How to Build Your First Laravel Package

Laravel is a popular framework for full-stack web development, REST API development, and writing tests using Pest, Cypress, Jest, or Mocha. One of the great things about Laravel is that it offers efficient tools for developing your own packages. In this tutorial, we'll walk you through the steps for creating your own Laravel package.

Audience

This tutorial is aimed at web developers who have some experience working with Laravel and want to learn how to create their own packages.

Steps for Creating Your First Laravel Package

To create your first Laravel package, follow these steps:

Step 1: Create a New Laravel Package Using Composer

The first step in creating your own Laravel package is to create a new Laravel app using Composer. Open your terminal and run the following command:

composer create-project --prefer-dist laravel/laravel example-package

This will create a new Laravel app in a directory called example-package.

Step 2: Create a New Directory

Next, create a new directory inside your package directory called src. This is where you will store the source code of your package.

Step 3: Create a Service Provider

Create a new file called ExamplePackageServiceProvider.php inside the src directory. Add the following code snippet to create a new service provider for your package:

<?php

namespace ExamplePackage;

use Illuminate\Support\ServiceProvider;

class ExamplePackageServiceProvider extends ServiceProvider
{
    public function register()
    {
        //    
    }

    public function boot()
    {
        //
    }
}

Step 4: Add Service Provider to Kernel

In order for Laravel to detect the service provider for your package, you need to add the following code snippet to the providers array in the config/app.php file:

ExamplePackage\ExamplePackageServiceProvider::class,

Step 5: Configure Your Package

At this point, you can add whatever functionality you want to your package, such as classes, views, routes, or controllers. You should also configure your package's composer.json file with information about your package and its dependencies.

Conclusion

Creating your own Laravel package is a great way to extend the functionality of your Laravel apps and share your code with other developers. Follow the steps outlined in this tutorial to create your own package and improve your Laravel skills today!