Starter Kit Installation and Code Analysis

The goal of our first course section is to create a full CRUD like this:

In this first lesson, we will install Laravel with the Vue starter kit and familiarize ourselves with its general structure and code.

Installation

We install a new Laravel project and will choose the Vue starter kit:

laravel new laravel

We stay with the default values for all the other choices in the wizard.

As a result, we have a regular Laravel homepage with "Log in" and "Register" links at the top.

When we register as a new user, we land on an empty dashboard with a sidebar.

In addition to the layout, we have the "Settings" menu item that allows user profile data:

So yeah, that's all about installation! Simple, huh? Now, let's see what's inside the code.

Project Code Structure: Back-End

I typically start analyzing any Laravel project with Routes.

routes/web.php:

Route::get('/', function () {
    return Inertia::render('welcome');
})->name('home');
 
Route::middleware(['auth', 'verified'])->group(function () {
    Route::get('dashboard', function () {
        return Inertia::render('dashboard');
    })->name('dashboard');
});
 
require __DIR__.'/settings.php';
require __DIR__.'/auth.php';

Nothing special here, right? Regular routes, Inertia, and a few includes of other route files.

In the Settings route, we can find a few Controllers:

routes/settings.php:

use App\Http\Controllers\Settings\PasswordController;
use App\Http\Controllers\Settings\ProfileController;
 
Route::middleware('auth')->group(function () {
    Route::redirect('settings', 'settings/profile');
 
    Route::get('settings/profile', [ProfileController::class, 'edit'])->name('profile.edit');
    Route::patch('settings/profile', [ProfileController::class, 'update'])->name('profile.update');
    Route::delete('settings/profile', [ProfileController::class, 'destroy'])->name('profile.destroy');
 
    Route::get('settings/password', [PasswordController::class, 'edit'])->name('password.edit');
    Route::put('settings/password', [PasswordController::class, 'update'])->name('password.update');
 
    Route::get('settings/appearance', function () {
        return Inertia::render('settings/appearance');
    })->name('appearance');
});

If we look at the ProfileController, it returns Inertia with Vue components:

app/Http/Controllers/Settings/ProfileController.php:

use App\Http\Controllers\Controller;
use App\Http\Requests\Settings\ProfileUpdateRequest;
use Illuminate\Contracts\Auth\MustVerifyEmail;
use Illuminate\Http\RedirectResponse;
use Illuminate\Http\Request;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Auth;
use Inertia\Inertia;
use Inertia\Response;
 
class ProfileController extends Controller
{
    /**
     * Show the user's profile settings page.
     */
    public function edit(Request $request): Response
    {
        return Inertia::render('settings/Profile', [
            'mustVerifyEmail' => $request->user() instanceof MustVerifyEmail,
            'status' => $request->session()->get('status'),
        ]);
    }
 
    /**
     * Update the user's profile information.
     */
    public function update(ProfileUpdateRequest $request): RedirectResponse
    {
        $request->user()->fill($request->validated());
 
        if ($request->user()->isDirty('email')) {
            $request->user()->email_verified_at = null;
        }
 
        $request->user()->save();
 
        return to_route('profile.edit');
    }
 
    /**
     * Delete the user's profile.
     */
    public function destroy(Request $request): RedirectResponse
    {
        $request->validate([
            'password' => ['required', 'current_password'],
        ]);
 
        $user = $request->user();
 
        Auth::logout();
 
        $user->delete();
 
        $request->session()->invalidate();
        $request->session()->regenerateToken();
 
        return redirect('/');
    }
}

The main "meat" of the pages is inside the Vue components in the resources/js folder.

Project Code Structure: Front-End

Let's look at what's inside that Inertia::render('settings/profile') file in Vue.

