https://github.com/barryvdh/laravel-ide-helper (opens new window)

Laravel IDE Helper Generator

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Complete PHPDocs, directly from the source

This package generates helper files that enable your IDE to provide accurate autocompletion. Generation is done based on the files in your project, so they are always up-to-date.

• Installation
• Usage
  • Automatic PHPDoc generation for Laravel Facades
  • Automatic PHPDocs for models
  • Automatic PHPDocs generation for Laravel Fluent methods
  • Auto-completion for factory builders
  • PhpStorm Meta for Container instances
• Usage with Lumen
  • Enabling Facades
  • Adding the Service Provider
  • Adding Additional Facades
• License

Installation

Require this package with composer using the following command:

composer require --dev barryvdh/laravel-ide-helper

If you are using Laravel versions older than 5.5, add the service provider to the providers array in config/app.php:

Barryvdh\LaravelIdeHelper\IdeHelperServiceProvider::class,

In Laravel, instead of adding the service provider in the config/app.php file, you can add the following code to your app/Providers/AppServiceProvider.php file, within the register() method:

public function register()
{
    if ($this->app->environment() !== 'production') {
        $this->app->register(\Barryvdh\LaravelIdeHelper\IdeHelperServiceProvider::class);
    }
    // ...
}

This will allow your application to load the Laravel IDE Helper on non-production environments.

Usage

Check out this Laracasts video (opens new window) for a quick introduction/explanation!

• php artisan ide-helper:generate - PHPDoc generation for Laravel Facades
• php artisan ide-helper:models - PHPDocs for models
• php artisan ide-helper:meta - PhpStorm Meta file

If you don't want to generate it, you can add a pre-generated file to the root folder of your Laravel project (but this isn't as up-to-date as self generated files).

• Generated version for Laravel 5: https://gist.github.com/barryvdh/5227822
• Generated version for Lumen: https://gist.github.com/barryvdh/be17164b0ad51f832f20
• Generated Phpstorm Meta file: https://gist.github.com/barryvdh/bb6ffc5d11e0a75dba67

Note: You do need CodeComplice for Sublime Text: https://github.com/spectacles/CodeComplice

Automatic PHPDoc generation for Laravel Facades

You can now re-generate the docs yourself (for future updates)

php artisan ide-helper:generate

Note: bootstrap/compiled.php has to be cleared first, so run php artisan clear-compiled before generating.

You can configure your composer.json to do this each time you update your dependencies:

"scripts": {
    "post-update-cmd": [
        "Illuminate\\Foundation\\ComposerScripts::postUpdate",
        "@php artisan ide-helper:generate",
        "@php artisan ide-helper:meta"
    ]
},

You can also publish the config file to change implementations (ie. interface to specific class) or set defaults for --helpers or --sublime.

php artisan vendor:publish --provider="Barryvdh\LaravelIdeHelper\IdeHelperServiceProvider" --tag=config

The generator tries to identify the real class, but if it cannot be found, you can define it in the config file.

Some classes need a working database connection. If you do not have a default working connection, some facades will not be included. You can use an in-memory SQLite driver by adding the -M option.

You can choose to include helper files. This is not enabled by default, but you can override it with the --helpers (-H) option. The Illuminate/Support/helpers.php is already set up, but you can add/remove your own files in the config file.

Automatic PHPDocs for models

If you don't want to write your properties yourself, you can use the command php artisan ide-helper:models to generate PHPDocs, based on table columns, relations and getters/setters.

By default, you are asked to overwrite or write to a separate file (_ide_helper_models.php). You can write the comments directly to your Model file, using the --write (-W) option, or force to not write with --nowrite (-N).

Please make sure to back up your models, before writing the info.

Writing to the models should keep the existing comments and only append new properties/methods. The existing PHPDoc is replaced, or added if not found. With the --reset (-R) option, the existing PHPDocs are ignored, and only the newly found columns/relations are saved as PHPDocs.

php artisan ide-helper:models Post

/**
 * An Eloquent Model: 'Post'
 *
 * @property integer $id
 * @property integer $author_id
 * @property string $title
 * @property string $text
 * @property \Illuminate\Support\Carbon $created_at
 * @property \Illuminate\Support\Carbon $updated_at
 * @property-read \User $author
 * @property-read \Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Collection|\Comment[] $comments
 */

By default, models in app/models are scanned. The optional argument tells what models to use (also outside app/models).

php artisan ide-helper:models Post User

You can also scan a different directory, using the --dir option (relative from the base path):

php artisan ide-helper:models --dir="path/to/models" --dir="app/src/Model"

You can publish the config file (php artisan vendor:publish) and set the default directories.

