README

A minimal blogging package for Laravel

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Requirements

PHP >= 5.6
Composer
An existing Laravel 5.3 project

Installation

You can download Easel using composer
```
composer require talvbansal/easel
```
To register the easel:install and easel:update artisan commands as well as the new routes for Easel to work, you will need to add the Easel service provider to your config/app.php file
```
\Easel\Providers\EaselServiceProvider::class,
```
To install Easel into your project run the following command, this will publish all the application assets and database migrations / factories / seeds required, the migrations will automatically be run from this command
```
php artisan easel:install
```
Finally you'll need to seed your database to create the default admin user and initial post
```
php artisan db:seed
```
Update your config/auth.php file to use Easel's built in User Model (Easel\Models\User)
```
 'providers' => [
     'users' => [
         'driver' => 'eloquent',
         'model' => Easel\Models\User::class,
     ],
 ],
```
Or alternatively configure Easel to use your own Custom User Model
Sign into Easel using the default credentials:
- Email admin@easel.com
- Password password
Head over to the profile page and update your details and password!
Start blogging!

Updates

Whenever an update to Easel is made internal files will automatically be updated when a composer update is run, however new views and assets will only be published / republished with the following command
```
  php artisan easel:update
```

You could also add the above command to your post-update-cmd in your projects composer.json file

  "post-update-cmd": [
      "Illuminate\\Foundation\\ComposerScripts::postUpdate",
      "php artisan easel:update",
      "php artisan optimize"
  ]

Customisation

Every app is different and Easel has been designed to be customisable. Be sure to check out the config/easel.php for a complete list of configurable options.

User Models

Since Easel is designed to be the starting point for a new project or added into an existing one, you can decide to use the built in User model (Easel\Models\User) or use an existing User model with a few alterations.
Built In Model

If you want to use the build in User model (Easel\Models\User) you'll need to set it in the config/auth.php file

  'providers' => [
      'users' => [
          'driver' => 'eloquent',
          'model' => Easel\Models\User::class,
      ],
  ],

Custom Model

If you want to use an existing model you'll need to make the following changes to it:

Your User model will need implement the Easel\Models\BlogUserInterface and also use the Easel\Models\EaselUserTrait

You will also need to add the key birthday to the $dates property of your user model

 class User extends Model implements \Easel\Models\BlogUserInterface{
 
     use Easel\Models\EaselUserTrait;
 
     protected $dates = ['birthday'];
     
 }

Then finally update the config/easel.php config file use your User model
```
'user_model' => \My\Custom\User::class,
```

Customising the url prefix for the blog

By default you can access the blog list and posts at the following routes:

    /blog
    /blog/{blog-post-slug}

However you might want the blog to accessed from a different URI, Easel lets you configure that by adding the following key BLOG_BASE_URL to your .env file, for example:

    BLOG_BASE_URL=/myblog

The above changes will make your blog respond at

    /myblog
    /myblog/{blog-post-slug}

If you want the blog to respond at the '/' route you will need to add a new route to your routes.php file as follows:

    Route::get('/', '\Easel\Http\Controllers\Frontend\BlogController@index');

Customising views for your blog posts and list

When creating a blog post you can use the default layout for Easel, however it is likely that you'll want to amend the views to suit your application. You may also need different views for different blog posts - Easel has you covered! just add the BLOG_POST_LAYOUTS key to your .env file and give it the path to a folder within your resources/views folder

For example

    BLOG_POST_LAYOUTS=layouts.blog.posts

Will point to the following folder

    {project}/resources/views/layouts/blog/posts

Every blade template within that folder will then be listed on the post creation page as a potential layout for that post.
Sub-folders within the BLOG_POST_LAYOUTS folder will not be listed allowing you to store partials for your templates within that single folder structure.

You can also set the blog post list layout using the BLOG_POST_LIST key, which again points to a corresponding view within your resources/views folder

    BLOG_POST_LIST=layouts.blog.list

talvbansal / easel

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