Laravel Nova – Admin panel for Laravel

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2 months ago

Laravel Nova is a beautifully designed administration panel for Laravel applications. It provides a powerful and flexible interface for managing your application’s data, making it easier to create a robust backend for your Laravel projects. With Nova, you can quickly build CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete) interfaces and manage complex data relationships.

Key Features of Laravel Nova:

Resource Management: Easily define resources and their fields, relationships, and actions.
Customizable Interface: Customize the look and feel of your admin panel to match your application’s branding.

Filters and Metrics: Create filters to narrow down data and add metrics to display insights directly on your dashboard.
Lenses: Define custom views for your resources to display data in different formats.
Authorization: Leverage Laravel’s authorization features to manage user access to resources and actions.
Actions: Create custom actions that can be performed on resources in bulk.

Installation

To get started with Laravel Nova, follow these steps:

Purchase and Download Nova: Laravel Nova is a paid product. Purchase it from the Laravel Nova website. After purchasing, you can download the package.
Install Nova via Composer: After downloading, extract the files and navigate to your Laravel project. You can add the Nova package to your project by running:

composer require laravel/nova

1

composer require laravel/nova
Publish the Nova Assets: Publish the Nova assets and configuration file:

php artisan nova:install

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php artisan nova:install
Run Migrations: Run the migrations to create the necessary tables:

php artisan migrate

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php artisan migrate
Accessing Nova: You can access the Nova admin panel at /nova in your browser. Ensure that you are logged in as a user with the appropriate permissions.

Defining Resources

In Laravel Nova, you can define resources that represent your database tables. Each resource corresponds to a model in your Laravel application.

1. Creating a Resource:

You can create a new resource using the Artisan command:

php artisan nova:resource Post

1	php artisan nova:resource Post

This command generates a new resource file located in app/Nova/Post.php.

2. Defining Fields:

In the resource file, you can define the fields that should be displayed in the Nova interface:

namespace App\Nova;

use Illuminate\Http\Request;
use Laravel\Nova\Fields\ID;
use Laravel\Nova\Fields\Text;
use Laravel\Nova\Fields\Trix;

class Post extends Resource
{
    public static $model = \App\Models\Post::class;

    public function fields(Request $request)
    {
        return [
            ID::make()->sortable(),

            Text::make('Title')
                ->sortable()
                ->rules('required', 'max:255'),

            Trix::make('Content')
                ->rules('required'),
        ];
    }
}

namespace App\Nova;

use Illuminate\Http\Request;

use Laravel\Nova\Fields\ID;

use Laravel\Nova\Fields\Text;

use Laravel\Nova\Fields\Trix;

class Post extends Resource

{

public static $model = \App\Models\Post::class;

public function fields(Request $request)

{

return [

ID::make()->sortable(),

Text::make('Title')

->sortable()

->rules('required', 'max:255'),

Trix::make('Content')

->rules('required'),

];

}

Customizing the Dashboard

You can customize the Nova dashboard to display metrics and insights about your application.

1. Creating a Dashboard:

You can create a custom dashboard using the following command:

php artisan nova:dashboard MyDashboard

1	php artisan nova:dashboard MyDashboard

This command generates a dashboard file in app/Nova/Dashboards/MyDashboard.php.

2. Defining Metrics:

You can define metrics to display key performance indicators on your dashboard:

namespace App\Nova\Dashboards;

use Laravel\Nova\Dashboard;
use Laravel\Nova\Metrics\Value;

class MyDashboard extends Dashboard
{
    public function cards()
    {
        return [
            new Value('Total Posts', \App\Models\Post::count()),
        ];
    }
}

namespace App\Nova\Dashboards;

use Laravel\Nova\Dashboard;

use Laravel\Nova\Metrics\Value;

class MyDashboard extends Dashboard

{

public function cards()

{

return [

new Value('Total Posts', \App\Models\Post::count()),

];

}

Implementing Filters

You can create filters to allow users to narrow down resource data based on specific criteria.

1. Creating a Filter:

You can create a filter using the following command:

php artisan nova:filter PostStatus

1	php artisan nova:filter PostStatus

2. Defining the Filter Logic:

In the filter file, define the logic to filter the resources:

namespace App\Nova\Filters;

use Illuminate\Http\Request;
use Laravel\Nova\Filters\Boolean;

class PostStatus extends Boolean
{
    public function apply(Request $request, $query, $value)
    {
        return $query->where('status', $value);
    }

    public function options()
    {
        return [
            'Published' => true,
            'Draft' => false,
        ];
    }
}

namespace App\Nova\Filters;

use Illuminate\Http\Request;

use Laravel\Nova\Filters\Boolean;

class PostStatus extends Boolean

{

public function apply(Request $request, $query, $value)

{

return $query->where('status', $value);

}

public function options()

{

return [

'Published' => true,

'Draft' => false,

];

}

Authorization and Policies

You can leverage Laravel’s built-in authorization features to manage access to resources and actions in Nova.

1. Defining Policies:

Create a policy for your model using the Artisan command:

php artisan make:policy PostPolicy

1	php artisan make:policy PostPolicy

2. Registering Policies:

protected $policies = [
    \App\Models\Post::class => \App\Policies\PostPolicy::class,
];

protected $policies = [

\App\Models\Post::class => \App\Policies\PostPolicy::class,

];

3. Using Policies in Resources:

In your resource class, you can use the authorize method to restrict access:

public function authorizedToView(Request $request)
{
    return $request->user()->can('view', $this->model());
}

public function authorizedToView(Request $request)

{

return $request->user()->can('view', $this->model());

}

Conclusion

Laravel Nova is a powerful tool for building administration panels quickly and efficiently. Its intuitive interface, extensive features, and seamless integration with Laravel make it an excellent choice for managing your application’s data.

Additional Considerations

Custom Tools: You can create custom tools to extend the functionality of your Nova panel.
Performance: Be mindful of the performance implications when managing large datasets; consider using pagination and filtering.
Customization: Utilize Nova’s customization options to tailor the admin panel to your specific needs and branding.

Key Features of Laravel Nova:

Installation

Defining Resources

1. Creating a Resource:

2. Defining Fields:

Customizing the Dashboard

1. Creating a Dashboard:

2. Defining Metrics:

Implementing Filters

1. Creating a Filter:

2. Defining the Filter Logic:

Authorization and Policies

1. Defining Policies:

2. Registering Policies:

3. Using Policies in Resources:

Conclusion

Additional Considerations

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