Pragmatic Laravel

Welcome to the Laravel Survey App series — where we’ll transform a static HTML survey page into a powerful, data-driven Laravel application! 🚀
In this first episode, we’ll review the project mockup, explore the data model, and outline the core features that will shape the app. You’ll get a clear vision for what we’re building — from admin dashboards and dynamic surveys to real-time results and data visualization.

🔍 In this video, we’ll cover:

Reviewing the static HTML survey design
Discussing the data model (surveys, sections, questions, responses)
Defining the key app features for admins and users
Linking to the GitHub repo for source code access
Tagging the initial version: git tag video_01


🧠 What You’ll Learn
You’ll see how to think like a Laravel developer from the start — modeling data relationships, planning for dynamic rendering, and setting up a roadmap for a real-world web app.

🛠️ Resources
🔗 Laravel Home Page → https://laravel.com/
💻 GitHub Repo → https://github.com/rcravens/laravel_survey_app

📺 Up Next
Next episode: Getting Started with Laravel — we’ll install Laravel and bring in our static HTML mockup to kick off the build!

Let’s get Laravel up and running! 🚀
In this video, we’ll install Laravel, set up our development environment, and bring in the static HTML mockup we created earlier. You’ll see how to quickly spin up a new Laravel app, configure your routes, and render your first Blade view — laying the foundation for everything that follows in our Laravel Survey App series.

🔍 In this video, we’ll cover:

- Installing Laravel via the command line
- Setting up the Laravel installer and Composer
- Creating a /survey route and Blade view
- Copying our static survey design into Laravel


🧠 What You’ll Learn
You’ll learn how to create a clean Laravel setup from scratch — understanding the directory structure, the power of Blade templates, and how routing connects everything together.

🛠️ Resources
📘 Laravel Install Guide → https://laravel.com/docs/12.x/installation
💻 GitHub Repo → https://github.com/rcravens/laravel_survey_app

📺 Up Next
Next episode: Blade Templates — we’ll refactor our HTML into reusable layouts, partials, and components to make our app cleaner and easier to maintain.

In this episode, we introduce Blade, Laravel’s powerful templating engine.
You’ll learn how Blade compiles templates, uses partials and layouts, and organizes your view structure for clean, maintainable code.

🧩 What You’ll Learn

- How Blade templates work under the hood
- Using partials to eliminate repetitive code
- Setting up layouts with @yield and @section
- Managing shared scripts with @stack and @push
- Preparing for reusable Blade components

🔗 Related Resources
- Laravel Blade Docs: https://laravel.com/docs/12.x/blade
- Laravel Views Docs: https://laravel.com/docs/12.x/views
- Previous Video: Laravel Installation → https://tekcasts.com/play/laravel-the-pragmatic-way-larvel-installation

In this episode, we take Blade templating to the next level by introducing Blade Components — Laravel’s elegant way to build reusable UI elements. You’ll learn how to structure your views into flexible, maintainable pieces that encapsulate both presentation and logic.

🧩 What You’ll Learn
- What Blade components are and why they matter
- The difference between Class-Based and Anonymous components
- How to pass data and props to components
- How to use slots for flexible, nested layouts
- Refactoring survey question elements into Blade components

🔗 Related Resources
- Laravel Blade Components Docs: https://laravel.com/docs/12.x/blade#components
- Laravel Anonymous Components Docs: https://laravel.com/docs/12.x/blade#anonymous-components

Previous Video: Blade Templates — Layouts & Partials → https://tekcasts.com/play/laravel-the-pragmatic-way-blade-templates-partials-layouts

📺 Up Next: Question Data Model — we’ll design the database layer to define and manage survey questions dynamically.

In this episode, we shift from static components to data-driven questions by introducing a simple Question Data Model. This prepares our Survey App to dynamically render questions based on data — not hard-coded markup.

