Laravel View Models vs. View Composers: Which Should You Use?

In Laravel, both View Models and View Composers are useful tools to manage the data passed to your views. However, they serve different purposes and offer distinct advantages depending on the complexity of your application.

What are View Models?

View Models are dedicated classes that encapsulate the logic required to prepare data for a specific view. They help you manage complex view data, ensuring controllers remain slim, and they promote a clean separation of concerns.

Example of a View Model:

Create a ProductViewModel class:

namespace App\ViewModels;

class ProductViewModel
{
    public function __construct(protected $product) {}

    public function formattedPrice()
    {
        return number_format($this->product->price, 2);
    }
}

Use it in the controller:

public function show(Product $product)
{
    return view('products.show', [
        'viewModel' => new ProductViewModel($product),
    ]);
}

In the Blade template:

<p>Price: {{ $viewModel->formattedPrice() }}</p>

What are View Composers?

View Composers are callback functions or classes that automatically bind data to a view, regardless of which controller loads that view. This can be especially helpful when you need to pass the same data (e.g., navigation menus, authentication status) to multiple views without repeating code in each controller.

Example of a View Composer:

Create a View Composer class:

namespace App\Http\ViewComposers;

use App\Models\Category;
use Illuminate\View\View;

class CategoryComposer
{
    public function compose(View $view)
    {
        $view->with('categories', Category::all());
    }
}

Register the composer in AppServiceProvider:

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\View;
use App\Http\ViewComposers\CategoryComposer;

public function boot()
{
    View::composer('partials.nav', CategoryComposer::class);
}

In the Blade view:

@foreach ($categories as $category)
    <li>{{ $category->name }}</li>
@endforeach

Key Differences

• Scope: View Models are specific to individual views or routes, while View Composers can inject data into multiple views globally or selectively.
• Usage: Use View Models when dealing with complex, view-specific data logic. Use View Composers when you need to share common data across multiple views.
• Testability: View Models are easier to test since they are plain PHP classes, whereas testing View Composers might require more setup because they are tied directly to views.

When to Use View Models

• Complex Data Preparation: If your view requires complicated data transformations or multiple methods, View Models make the logic manageable.
• View-Specific Logic: When certain data transformations only make sense in the context of a specific view (e.g., formatting prices or filtering data).

When to Use View Composers

• Global or Shared Data: When the same data needs to be accessible in multiple views (e.g., site-wide categories or user-specific data like notifications).
• Automatic Binding: For cases where you want data automatically injected into specific views without needing to pass it from every controller.

Conclusion

Both View Models and View Composers are powerful ways to manage view data in Laravel, but they serve different use cases. Use View Models when you want to simplify view-specific data preparation and ensure a clear separation between business logic and presentation. On the other hand, use View Composers for shared, repetitive data that should be injected into multiple views without cluttering your controllers. Depending on your project’s needs, you may even combine both approaches to create a clean, organized, and maintainable codebase.

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