Models can be ignored using the --ignore (-I) option

php artisan ide-helper:models --ignore="Post,User"

Or can be ignored by setting the ignored_models config

'ignored_models' => [
    Post::class,
    Api\User::class
],

Note: With namespaces, wrap your model name in double-quotes ("): php artisan ide-helper:models "API\User", or escape the slashes (Api\\User).

For properly recognition of Model methods (i.e. paginate, findOrFail) you should extend \Eloquent or add

/** @mixin \Eloquent */

for your model class.

Automatic PHPDocs generation for Laravel Fluent methods

If you need PHPDocs support for Fluent methods in migration, for example

$table->string("somestring")->nullable()->index();

After publishing vendor, simply change the include_fluent line your config/ide-helper.php file into:

'include_fluent' => true,

Then run php artisan ide-helper:generate, you will now see all Fluent methods recognized by your IDE.

Auto-completion for factory builders

If you would like the factory()->create() and factory()->make() methods to return the correct model class, you can enable custom factory builders with the include_factory_builders line your config/ide-helper.php file.

'include_factory_builders' => true,

For this to work, you must also publish the PhpStorm Meta file (see below).

PhpStorm Meta for Container instances

It's possible to generate a PhpStorm meta file to add support for factory design pattern (opens new window). For Laravel, this means we can make PhpStorm understand what kind of object we are resolving from the IoC Container. For example, events will return an Illuminate\Events\Dispatcher object, so with the meta file you can call app('events') and it will autocomplete the Dispatcher methods.

php artisan ide-helper:meta

app('events')->fire();
\App::make('events')->fire();

/** @var \Illuminate\Foundation\Application $app */
$app->make('events')->fire();

// When the key is not found, it uses the argument as class name
app('App\SomeClass');

Pre-generated example: https://gist.github.com/barryvdh/bb6ffc5d11e0a75dba67

Note: You might need to restart PhpStorm and make sure .phpstorm.meta.php is indexed. Note: When you receive a FatalException: class not found, check your config (for example, remove S3 as cloud driver when you don't have S3 configured. Remove Redis ServiceProvider when you don't use it).

Usage with Lumen

This package is focused on Laravel development, but it can also be used in Lumen with some workarounds. Because Lumen works a little different, as it is like a bare bone version of Laravel and the main configuration parameters are instead located in bootstrap/app.php, some alterations must be made.

Enabling Facades

While Laravel IDE Helper can generate automatically default Facades for code hinting, Lumen doesn't come with Facades activated. If you plan in using them, you must enable them under the Create The Application section, uncommenting this line:

// $app->withFacades();

From there, you should be able to use the create_alias() function to add additional Facades into your application.

Adding the Service Provider

You can install Laravel IDE Helper in app/Providers/AppServiceProvider.php, and uncommenting this line that registers the App Service Providers, so it can properly load.

// $app->register(App\Providers\AppServiceProvider::class);

If you are not using that line, that is usually handy to manage gracefully multiple Laravel/Lumen installations, you will have to add this line of code under the Register Service Providers section of your bootstrap/app.php.

if ($app->environment() !== 'production') {
    $app->register(\Barryvdh\LaravelIdeHelper\IdeHelperServiceProvider::class);
}

After that, Laravel IDE Helper should work correctly. During the generation process, the script may throw exceptions saying that some Class(s) doesn't exist or there are some undefined indexes. This is normal, as Lumen has some default packages stripped away, like Cookies, Storage and Session. If you plan to add these packages, you will have to add them manually and create additional Facades if needed.

Adding Additional Facades

Currently, Lumen IDE Helper doesn't take into account additional Facades created under bootstrap/app.php using create_alias(), so you need to create a config/app.php file and add your custom aliases under an aliases array again, like so:

return [
    'aliases' => [
        'CustomAliasOne' => Example\Support\Facades\CustomAliasOne::class,
        'CustomAliasTwo' => Example\Support\Facades\CustomAliasTwo::class,
        //...
    ]
];

After you run php artisan ide-helper:generate, it's recommended (but not mandatory) to rename config/app.php to something else, until you have to re-generate the docs or after passing to production environment. Lumen 5.1+ will read this file for configuration parameters if it is present, and may overlap some configurations if it is completely populated.

License

The Laravel IDE Helper Generator is open-sourced software licensed under the MIT license (opens new window)