Advice for correct way to add specific code to laravel project

your controller layer should be pretty light, and use it as a means to

• handle traffic from a route
• do a thing
• return a response to describe what you did.

the 'do a thing' should be done in a separate class, and commonly this would be placed in App/Services/* which an accompanying test within tests/Unit/Services/*

if you use events and listeners, it is still helpful Ito isolate your new Service in its own namespace as that will allow you to share this functionality across your codebase. Eg you might have an event that does a thing but also that thing can be ran by running a custom artisan command.

The key thing to take home is ensure new work is covered by tests as that will mean you can easily move functionality as you refine your directory structure.

@gpalmer711 It’s probably worth taking a step back and planning your models and their relations on paper before diving into code, because if you go steaming ahead and model your application “wrong”, then it becomes a tough job undoing all of the incorrect models you’ve created, and incorrect relations between them.

That being said, when you do come to code, don’t fight the framework. If you want something to be able to pick up your application and start working on it straight away, then follow the framework’s conventions. Put models in the app/Models directory; put controllers in the app/Http/Controllers directory; and so on.

I’ve been working on the web for over 15 years now (and 10 of those with Laravel) and the projects that were “difficult” to work worth and difficult to onboard new developers on, were the projects where someone had decided it was a special little snowflake and they needed to do things in their own unique way, which means someone has to then sit and explain all of these decisions and deviations instead of just going, “Here’s the source repository for the app. Clone it to your computer and get going”.

Thanks for the advice guys - much appreciated.