💡 What You’ll Learn
- How to represent survey questions as PHP objects
- Passing structured question data into Blade components
- Using props to render reusable question types
- Handling dynamic attributes like placeholders, required flags, and default answers
- Setting up for conditional logic and future dynamic surveys

🧠 You’ll see how clean data structures unlock flexibility in your Blade components — a key step toward building a fully dynamic survey system.

📺 Up Next: Survey Data Model — where we combine question data into full survey definitions and begin organizing sections for more complex forms.

#Laravel #PHP #WebDevelopment #TekCasts #Blade #Eloquent #FullStack #SoftwareEngineering #LaravelDevelopers #CleanCode #ComponentDrivenDevelopment

In this episode, we take another major step toward a fully dynamic survey system by building out the Survey Data Model. With a clean structure for surveys, sections, and questions, we can now render entire surveys dynamically — no more hard-coded components!

💡 What You’ll Learn
- Creating a Survey Data Model with sections and questions
- Enhancing the Question Model with a type property
- Leveraging Laravel’s to render components dynamically
- Refactoring your survey.blade.php for flexibility and maintainability
- Preparing the foundation for storing data in the database

🧠 This is where the Survey App becomes truly data-driven — paving the way for dynamic survey creation and admin-level editing in future episodes.

📺 Up Next: Databases — we’ll introduce migrations, Eloquent models, and link our survey data to persistent storage.

#Laravel #PHP #TekCasts #WebDevelopment #CleanCode #Blade #FullStack #SoftwareEngineering

In this episode, we introduce one of Laravel’s most powerful features: database migrations. You’ll learn how migrations act like version control for your database, making schema changes reliable, reversible, and easy to manage across development and production environments.

💡 What You’ll Learn
- How Laravel’s database abstraction layer simplifies working with different databases
- Designing a database schema for the Survey App (surveys, sections, and questions)
- Creating and running migrations with php artisan make:migration and php artisan migrate
- Rolling back and modifying migrations safely
- Configuring your database connection in Laravel
- Verifying your schema and data in your local environment

🧠 By the end of this video, you’ll have a working database structure ready for your Eloquent models — a major milestone toward a fully dynamic survey application.

🔗 Resources
- Laravel Database Docs: https://laravel.com/docs/12.x/database
- Laravel Migrations: https://laravel.com/docs/12.x/migrations

#Laravel #PHP #TekCasts #WebDevelopment #DatabaseMigrations #FullStack #LaravelTips #SoftwareEngineering #PHPDevelopers

In this episode, we build on our migrations work and dive into Laravel Database Seeding — a powerful feature that helps you automatically populate your database with meaningful test data.
Seeding ensures your app always starts with realistic content, perfect for development, testing, and demos.

🔍 In this video, you’ll learn how to:
- Create and register database seeders
- Populate surveys, sections, and questions automatically
- Use php artisan migrate:fresh --seed for quick resets
- Generate consistent, realistic data for development
- Display seeded survey data dynamically in your app

💡 This is a crucial step before introducing Eloquent models — connecting your database to application logic.

🧠 Key Commands
- php artisan make:seeder SurveySeeder
- php artisan db:seed
- php artisan db:seed --class=SurveySeeder
- php artisan migrate:fresh --seed
- php artisan migrate:fresh --seed --seeder=SurveySeeder

🔗 Resources
- Laravel Seeding Documentation: https://laravel.com/docs/12.x/seeding
- GitHub Repository: https://github.com/rcravens/laravel_survey_app

#Laravel #PHP #WebDevelopment #LaravelTutorial #FullStack #TekCasts #CodeBetter #DevTips #LaravelForDevelopers

In this episode, we move from raw query building into Laravel’s Eloquent ORM — an elegant way to interact with your database using PHP objects instead of SQL queries.

Eloquent simplifies data access, manages relationships automatically, and helps keep your code clean, readable, and expressive.

🔍 In this video, you’ll learn how to:
- Create Eloquent models for your tables
- Define relationships between surveys, sections, and questions
- Replace complex Query Builder logic with elegant model relationships
- Use eager loading with with() for efficient database queries
- Leverage attribute casting for arrays and enums

💡 You’ll see how Eloquent turns your data model into a first-class part of your application — paving the way for true MVC architecture in upcoming episodes.

