). Please see License File for more information.

jhavenz / nova-extended-fields

Maintainers

Details