Create your own laravel make commands

Ramy — Wed, 20 Dec 2023 21:53:56 +0000

So for those of you who like to extend your laravel application. You may already know that you can customize the default stubs of the artisan make:* commands by calling the command artisan stub:publish and customizing the files in the stubs folder.

So what I would really want is to create my own maker command for non-framework classes.
Let's say I usually use Action* classes in my laravel project. I would really want to have a command that would streamline the process of creating such classes. Example:

php artisan make:action SendSalaries

That would generate this class:

<?php

namespace App\Actions;


class SendSalaries extends BaseAction
{
    public function run()
    {
        // TODO: Implement run() method.
    }
}

Actions classes are a concept regularly used among laravel developers. See freek.dev blog post.

Implementation

Let's start by adding a new stub file action.stub:

<?php

namespace {{ namespace }};


class {{ class }} extends BaseAction
{
    public function run()
    {
        // TODO: Implement run() method.
    }
}

Then we will need to create a new make:action command.

php artisan make:command ActionMakeCommand

And replace the base command class by the abstract command GeneratorCommand. This class is used by the laravel framework to create make commands.

use Illuminate\Console\GeneratorCommand;


class ActionMakeCommand extends GeneratorCommand
{
  ....

After that it's pretty straightforward. We'll need to make these little changes:

Add the php attribute #[AsCommand(name: 'make:action')].

use Symfony\Component\Console\Attribute\AsCommand;

#[AsCommand(name: 'make:action')
class ActionMakeCommand extends GeneratorCommand
{

Since version 9, the Laravel framework no longer maintains support for PHP 7.

Implement the getStub() method so that it returns the action stub file.

protected function getStub()
{
    return $this->resolveStubPath('/stubs/action.stub');
}

protected function resolveStubPath($stub)
{
    return file_exists($customPath = $this->laravel->basePath(trim($stub, '/')))
        ? $customPath
        : __DIR__.$stub;
}

Extend the getDefaultNamespace method in order to specify the target file location. Otherwise, the generated classes will be placed at the project's root.

protected function getDefaultNamespace($rootNamespace)
{
    return $rootNamespace . '\Actions';
}

Set property $type to 'Action'. This is intended for the console display.

protected $type = 'Action';

What about generating a test class?

Simple ! We just have to include the CreatesMatchingTest trait:

...
use Illuminate\Console\Concerns\CreatesMatchingTest;

class ActionMakeCommand extends GeneratorCommand
{
    use CreatesMatchingTest;
    ...

And add the --test option when calling the make command:

php artisan make:action --test CreateSubscription

What did we learn?

We've learned that alongside customizing default stubs in Laravel, crafting your own generator is remarkably straightforward. By developing a command that extends the GeneratorCommand and associating it with your cutomized stub file, the process becomes seamless.
Credit is due to the laravel team for doing a great job designing the command generator, enabling such ease and flexibility in customization.

*: For the sake of simplicity I've used an action as an example but generally there is no need to make a maker command for a plain class.

**: Cover image

Forem: Ramy

Create your own laravel make commands

Implementation

What about generating a test class?

What did we learn?