🧠 Key Commands
- php artisan make:model Survey
- php artisan make:model SurveySection
- php artisan make:model SurveyQuestion

🔗 Resources
- Eloquent ORM Documentation: https://laravel.com/docs/12.x/eloquent
- TekCasts – Database Model Abstractions: https://tekcasts.com/play/pragmatic-php-database-model-abstractions
- TekCasts – GitHub Repo (Rate This Pic): https://github.com/rcravens/rate_this_pic/blob/master/app/Framework/Model.php

#Laravel #Eloquent #PHP #WebDevelopment #LaravelTutorial #FullStack #TekCasts #CodeBetter #DevTips #LaravelForDevelopers

We simplify the process of generating test data by introducing Model Factories. Model factories allow you to create models and their relationships using expressive, reusable definitions — perfect for seeding your database with realistic sample data.

You’ll learn how to:
✅ Create and use model factories (php artisan make:factory)
✅ Generate models with fake data using make() and create()
✅ Build relationships with nested factories (has())
✅ Replace manual seeder logic with elegant factory-based seeding

By the end of this video, your database setup will be cleaner, faster, and ready for scalable testing and development.

Resources
- Laravel Factories Docs: https://laravel.com/docs/12.x/eloquent-factories

#Laravel #PHP #Eloquent #WebDevelopment #DatabaseSeeding #ModelFactories #LaravelTips #FullStack #TekCasts #LearnToCode

In this episode, we dive into Laravel’s routing system — the foundation of handling incoming requests and returning the right responses.

You’ll learn how to:
✅ Define routes using closures or controllers
✅ Use route parameters, dependency injection, and model binding
✅ Explore HTTP verbs like GET, POST, PUT, and more
✅ Work with different response types — views, JSON, files, and downloads
✅ Understand how routing connects to your app setup in bootstrap/app.php

We’ll also update our app to:
- Create /s/{id} and /s/{survey} routes to demo parameters and DI
- Add a hash column to the surveys table
- Update model factories and re-seed data
- Introduce route model binding with /s/{survey:hash}

Laravel Routing Docs: https://laravel.com/docs/12.x/routing

#Laravel #PHP #Routing #Eloquent #WebDevelopment #ModelBinding #LaravelTips #FullStack #TekCasts #LearnToCode

In this episode, we tie together Routes, Models, and Views by introducing the Controller — the final piece of Laravel’s MVC architecture.

You’ll learn how to:
✅ Create controllers using php artisan make:controller
✅ Organize request-handling logic into clean, reusable classes
✅ Connect routes to controller methods (actions)
✅ Implement GET and POST routes for taking a survey
✅ Apply route model binding and request/response patterns

We’ll also clean up a few loose ends before diving into survey submissions:
- Add default error pages
- Rename SurveyStatusType → SurveyStatus
- Guard routes against non-active surveys
- Add an index to hash in migrations
- Demonstrate booted() and enum casting in the Survey model
- Simplify the factory by removing hash logic

Copy these commands to follow along:
php artisan make:controller TakeSurveyController

Example routes:
- Route::get('/s/{survey:hash}', [TakeSurveyController::class, 'show'])->name('survey.show');
- Route::post('/s/{survey:hash}', [TakeSurveyController::class, 'store'])->name('survey.store');

📘 Resources
- Laravel Controllers Docs: https://laravel.com/docs/12.x/controllers
- Laravel Routing Docs: https://laravel.com/docs/12.x/routing
- Laravel Model Events Docs: https://laravel.com/docs/12.x/eloquent#events
- Laravel Error Pages Docs: https://laravel.com/docs/12.x/errors#http-exceptions
- Migration Modifications Docs: https://laravel.com/docs/12.x/migrations#modifying-columns

#Laravel #PHP #WebDevelopment #MVC #Controllers #Routing #Eloquent #TekCasts #LearnToCode

In this episode, we begin capturing and storing survey data!

