Leaf 5 — MVC Reference

Controllers

leaf g:controller Users          # → app/controllers/UsersController.php
leaf g:controller photos --resource  # CRUD controller
leaf g:controller photos --api       # API CRUD controller (no create/edit)

leaf g:controller Users -m       # + model
leaf g:controller Users -t       # + view template
leaf g:controller Users -a       # + model + schema file

Basic Controller

namespace App\Controllers;

class UsersController extends Controller
{
    public function index()
    {
        return response()->json(['message' => 'UsersController@index']);
    }

    public function show($id)
    {
        return response()->render('users/show', ['id' => $id]);
    }
}

Routes

app()->get('/users', 'UsersController@index');
app()->get('/users/{id}', 'UsersController@show');
app()->get('/users', ['middleware' => 'auth', 'UsersController@index']);

// Resource routes (CRUD) — all 7 routes in one line
app()->resource('/photos', 'PhotosController');

// API resource (no create/edit routes)
app()->apiResource('/photos', 'PhotosController');

Resource route map:

Method	URI	Action
GET	/photos	index
GET	/photos/create	create
POST	/photos	store
GET	/photos/{id}	show
GET	/photos/{id}/edit	edit
PUT/PATCH	/photos/{id}	update
DELETE	/photos/{id}	destroy

---

Models (MVC Only)

Built on Eloquent ORM — full Eloquent docs apply.

leaf g:model Flight   # → app/models/Flight.php

Basic Model

namespace App\Models;

class Flight extends Model
{
    // Conventions: table = 'flights' (snake_case plural of class name)
    // Primary key: 'id' (auto-incrementing integer)
    // Timestamps: created_at, updated_at (auto-managed)
}

Overriding Conventions

class Flight extends Model
{
    protected $table      = 'my_flights';         // custom table name
    protected $primaryKey = 'flight_id';          // custom PK
    public    $incrementing = false;              // non-auto-incrementing PK
    protected $keyType    = 'string';             // non-integer PK type
    public    $timestamps = false;               // disable timestamps
    protected $dateFormat = 'U';                 // custom timestamp format
    protected $connection = 'secondary';          // specific DB connection

    const CREATED_AT = 'creation_date';           // custom timestamp column names
    const UPDATED_AT = 'last_update';

    protected $attributes = [                     // default attribute values
        'delayed' => false,
    ];
}

Querying

// All records
$flights = Flight::all();

// With constraints
$flights = Flight::where('active', 1)->orderBy('name', 'desc')->take(10)->get();

// Single record
$flight = Flight::find(1);
$flight = Flight::where('number', 'FR 900')->first();

// Refresh from DB
$freshFlight = $flight->fresh();      // new instance, original unchanged
$flight->refresh();                   // re-hydrate existing instance

Insert

$flight       = new Flight;
$flight->name = request()->get('name');
$flight->save();   // created_at/updated_at set automatically

Update

$flight       = Flight::find(1);
$flight->name = 'New Name';
$flight->save();   // updated_at set automatically

Delete

// Hard delete (permanent)
$flight = Flight::find(1);
$flight->delete();

// Soft delete — add to schema: softDeletes: true
// Add trait to model:
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\SoftDeletes;
class Flight extends Model {
    use SoftDeletes;
}
// Now delete() sets deleted_at instead of removing the row
$flight->delete();

---

Schema Files (MVC Only)

One YAML file per table — defines columns, seeds, and relationships. No separate migration files needed.

leaf g:schema posts       # → app/database/posts.yml

leaf db:migrate           # migrate all tables
leaf db:migrate users     # migrate specific table
leaf db:rollback          # revert last migration
leaf db:rollback users    # revert specific table
leaf db:rollback --steps=3
leaf db:reset             # rollback all → re-migrate
leaf db:reset users
leaf db:drop              # drop all tables (careful!)
leaf db:drop users
leaf db:seed              # run all seeders
leaf db:seed users        # seed specific table

Full Schema Example

# app/database/posts.yml

# auto-adds: id (auto-increment), created_at, updated_at
increments: false    # disable auto-increment id
timestamps: false    # disable auto timestamps
connection: postsDbConnection  # specific DB connection

columns:
  # Simple type
  name: string

  # With properties
  email:
    type: string
    length: 255
    unique: true
  bio:
    type: text
    nullable: true
  status:
    type: enum
    values: [draft, published, archived]
    default: draft
  verified_at:
    type: timestamp
    nullable: true
    useCurrent: false
  score:
    type: integer
    unsigned: true
    default: 0
    index: true

# Foreign keys — generates user_id → users.id
relationships:
  - User
  - Category

seeds:
  count: 10
  truncate: true
  model: CustomModel   # optional: specify model for __seeder method
  data:
    - name: 'John Doe'
      email: 'john@example.com'
    - name: 'Jane Doe'
      email: 'jane@example.com'

Seeding is opt-in: a schema file with no seeds: block seeds nothing. With a seeds: block, rows come from data: (inline), or from model:'s __seeder() method repeated count times.

