Build Laravel 9 Follow Unfollow System Part 1
2 years ago
admin
Laravel
In this tutorial we are going to see how to build a Follow and Unfollow System in Laravel 9 without using any packages we will use just Laravel 9.
The registered users can follow each other and each user will see how many followings and followers he or she has.
Create the migration
First of all, I assume that you have already a fresh new Laravel 9 application, next we will create a migration for the followings table:
<?php
use Illuminate\Database\Migrations\Migration;
use Illuminate\Database\Schema\Blueprint;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Schema;
return new class extends Migration
{
/**
* Run the migrations.
*
* @return void
*/
public function up()
{
Schema::create('follows', function (Blueprint $table) {
$table->id();
$table->unsignedBigInteger('follower_id');
$table->unsignedBigInteger('following_id');
$table->timestamps();
});
}
/**
* Reverse the migrations.
*
* @return void
*/
public function down()
{
Schema::dropIfExists('follows');
}
};
Create the model relationships
Next inside the User Model, we add the relationships:
<?php
namespace App\Models;
// use Illuminate\Contracts\Auth\MustVerifyEmail;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Factories\HasFactory;
use Illuminate\Foundation\Auth\User as Authenticatable;
use Illuminate\Notifications\Notifiable;
use Laravel\Sanctum\HasApiTokens;
class User extends Authenticatable
{
use HasApiTokens, HasFactory, Notifiable;
/**
* The attributes that are mass assignable.
*
* @var array<int, string>
*/
protected $fillable = [
'name',
'email',
'password',
];
/**
* The attributes that should be hidden for serialization.
*
* @var array<int, string>
*/
protected $hidden = [
'password',
'remember_token',
];
/**
* The attributes that should be cast.
*
* @var array<string, string>
*/
protected $casts = [
'email_verified_at' => 'datetime',
];
//users that this user follow
public function followings() {
return $this->belongsToMany(User::class, 'follows', 'follower_id', 'following_id');
}
//users that follow this user
public function followers() {
return $this->belongsToMany(User::class, 'follows', 'following_id', 'follower_id');
}
}
Create the controller
Next step we create the UserController with the follow and unfollow methods:
<?php
namespace App\Http\Controllers;
use App\Models\User;
use Illuminate\Http\Request;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Hash;
class UserController extends Controller
{
//
public function registerForm(){
if(auth()->check()){
return redirect('/');
}
return view('auth.register');
}
public function store(Request $request){
$this->validate($request,[
'name' => 'required|max:100',
'email' => 'required',
'password' => 'required|min:6'
]);
$user = User::create([
'name' => $request->name,
'email' => $request->email,
'password' => Hash::make($request->password),
]);
auth()->login($user);
return redirect('/');
}
public function loginForm(){
if(auth()->check()){
return redirect('/');
}
return view('auth.login');
}
public function auth(Request $request){
$this->validate($request,[
'email' => 'required',
'password' => 'required|min:6'
]);
if(auth()->attempt([
'email' => $request->email,
'password' => $request->password,
])){
return redirect('/');
}else{
return redirect()->route('login')->with([
'error' => 'These credentials do not match any of our records!'
]);
}
}
public function logout(){
auth()->logout();
return redirect()->route('login');
}
public function follow($following_id, $follower_id){
$follower = User::find($follower_id);
$following = User::find($following_id);
$follower->followings()->attach($following);
return redirect()->back();
}
public function unfollow($following_id, $follower_id){
$follower = User::find($follower_id);
$following = User::find($following_id);
$follower->followings()->detach($following);
return redirect()->back();
}
}
Create the routes
Next we add the routes:
<?php
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Route;
use App\Http\Controllers\UserController;
use App\Models\User;
/*
|--------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Web Routes
|--------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
| Here is where you can register web routes for your application. These
| routes are loaded by the RouteServiceProvider within a group which
| contains the "web" middleware group. Now create something great!
|
*/
Route::middleware('auth')->group(function(){
Route::get('/', function () {
$users = User::all();
return view('home')->with([
'users' => $users
]);
});
Route::post('user/logout', [UserController::class, 'logout'])
->name('logout');
});
Route::get('user/register', [UserController::class, 'registerForm'])
->name('register');
Route::post('user/register', [UserController::class, 'store'])
->name('register');
Route::get('user/login', [UserController::class, 'loginForm'])
->name('login');
Route::post('user/login', [UserController::class, 'auth'])
->name('login');
Route::get('user/{following_id}/{follower_id}/follow', [UserController::class, 'follow'])->name('follow');
Route::get('user/{following_id}/{follower_id}/unfollow', [UserController::class, 'unfollow'])->name('unfollow');