Laravel: Passing default variables to view

Question

In Laravel, we all pass data to our view in pretty much the same way

$data = array(
    'thundercats' => 'Hoooooooooooh!'
);
return View::make('myawesomeview', $data);

But is there some way to add default variables to the view without having to declare it over and over in $data? This would be very helpful for repeating variables such as usernames, PHP logic, and even CSS styles if the site demands it.

Answer 1

Use View Composers

View composers are callbacks or class methods that are called when a view is created. If you have data that you want bound to a given view each time that view is created throughout your application, a view composer can organize that code into a single location. Therefore, view composers may function like "view models" or "presenters".

Defining A View Composer :

View::composer('profile', function($view)
{
    $view->with('count', User::count());
});

Now each time the profile view is created, the count data will be bound to the view. In your case, it could be for id :

    View::composer('myawesomeview', function($view)
    {
        $view->with('id', 'someId');
    });

So the $id will be available to your myawesomeview view each time you create the view using :

View::make('myawesomeview', $data);

You may also attach a view composer to multiple views at once:

View::composer(array('profile','dashboard'), function($view)
{
    $view->with('count', User::count());
});

If you would rather use a class based composer, which will provide the benefits of being resolved through the application IoC Container, you may do so:

View::composer('profile', 'ProfileComposer');

A view composer class should be defined like so:

class ProfileComposer {
    public function compose($view)
    {
        $view->with('count', User::count());
    }
}

Documentation and you can read this article too.