Build Larabook From Scratch

Been using Laravel for some time, and now feel ready to build a well-architected application from scratch? Excellent! Together, let's build a light version of Facebook, called Larabook.

Lessons summary

1. The Virtual Machine

To begin our new project, let's setup a virtual machine, using Vagrant and Laravel Homestead.

Please note: I did not actually followed this lesson, so the projet in this repository may be a little bit different

2. Dependencies

There are a number of dependencies that we'll need to pull in for this project. While even a few years ago, this might have been a pain, luckily that's no longer the case, thanks to Composer.

3. Database Configuration and Sequel Pro

In this lesson, let's get connected to our database, and then figure out how to access it from a GUI, like Sequel Pro.

**Please note: All .env.*.php files are of course not committed, please check the lesson to know how to create them. **

4. The Master Page

Although we won't focus too much on design, naturally, we need something nice and simple to look at. So, let's begin that process by leveraging Twitter Bootstrap, and setting up our first master/layout page.

5. Designing the Home Page

This includes some basic design boilerplate work. Let's focus on the navbar and homepage in this episode.

6. Gulp, Sass and Autoprefixing

Let's put a system into place, that will automatically watch our Sass files for changes, compile them, and then autoprefix any relevant CSS3. We'll use the excellent Gulp tool to allow for this.

7. Registration with BDD

Naturally, before a user can begin posting status updates, they first need to register for Larabook. Let's use Codeception to help drive and test this process.

8. Users

In the previous lesson, we stopped just short of creating a migration for our users. Let's tackle that now, and return the tests to green.

9. Registration Validation

Of course, form validation is essential for any web app. Larabook is no different; so let's work on that in this episode.

10. Thinking in Terms of Commands

For larger applications that need to be maintained for years, it makes sense to take a step back, and think about architecture. Let's use commands to describe the various instructions that our app offers, as well as a command bus to manage the act of translating these commands into handler classes.

11. Domain Events

Because we've taken some time to structure our app in this manner, we now have a really simple way to queue and listen for domain events. Let me show you.

12. Super Easy Flash Messaging

How many times have you created the necessary views to display flash messages? Lots? Well, in this episode, I'll show you how we can tackle this very quickly.

13. Feedback and Filters

Right now, we can register a user; however, we still need to provide more feedback to signal that they are, in fact, logged in. Let's focus on that in this episode, along with a few other tidbits.

14. Signing In

Now that a user can successfully register, we next need to give them a way to login and logout!

15. Returning the Tests to Green

If you're working along, you might have encountered a confusing Codeception bug. Don't worry: as they say, it's Codeception, not you. Let's take a look.

16. Publishing Statuses

It's time to allow our authenticated users to publish statuses to their profile. We have a number of things to do in this episode, so grab a cup of coffee, and let's do this.

17. Integration Testing Repositories

So far, we've exclusively created functional tests. However, often, it can be beneficial to test at a lower level. In this episode, we'll setup Codeception to execute our integration tests, using a repository as an example. Hopefully, you'll see just how easy it can be.

18. Gravatars and View Presenters

At least for now, rather than making Larabook users upload profile images, we'll simply leverage the popular Gravatar service. Along the way, I'll show you three different ways to "store" this logic for fetching the appropriate Gravatar.

19. Designing Statuses

Right now, the status page looks terrible. I know we're interested in the code, but let's take at least ten minutes to make it look prettier.

20. Dummy Users and Statuses

So far, we've been manually creating records. Naturally, though, it makes sense to mass-create users and statuses, for the purposes of testing in the browser. Let me show you a streamlined way to accomplish this.

21. Browsing Users With Pagination

We need to offer some way for users to browse through all registered members of Larabook. That way, they can have the option of "following" any developers who post interesting statuses. Let's handle that in this lesson, while also implementing pagination.

22. Profiles

In the previous episode, we managed to display all registered Larabook users; however, we stopped just short of offering a way to link to their respective profiles. Let's tackle that in this episode.

23. Refactoring Session #1

Before we move on to allowing Larabook users to follow one another, let's first take a short break and do a bit of miscellaneous refactoring. Luckily, because we have a growing test suite, we should be able to tackle this with a good sense of confidence.

24. Following Users

At this point, we need to offer the ability for Larabook users to follow one another. This way, in their respective feeds, they can see, not only their own statuses, but all the statuses of those they follow. Over the next two lessons, I'll demonstrate two different ways to tackle this. Let's get started with the first approach!

25. Following Users: Part 2

We've mostly implemented our "follow" functionality; however, I'd like to do some cleanup, and also write some tests.

26. Site Review and Tweaks

In this episode, we'll take a stroll through the site, while reviewing some key sections that need to be tweaked.

27. Handlers & Mailers

When a user signs up for Larabook, we need to send them a welcome email. Hmm - what's a clean way to implement this?

28. Sass Partials

Though Larabook doesn't have much CSS, it's still important that we structure and organize it in a maintainable way. Let's extract some partials and modules!

**This lesson is using the design made by @amite that you can find here : https://gist.github.com/amite/593eb62dc1ca013999c1

29. The Password Reset Process

What if one of our Larabook members forgets their password? Right now, they're completely out of luck! Clearly, this must be fixed. Let's implement a solution in ten minutes.

30. Status Comments

A core feature of Larabook hasn't yet been implemented. Users need to have the ability to comment on existing statuses. We'll implement that very thing in this episode.

31. Let's Deploy This Thing

Let's imagine that we've invested far more than just a few hours worth of time into this application. It's now time to push it to production. To do this, we'll leverage both DigitalOcean and Laravel Forge. Hopefully, you'll see just how easy this is. Our community is spoiled!