Move Laravel 5 Eloquent models into its own directory

Question

Laravel 5 has ORM models by default in app folder. I want to move these into app/models. When I do that then these classes are not found anymore.

How to make Laravel find the Eloquent ORM models from app/models?

Answer 1

Solution for Laravel 5.6+

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1. Move the files to the new directory

Say you want to move the models to app/Models

2. Change the namespace of the models

For each model change :

namespace App; 

to

namespace App\Models; 

3. Change the references in other files

Check these files and search especially app\User

• app/Http/Controllers/Auth/RegisterController.php
• config/auth.php
• config/services.php
• database/factories/ModelFactory.php
• database/factories/UserFactory.php
• Your Controllers

And change App/ModelExample to App/Models/ModelExample

4. Autoload files

Run composer dump-autoload

5. Congratulations!