We’ll design the database schema for responses and answers, build out models, and wire up the controller logic to handle incoming survey submissions.

This continues our journey of transforming a static survey page into a dynamic Laravel application — step by step, the pragmatic way.

🧠 What You’ll Learn
- Designing survey_responses and survey_response_answers tables
- Creating migrations and Eloquent models
- Defining relationships between surveys, responses, and answers
- Updating POST routes to save incoming data
- Setting up a foundation for validation and fingerprinting

🧩 Commands Used
- php artisan make:migration create_survey_responses_table
- php artisan make:model SurveyResponse

🧱 Database Schema
survey_responses
- id (PK)
- survey_id (FK: surveys)
- user_fingerprint
- completed_at (nullable)
- created_at / updated_at

survey_response_answers
- id (PK)
- survey_response_id (FK: survey_responses)
- survey_question_id (FK: survey_questions)
- answer (json)
- created_at / updated_at

🔗 Resources
- Migrations Docs: https://laravel.com/docs/12.x/migrations
- Eloquent Docs: https://laravel.com/docs/12.x/eloquent
- Routing Docs: https://laravel.com/docs/12.x/routing

#Laravel #PHP #WebDevelopment #Eloquent #DatabaseDesign #Migrations #TekCasts #LearnLaravel #FullStackDevelopment #Controllers

In this episode of Laravel: The Pragmatic Way, we explore how to generate a unique “fingerprint” for survey participants using a combination of PHP and JavaScript signals.

You’ll learn what fingerprinting is, why it matters, the ethical considerations, and how to integrate a JavaScript fingerprinting library into your Laravel workflow.

🧠 What You’ll Learn
- A method of producing a unique identifier using user “signals.”
- Why fingerprinting must be handled with caution — privacy, consent, regulation concerns.
- Which data you can access server-side vs client-side.
- Including adding routes, generating fingerprints, and pre-filling survey responses.

🪪 Example Signals
- PHP Signals (server-side): IP address, User-Agent, Accept-Language, Accept headers, Referer header, Cookies
- JavaScript Signals (client-side): Everything PHP offers plus installed fonts, plugins/extensions, platform info, screen resolution, OS, touch capabilities, GPU/audio/video data, and more.

🛠️ Survey Workflow Changes
1. Install the JS Fingerprinting Library: https://github.com/jackspirou/clientjs

2. Update the route /s/{survey:hash}
- No longer shows questions directly
- Generates the fingerprint
- Provides a “Take Survey” link: /s/{survey:hash}/{fingerprint}

3. Create the route /s/{survey:hash}/{fingerprint}
- Ensures a SurveyResponse record exists
- Passes SurveyResponse + SurveyResponseAnswers to the view
- Pre-fills previous answers automatically


#Laravel #PHP #WebDevelopment #Fingerprinting #Security #Controllers #Forms #JavaScript #FullStackDevelopment #TekCasts #LearnLaravel #Routes #SurveyApp

In this video, we tighten up our survey flow by performing several important refactors across models, routes, and controllers. These changes lay the groundwork for securely capturing survey responses and preventing duplicates.

Topics Covered
- Adding model relationships: Survey → responses, SurveyQuestion → answers
- Introducing a fingerprint-based protection to avoid duplicate survey submissions
- Updating database migrations to support hashed response identifiers
- Creating a clean, structured route layout for:
✔️ Viewing a survey
✔️ Submitting a fingerprint
✔️ Viewing the survey questions
✔️ Submitting survey answers
- Refactoring TakeSurveyController to support the new workflow

#Laravel #PHP #WebDevelopment #FullStack #LaravelTutorial #Programming #SurveyApp #TechEducation #LaravelDevelopers #BuildInPublic #TekCasts

In this video, we introduce server-side validation to ensure incoming survey data is complete, well-formed, and secure. You’ll learn how Laravel’s validation layer works, how to define rules, and how to prepare your app to handle different question types with a rule engine.

