This is an alternative implementation of laracasts/presenter with some added features. Some parts of this document is copy-past!

So you have those scenarios where a bit of logic needs to be performed before some data (likely from your entity) is displayed from the view.

• Should that logic be hard-coded into the view? No.
• Should we instead store the logic in the model? No again!

Instead, leverage view presenters. That's what they're for! This package provides one such implementation.

PS: Using repository pattern, this package suggests that repository functions should return presenter instead of model and presenter collection instead of eloquent collection.

#Installation

{
    "require": {
        "halaei/presenter": "0.*"
    }
}

The first step is to store your presenters somewhere - anywhere. These will be simple objects that do nothing more than format data, as required.

Here's an example of a presenter.

use Laracasts\Presenter\Presenter;

class UserPresenter extends Presenter {

    public function fullName()
    {
        return $this->first . ' ' . $this->last;
    }

    public function accountAge()
    {
        return $this->created_at->diffForHumans();
    }

}

Next, on your entity, pull in the Halaei\Presenter\PresentableTrait trait, which will automatically instantiate your presenter class.

Here's an example - maybe a Laravel User model.

<?php

use Halaei\Presenter\PresentableTrait;

class User extends \Eloquent {

    use PresentableTrait;

    protected $presenter_class = 'UserPresenter';

}

That's it! You're done. Now, within your view, you can do:

    <h1>Hello, {{ $user->present()->fullName }}</h1>

Notice how the call to the present() method (which will return your new or cached presenter object) also provides the benefit of making it perfectly clear where you must go, should you need to modify how a full name is displayed on the page.

If you want to return model from a repository function, but you don't want the client code do something like this:

$model->newQuery()->delete(); //delete all the records of table!

then you can use PresentableTrait in your model, even without setting $presenter_class. There is a default presenter class for this purpose: BasePresenter.

function someRepositoryFunction()
{
    return $this->model->where('some condition')->firstOrFail()->present();
}

If you want to give some flexibilities of eloquent model to the client of your repository, but not too much flexibility, you can define $presenter_callables while using PresentableTrait:

use Halaei\Presenter\PresentableTrait;

    class User extends \Eloquent {

    use PresentableTrait;

    protected $presenter_class = 'UserPresenter';

    protected $presenter_callables = ['save']; //to make your presenter a real active record!
}

//client code can do:

/** var UserPresenter $presenter **/
$presenter = $your_user_reopsitory->findById(1);

$presenter->email = 'john@doe.com';

$presenter->save();

If you want your repository being able to access the model that is presented, and you don't want that access nowhere else (i.e. YourRepositoryClass being a C++ friend of your presenter) do the following:

class User extends \Eloquent {

    use PresentableTrait;

    protected $presenter_class = 'UserPresenter';

    protected $presenter_friend = 'YourRepositoryClass';

...
}

class YourRepositoryClass()
{
    function save(UserPresenter $user)
    {
        //you can do
        $user->save();
        //or equivalently
        $user->getModel()->save();
        //but that can be done only in this friend class! Outsiders will be blocked by an Exection!
    }
}

4- Instead of returning an eloquent collection, which is basically an array of eloquent models, simply wrap that collection inside a Halaei\Presenter\PresenterCollection:

use Halaei\Presenter\PresenterCollection;

...

function anotherRepositoryFunction()
{
    return new PresenterCollection($this->model->where('some condition')->get());
}

You can, but are not forced to, define these 3 special variables either static or non-static, depends of what you think is better.

$presenter_class;
$presenter_callables;
$presenter_friend;

Feel free to use whatever subset of features and options best fits your situation.