It's pretty big! But don't get scared if you're not that familiar with Vue. In the course, we will create our own Vue components where I will explain everything step-by-step.

resources/js/pages/settings/Profile.vue:

<script setup lang="ts">
import { Head, Link, useForm, usePage } from '@inertiajs/vue3';
 
import DeleteUser from '@/components/DeleteUser.vue';
import HeadingSmall from '@/components/HeadingSmall.vue';
import InputError from '@/components/InputError.vue';
import { Button } from '@/components/ui/button';
import { Input } from '@/components/ui/input';
import { Label } from '@/components/ui/label';
import AppLayout from '@/layouts/AppLayout.vue';
import SettingsLayout from '@/layouts/settings/Layout.vue';
import { type BreadcrumbItem, type SharedData, type User } from '@/types';
 
interface Props {
    mustVerifyEmail: boolean;
    status?: string;
}
 
defineProps<Props>();
 
const breadcrumbs: BreadcrumbItem[] = [
    {
        title: 'Profile settings',
        href: '/settings/profile',
    },
];
 
const page = usePage<SharedData>();
const user = page.props.auth.user as User;
 
const form = useForm({
    name: user.name,
    email: user.email,
});
 
const submit = () => {
    form.patch(route('profile.update'), {
        preserveScroll: true,
    });
};
</script>
 
<template>
    <AppLayout :breadcrumbs="breadcrumbs">
        <Head title="Profile settings" />
 
        <SettingsLayout>
            <div class="flex flex-col space-y-6">
                <HeadingSmall title="Profile information" description="Update your name and email address" />
 
                <form @submit.prevent="submit" class="space-y-6">
                    <div class="grid gap-2">
                        <Label for="name">Name</Label>
                        <Input id="name" class="mt-1 block w-full" v-model="form.name" required autocomplete="name" placeholder="Full name" />
                        <InputError class="mt-2" :message="form.errors.name" />
                    </div>
 
                    <div class="grid gap-2">
                        <Label for="email">Email address</Label>
                        <Input
                            id="email"
                            type="email"
                            class="mt-1 block w-full"
                            v-model="form.email"
                            required
                            autocomplete="username"
                            placeholder="Email address"
                        />
                        <InputError class="mt-2" :message="form.errors.email" />
                    </div>
 
                    <div v-if="mustVerifyEmail && !user.email_verified_at">
                        <p class="-mt-4 text-sm text-muted-foreground">
                            Your email address is unverified.
                            <Link
                                :href="route('verification.send')"
                                method="post"
                                as="button"
                                class="text-foreground underline decoration-neutral-300 underline-offset-4 transition-colors duration-300 ease-out hover:!decoration-current dark:decoration-neutral-500"
                            >
                                Click here to resend the verification email.
                            </Link>
                        </p>
 
                        <div v-if="status === 'verification-link-sent'" class="mt-2 text-sm font-medium text-green-600">
                            A new verification link has been sent to your email address.
                        </div>
                    </div>
 
                    <div class="flex items-center gap-4">
                        <Button :disabled="form.processing">Save</Button>
 
                        <Transition
                            enter-active-class="transition ease-in-out"
                            enter-from-class="opacity-0"
                            leave-active-class="transition ease-in-out"
                            leave-to-class="opacity-0"
                        >
                            <p v-show="form.recentlySuccessful" class="text-sm text-neutral-600">Saved.</p>
                        </Transition>
                    </div>
                </form>
            </div>
 
            <DeleteUser />
        </SettingsLayout>
    </AppLayout>
</template>

It's not the most straightforward file to start with, but it's here for common understanding. For now, notice the main things:

• Laravel starter kits use TypeScript, with the file extension .vue. It's not a strict requirement, you can proceed writing your custom code with regular JavaScript, but it may be a good tool to adopt. Here's our free article about TypeScript in Laravel.
• The design elements are taken from @/components/ui/ powered by Shadcn Vue library - a port of React library.
• VueJS component consists mainly of two sections: script libraries on top, and then template the HTML, enhanced by JS components and internal variables/functions
• The main page structure is in <AppLayout>, with <Head> and then content inside.

And this is exactly our next step for the next lesson: customizing the layout.