laravel share variable across all methods in a controller

Question

i am making a simple website in PHP laravel framework where the top navigation links are being generated dynamically from the database. I am generating the $pages variable in the home controller action and passing to layout file. My code is as below:

 public function home()
{
    $pages = Page::all();
    return View::make('home')->with('pages', $pages);
}

public function login()
{
    return View::make('login');
}

But when i try to access the login action, i get the error variable $pages not found since the $pages variable is being accessed in layout file. How can i share the same variable across all the actions in a controller?

Answer 1

I think a fairly straightforward way to do this is by using the controller's constructor. It's sometimes helpful to be able to see the vars available to all methods in a controller from within that controller, instead of hidden away in a service provider somewhere.

class MyController extends BaseController
{
    public function __construct()
    {
        view()->share('sharedVar', 'some value');
    }

    public function myTestAction()
    {
        view('view.name.here');
    }
}

And in the view:

<p>{{ $sharedVar }}</p>

Answer 2

You can use singleton like the following

App::singleton('data', function() { return array('abc' => 1); });

This way, you can call it anywhere in your controller or template like

$data = App::make('data');

Following this, you could try using a bundle developed by Phil here, https://github.com/Phil-F/Setting. Once installed, then you can just refer it in controller or template by

Setting::get('title')

Of course, you can set it anywhere by using

Setting::set('title', 'Portfolio');

Setting allows you store them both in cache and json file which might be another way to get the value back.