Topics Covered:
🔍 What validation is and why it matters
🌐 Client-side vs. server-side validation
🛡️ Laravel’s built-in validation features
🧩 Introducing rules for each survey question type
⚙️ Building a rule engine to encapsulate validation logic
📦 Aggregating validation rules for a full survey
✔️ Validating incoming user input

📚 Resources
- Laravel Validation Docs: https://laravel.com/docs/12.x/validation

#Laravel #PHP #WebDevelopment #FullStack #Validation #DataIntegrity #Programming #SurveyApp #TekCasts

In this episode, we refactor our validation logic by introducing Form Request Validation, a powerful Laravel feature that helps keep controllers clean, reusable, and scalable.

This step builds on our existing Validation Rules Engine and moves the logic into a dedicated request class—perfect for more complex validation and authorization scenarios.

✨ What You’ll Learn
- How Form Request Validation works in Laravel
- Why moving validation into request classes improves maintainability
- Creating a custom request with php artisan make:request
- Transferring validation and authorization logic from controllers
- Updating the survey flow to use the new request

🧠 Form Request Benefits:
- Cleaner and smaller controllers
- Reusable validation logic
- Built-in support for authorization
- Consistent structure across larger apps

🔗 Resources
- Laravel Form Request Validation Docs: https://laravel.com/docs/12.x/validation#form-request-validation


#Laravel #PHP #WebDevelopment #Programming #CleanCode #FullStack #Validation #LaravelTips #TekCasts

Welcome back to Laravel: The Pragmatic Way!

In this episode, we build on our Form Request workflow and focus on how Laravel handles validation errors — and how you can present them cleanly in your UI.

We walk through the full flow: triggering errors, displaying them, styling them, and customizing their messages.

🎯 What You’ll Learn
- How Laravel automatically redirects back with validation errors
- Displaying all errors at the top of the page
- Field-specific error messages using Blade directives
- Highlighting invalid fields for better UX
- Creating custom error messages inside your Form Request
- Updating question components to surface validation issues cleanly

If you’re enjoying the series, hit 👍 Like, 🔔 Subscribe, and share with other Laravel devs!

In this video, we enhance the user experience of our survey application by improving navigation flow and tightening up some important logic. You’ll see how to guide users more intuitively through the app while ensuring clean, secure, and predictable behavior.

What We Cover
- Fixed the query in take_store by adding a missing where survey_id filter
- Added a welcome page that lists all active surveys
- Prevent users from retaking a survey they’ve already completed
- Updated the “thanks” page with a Redo Survey link
- Stretch Goal: Introduced a simple top-level navigation menu to improve app-wide usability


#Laravel #PHP #WebDevelopment #FullStackDev #TekCasts #WebAppDesign

In this video, we take our survey app to the next level by introducing Authentication, discussing installation options, and laying the groundwork for protected views and user-based access.
Along the way, we also apply several refactorizations to keep the codebase clean, flexible, and scalable.

🛠️ Refactorizations Completed
Before diving into authentication, we improved core structures:

📱 Added a mobile menu using npm install flowbite + import "flowbite"
🎨 Updated mobile menu styling
🧩 Created navigation, table, and form components for DRY code
🗂️ Moved layouts into Blade components (@extends('xxx') ➜ )
👥 Added new layout shells: empty and guest


🔐 Authentication vs. Authorization

Authentication = Who are you?
Authorization = What are you allowed to do?

📘 Laravel Docs:
👉 Authentication — https://laravel.com/docs/12.x/authentication
👉 Authorization — https://laravel.com/docs/12.x/authorization

⚙️ Installation Options
Depending on your project setup, Laravel gives you multiple ways to integrate auth:
For New Apps

🚀 Laravel Starter Kits (React, Vue, Livewire)

For Existing Apps

🌬️ Laravel Breeze
🛡️ Laravel Fortify

Useful Links:
🔗 Starter Kits — https://laravel.com/docs/12.x/starter-kits
🔗 Breeze — https://github.com/laravel/breeze
🔗 Fortify — https://laravel.com/docs/12.x/fortify

