In this article I will show you how to create your own custom helpers in Laravel framework.

Create Project
Run the following composer command to create a new Laravel project:

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composer create-project laravel/laravel laravel_helper

Customer Helpers’ Dir
Customer helpers files will be located in the app dir.

Create a new directory Helpers in app/Helpers

Define Helper Class
Let’s create a simple helper function that will return the user’s full name format.

Create a new file UserHelper.php in app/Helpers and add the following codes:

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<?php

namespace App\Helpers;

class UserHelper {
  public static function full_name($first_name, $last_name) {
    return $first_name . ', '. $last_name;
  }
}

- namespace App\Helpers;: defines the Helpers namespace.
- public static function full_name($first_name, $last_name) {...}: defines a static function which return the user’s full name.

Helpers Service Provider Class
Service providers are used to auto load classes in Laravel framework.

We will need to define a service provider that will load all of our helpers classes in app/Helpers directory.

Run the following artisan command to create HelperServiceProvider.php in app/Providers directory:

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php artisan make:provider HelperServiceProvider

And then add the following code below in HelperServiceProvider.php file:

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<?php

namespace App\Providers;

use Illuminate\Support\ServiceProvider;

class HelperServiceProvider extends ServiceProvider {

  /**
   * Bootstrap the application services.
   *
   * @return void
   */
  public function boot()
  {
    //
  }

  /**
   * Register the application services.
   *
   * @return void
   */
  public function register()
  {
    foreach (glob(app_path().'/Helpers/*.php') as $filename){
      require_once($filename);
    }
  }
}

- namespace App\Providers;: defines the namespace provider.
- use Illuminate\Support\ServiceProvider;: imports the ServiceProvider class namespace.
- class HelperServiceProvider extends ServiceProvider {...}: defines a HelperServiceProvider class that extends/inherite the ServiceProvider class. - public function register() {...} is the function that is used to loads the helpers.
- foreach (glob(app_path().'/Helpers/*.php') as $filename) {...}: loops through all the files in app/Helpers directory and loads them.

Configure Helper Service Provider and Class Alias
We need to register the HelperServiceProvider and create an alias for the helpers.

Open up config/app.php file and add the following line in providers array variable.

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App\Providers\HelperServiceProvider::class,

And then add the following line in aliases array variable.

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'UserHelper' => App\Helpers\UserHelper::class,

Using the Custom Helper
Let create a route that will the custom helper function. Open up routes/web.php and add the following codes:

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Route::get('/users', function () {
  return UserHelper::full_name("Bunlong", "Van");
});

- return UserHelper::full_name("Bunlong", "Van"); calls the static function full_name in UserHelper class.

Open up your browser and type the uri http://localhost:8000/users you will see “Bunlong, Van” text.

So far so good, That’s it!!! See ya!!! :)