Custom Composer class

Composer class

🧱 1. Create the Composer Class

Create a directory (optional but recommended):

mkdir -p app/View/Composers

Then create the class:

namespace App\View\Composers;

use Illuminate\View\View;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Auth;

class UserComposer
{
    public function compose(View $view): void
    {
        $user = Auth::user();

        $view->with('appContext', [
            'user' => $user,
            'avatar' => $user?->avatar_url ?? '/images/default-avatar.png',
            // Add other user-wide variables here
            'isAdmin' => $user?->hasRole('admin') ?? false,
        ]);
    }
}

💡 This gives you a clean, testable unit of responsibility.

⚙️ 2. Register It in a Service Provider

In your AppServiceProvider or (preferably) a custom ViewServiceProvider:

php artisan make:provider ViewServiceProvider

Then inside boot():

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\View;
use App\View\Composers\UserComposer;

public function boot(): void
{
    View::composer('*', UserComposer::class);
}

And register it in bootstrap/providers.php under bootstrap:

return [
    App\Providers\AppServiceProvider::class,
    App\Providers\ViewServiceProvider::class,
];

🧪 3. Use It in Blade

Now in your layout or any view:

@auth
    <div class="flex-shrink-0">
        <img class="h-10 w-15" src="{{ $appContext['avatar'] }}" alt="The user avatar">
    </div>
@endauth

Or:

@if ($appContext['isAdmin'])
    <a href="/admin">Admin Panel</a>
@endif

📦 Bonus: Add More Context

You can grow UserComposer into a full UI context builder:

$view->with('appContext', [
    'user' => $user,
    'avatar' => $user?->avatar_url,
    'isAdmin' => $user?->hasRole('admin'),
    'notifications' => $user?->unreadNotifications()->take(5)->get(),
]);

This becomes the perfect place to prep things for the navbar, sidebar, user dropdown, etc.

Let me know if you want to abstract it even further into something like a UserContextBuilder or AppContextService, depending on how far you want to go. You’re on the right track here.