Faker Seeds

seeds:
  count: 10
  data:
    name: '@faker.name'
    email: '@faker.email'
    password: '$2y$10$hashedpassword'

Column Types

boolean, integer, bigInteger, char, string, text, tinyText, mediumText, longText, date, enum, increments, bigIncrements, smallIncrements, decimal, float, double, unsignedBigInteger, id, uuid, json, jsonb, timestamp

Eloquent writes date and timestamp columns as YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS. Compare them with whereDate(), not where() — a string comparison against a bare YYYY-MM-DD treats an exact boundary date as greater-than and returns wrong rows with no error.

Column Properties

Property	Description
type	Column type (required)
length	Column length (default 255 for string)
nullable	Allow null (default false)
default	Default value
unsigned	Unsigned integer
index	Add index
unique	Unique constraint
primary	Primary key
values	Enum/set values
autoIncrement	Auto-increment
useCurrent	Default to current timestamp
useCurrentOnUpdate	Update to current timestamp on update
onDelete	FK ON DELETE action
onUpdate	FK ON UPDATE action
comment	Column comment (not SQLite)

Custom Seeder in Model

class User extends Model
{
    public static function __seeder()
    {
        return [
            'name'     => fake()->name(),
            'email'    => fake()->email(),
            'password' => '$2y$10$hashedpassword',
        ];
    }
}

Schema auto-detects __seeder when model name matches table name (e.g. User → users, TestUser → test_users).

---

Services (MVC)

Plain PHP classes for reusable business logic. Store in app/services/ by convention.

// app/services/StatsService.php
namespace App\Services;

class StatsService
{
    public function getDashboardData()
    {
        return ['users' => 1500, 'sales' => 2300, 'revenue' => 12000];
    }
}

Use with make() — always prefer over new:

use App\Services\StatsService;

class DashboardController extends Controller
{
    public function index()
    {
        return response()->inertia(
            'dashboard',
            make(StatsService::class)->getDashboardData()
        );
    }
}

Use services when: logic is reused across controllers, you want thin controllers, or you're encapsulating complex business operations.

---

Custom Libraries (MVC)

For logic that doesn't fit controllers, models, or helpers. Stored in lib/ (not autoloaded by default).

leaf config:lib   # creates lib/ and enables autoloading

// lib/Math.php
namespace MyApp\Lib;

class Math {
    public static function add($a, $b) { return $a + $b; }
}

// lib/helpers.php (function-based)
namespace Lib;
function add($a, $b) { return $a + $b; }

// In a controller
use MyApp\Lib\Math;
$sum = Math::add(1, 2);

// Function-based
use function Lib\add;
$sum = add(1, 2);

Non-autoloadable libraries: move to lib/MyLibrary/ and create lib/mylibrary.php that requires the index:

// lib/mylibrary.php
require __DIR__ . '/MyLibrary/index.php';

---

MVC Global Helpers

Path Helpers

AppPaths();                              // all paths as array
AppPaths('controllers');                 // specific path

assets('css/main.css');                  // public/assets/css/main.css
ConfigPath('db.php');                    // config/db.php
CommandsPath('MainCommand.php');         // app/console/MainCommand.php
ControllersPath('UsersController.php');  // app/controllers/UsersController.php
DatabasePath('migrations');              // app/database/migrations
FactoriesPath('UserFactory.php');        // app/database/factories/UserFactory.php
HelpersPath('MainHelper.php');           // app/helpers/MainHelper.php
LibPath('MainLib.php');                  // lib/MainLib.php
MigrationsPath('MainMigration.php');     // app/database/migrations/MainMigration.php
ModelsPath('User.php');                  // app/models/User.php
PublicPath('index.php');                 // public/index.php
RoutesPath('_auth.php');                 // app/routes/_auth.php
SeedsPath('MainSeed.php');              // app/database/seeds/MainSeed.php
StoragePath('logs');                     // storage/logs
ViewsPath('home.blade.php');            // app/views/home.blade.php

Config Helpers

MvcConfig();                    // all config files
MvcConfig('db');                // config/db.php as array
MvcConfig('db', 'host');        // specific key from config

AppConfig();                    AppConfig('debug');
AuthConfig();                   AuthConfig('session');
CorsConfig();                   CorsConfig('origin');
DatabaseConfig();               DatabaseConfig('host');
MailConfig();                   MailConfig('host');
ViewConfig();                   ViewConfig('viewEngine');