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04. Showing Chirps

In the previous step we added the ability to create Chirps, now we're ready to display them!

Retrieving the Chirps

Let's update the index method on our ChirpController class to pass Chirps from every user to our index page:

app/Http/Controllers/ChirpController.php
<?php
 ...
namespace App\Http\Controllers;
 
use App\Models\Chirp;
use Illuminate\Http\RedirectResponse;
use Illuminate\Http\Request;
use Illuminate\Http\Response;
use Illuminate\View\View;
 
class ChirpController extends Controller
{
/**
* Display a listing of the resource.
*/
public function index(): View
{
- return view('chirps.index');
+ return view('chirps.index', [
+ 'chirps' => Chirp::with('user')->latest()->get(),
+ ]);
}
 ...
/**
* Show the form for creating a new resource.
*/
public function create()
{
//
}
 
/**
* Store a newly created resource in storage.
*/
public function store(Request $request): RedirectResponse
{
$validated = $request->validateWithBag('store', [
'message' => 'required|string|max:255',
]);
 
$request->user()->chirps()->create($validated);
 
return redirect(route('chirps.index'));
}
 
/**
* Display the specified resource.
*/
public function show(Chirp $chirp)
{
//
}
 
/**
* Show the form for editing the specified resource.
*/
public function edit(Chirp $chirp)
{
//
}
 
/**
* Update the specified resource in storage.
*/
public function update(Request $request, Chirp $chirp)
{
//
}
 
/**
* Remove the specified resource from storage.
*/
public function destroy(Chirp $chirp)
{
//
}
 
}

Here we've used Eloquent's with method to eager-load every Chirp's associated user. We've also used the latest scope to return the records in reverse-chronological order.

Connecting users to Chirps

We've instructed Laravel to return the user relationship so that we can display the name of the Chirp's author. But, the Chirp's user relationship hasn't been defined yet. To fix this, let's add a new "belongs to" relationship to our Chirp model:

app/Models/Chirp.php
<?php
 ...
namespace App\Models;
 
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Factories\HasFactory;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;
+use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Relations\BelongsTo;
 
class Chirp extends Model
{
 ...
use HasFactory;
 
protected $fillable = [
'message',
];
 
+ public function user(): BelongsTo
+ {
+ return $this->belongsTo(User::class);
+ }
}

This relationship is the inverse of the "has many" relationship we created earlier on the User model.

Updating our view

Next, let's update our chirps.index component to display the Chirps below our form:

resources/views/chirps/index.blade.php
<x-app-layout>
<div class="max-w-2xl mx-auto p-4 sm:p-6 lg:p-8">
<form method="POST" action="{{ route('chirps.store') }}">
@csrf
<textarea
name="message"
placeholder="{{ __('What\'s on your mind?') }}"
class="block w-full border-gray-300 focus:border-indigo-300 focus:ring focus:ring-indigo-200 focus:ring-opacity-50 rounded-md shadow-sm"
>{{ old('message') }}</textarea>
<x-input-error :messages="$errors->store->get('message')" class="mt-2" />
<x-primary-button class="mt-4">{{ __('Chirp') }}</x-primary-button>
</form>
 
+ <div class="mt-6 bg-white shadow-sm rounded-lg divide-y">
+ @foreach ($chirps as $chirp)
+ <div class="p-6 flex space-x-2">
+ <svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" class="h-6 w-6 text-gray-600 -scale-x-100" fill="none" viewBox="0 0 24 24" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2">
+ <path stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" d="M8 12h.01M12 12h.01M16 12h.01M21 12c0 4.418-4.03 8-9 8a9.863 9.863 0 01-4.255-.949L3 20l1.395-3.72C3.512 15.042 3 13.574 3 12c0-4.418 4.03-8 9-8s9 3.582 9 8z" />
+ </svg>
+ <div class="flex-1">
+ <div class="flex justify-between items-center">
+ <div>
+ <span class="text-gray-800">{{ $chirp->user->name }}</span>
+ <small class="ml-2 text-sm text-gray-600">{{ $chirp->created_at->format('j M Y, g:i a') }}</small>
+ </div>
+ </div>
+ <p class="mt-4 text-lg text-gray-900">{{ $chirp->message }}</p>
+ </div>
+ </div>
+ @endforeach
+ </div>
</div>
</x-app-layout>

Now take a look in your browser to see the message you Chirped earlier!

Chirp listing

Feel free to Chirp some more, or even register another account and start a conversation!

Continue to allow editing of Chirps...