🛡️ Laravel Fortify Setup (Summary)
Installation
1️⃣ composer require laravel/fortify
2️⃣ php artisan fortify:install
3️⃣ php artisan migrate
Configuration

Review settings in config/fortify

Example: Registration View Binding

// App/Providers/FortifyServiceProvider.php (partial)
public function boot(): void
{
Fortify::registerView(function () {
return view('auth.register');
});
}


If you're enjoying the series, don't forget to Like, Comment, and Subscribe — it helps TekCasts grow! 🙌

#Laravel #PHP #LaravelFortify #LaravelBreeze #WebDevelopment #FullStack #CleanCode #BladeComponents #Authentication #Authorization #TekCasts

In this video, we build out the authentication views for our Laravel survey application. We continue integrating Laravel Fortify, but now focus on the Blade side of things — customizing the registration and login screens and wiring them to Fortify’s backend actions.

You’ll learn:
✨ How Fortify expects your views to be structured
✨ How to adapt the Breeze templates to your app
✨ How to customize labels, errors, and layout
✨ How to create a cohesive guest layout for all auth screens

🔗 Resources
- Laravel Starter Kits: https://laravel.com/docs/12.x/starter-kits
- Laravel Breeze: https://github.com/laravel/breeze
- Laravel Fortify: https://laravel.com/docs/12.x/fortify

#Laravel #LaravelFortify #PHP #WebDevelopment #FullStack #BackendDevelopment #Blade #Authentication #TekCasts #LaravelThePragmaticWay #CodingTutorials #LearnLaravel #CleanCode

In this video, we bring Laravel’s authentication system to life by pairing Fortify’s backend features with Breeze’s simple, clean Blade views. This creates a complete, customizable starter kit without the complexity of Inertia or Livewire.

You’ll learn how these two tools fit together and how to leverage them to build real-world authentication flows.

🔥 What You’ll Learn
- How Breeze and Fortify work together
- Review of all Fortify routes and features
- Registration and login flows
- Email verification
- Password reset workflow
- Updating profile information
- Changing passwords
- Session handling and protections
- How this setup fits into the bigger picture of building your app


#Laravel #LaravelFortify #LaravelBreeze #Authentication #WebDevelopment #PHP #FullStack #LaravelTutorial #LearnLaravel #TekCasts #LaravelThePragmaticWay

In this video we walk through my custom fork of Laravel Breeze (repo: rcravens/breeze), showing how to get a full authentication system up and running in Laravel — with views, routes, and backend logic all wired up thanks to Laravel Fortify + Breeze.

Whether you’re building a brand-new Laravel project or retrofitting auth into an existing one, this setup gives you a clean, flexible, and fully functional auth flow that’s easy to customize.

✅ What You’ll Get
- A minimal auth scaffold that “just works” — login, registration, password reset, email verification, profile update, password change, and more.
- Blade-based views + Tailwind styling for a clean UI.
- Full route list and handlers (Fortify + Breeze) including register, login, logout, password reset, email verification, profile update, etc.
- A structure that works in fresh projects or existing Laravel apps that didn’t start with a “starter kit.”


🔧 How to Use It
- `composer require rcravens/breeze`
- Run `php artisan breeze:install`, choosing "Laravel Forge + Blade Views" and your preferred options.
- Migrate your database, compile assets — and you’re ready to go.
- Explore routes like /register, /login, /forgot-password, /profile, etc. — everything is wired up for you.


📚 Useful Links & Resources
- GitHub Repo: https://github.com/rcravens/breeze
- Official Laravel Starter Kits documentation (covers Fortify + Breeze): https://laravel.com/docs/starter-kits
- Laravel Breeze overview article: https://laravel-news.com/laravel-breeze


#Laravel #LaravelBreeze #LaravelFortify #PHP #WebDevelopment #Auth #TailwindCSS #FullStack #OpenSource #TekCasts #CleanCode #Backend #Frontend #DeveloperTools