In Laravel, the best way to pass different types of flash messages in the session

I'm making my first app in Laravel and am trying to get my head around the session flash messages. As far as I'm aware in my controller action I can set a flash message either by going

Redirect::to('users/login')->with('message', 'Thanks for registering!'); //is this actually OK?

For the case of redirecting to another route, or

Session::flash('message', 'This is a message!'); 

In my master blade template I'd then have:

@if(Session::has('message'))
<p class="alert alert-info">{{ Session::get('message') }}</p>
@endif

As you may have noticed I'm using Bootstrap 3 in my app and would like to make use of the different message classes: alert-info, alert-warning, alert-danger etc.

Assuming that in my controller I know what type of message I'm setting, what's the best way to pass and display it in the view? Should I set a separate message in the session for each type (e.g. Session::flash('message_danger', 'This is a nasty message! Something's wrong.');)? Then I'd need a separate if statement for each message in my blade template.

Any advice appreciated.

One solution would be to flash two variables into the session:

1. The message itself
2. The "class" of your alert

for example:

Session::flash('message', 'This is a message!'); 
Session::flash('alert-class', 'alert-danger'); 

Then in your view:

@if(Session::has('message'))
<p class="alert {{ Session::get('alert-class', 'alert-info') }}">{{ Session::get('message') }}</p>
@endif

Note I've put a default value into the Session::get(). that way you only need to override it if the warning should be something other than the alert-info class.

(that is a quick example, and untested :) )

In your view:

<div class="flash-message">
  @foreach (['danger', 'warning', 'success', 'info'] as $msg)
    @if(Session::has('alert-' . $msg))
    <p class="alert alert-{{ $msg }}">{{ Session::get('alert-' . $msg) }}</p>
    @endif
  @endforeach
</div>

Then set a flash message in the controller:

Session::flash('alert-danger', 'danger');
Session::flash('alert-warning', 'warning');
Session::flash('alert-success', 'success');
Session::flash('alert-info', 'info');

My way is to always Redirect::back() or Redirect::to():

Redirect::back()->with('message', 'error|There was an error...');

Redirect::back()->with('message', 'message|Record updated.');

Redirect::to('/')->with('message', 'success|Record updated.');

I have a helper function to make it work for me, usually this is in a separate service:

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Session;

function displayAlert()
{
      if (Session::has('message'))
      {
         list($type, $message) = explode('|', Session::get('message'));

         $type = $type == 'error' ?: 'danger';
         $type = $type == 'message' ?: 'info';

         return sprintf('<div class="alert alert-%s">%s</div>', $type, $message);
      }

      return '';
}

And in my view or layout I just do

{{ displayAlert() }}

You can make a multiple messages and with different types. Follow these steps below:

1. Create a file: "app/Components/FlashMessages.php"

> namespace App\Components; >
> trait FlashMessages > { > protected static function message($level = 'info', $message = null) > { > if (session()->has('messages')) { > $messages = session()->pull('messages'); > } >
> $messages[] = $message = ['level' => $level, 'message' => $message]; >
> session()->flash('messages', $messages); >
> return $message; > } >
> protected static function messages() > { > return self::hasMessages() ? session()->pull('messages') : []; > } >
> protected static function hasMessages() > { > return session()->has('messages'); > } >
> protected static function success($message) > { > return self::message('success', $message); > } >
> protected static function info($message) > { > return self::message('info', $message); > } >
> protected static function warning($message) > { > return self::message('warning', $message); > } >
> protected static function danger($message) > { > return self::message('danger', $message); > } > }

2. On your base controller "app/Http/Controllers/Controller.php".

> namespace App\Http\Controllers; >
> use Illuminate\Foundation\Bus\DispatchesJobs; > use Illuminate\Routing\Controller as BaseController; > use Illuminate\Foundation\Validation\ValidatesRequests; > use Illuminate\Foundation\Auth\Access\AuthorizesRequests; > use Illuminate\Foundation\Auth\Access\AuthorizesResources; >
> use App\Components\FlashMessages; >
> class Controller extends BaseController > { > use AuthorizesRequests, AuthorizesResources, DispatchesJobs, ValidatesRequests; >
> use FlashMessages; > }

This will make the FlashMessages trait available to all controllers that extending this class.

3. Create a blade template for our messages: "views/partials/messages.blade.php"

> @if (count($messages)) >

> @endif

4. On "boot()" method of "app/Providers/AppServiceProvider.php":

> namespace App\Providers; >
> use Illuminate\Support\ServiceProvider; >
> use App\Components\FlashMessages; >
> class AppServiceProvider extends ServiceProvider > { > use FlashMessages; >
> public function boot() > { > view()->composer('partials.messages', function ($view) { >
> $messages = self::messages(); >
> return $view->with('messages', $messages); > }); > } >
> ... > }

This will make the $messages variable available to "views/partials/message.blade.php" template whenever it is called.

5. On your template, include our messages template - "views/partials/messages.blade.php"

>

>
> @include ('partials.messages') >
>

You only need to include the messages template wherever you want to display the messages on your page.

6. On your controller, you can simply do this to push flash messages:

> use App\Components\FlashMessages; >
> class ProductsController { >
> use FlashMessages; >
> public function store(Request $request) > { > self::message('info', 'Just a plain message.'); > self::message('success', 'Item has been added.'); > self::message('warning', 'Service is currently under maintenance.'); > self::message('danger', 'An unknown error occured.'); > > //or >
> self::info('Just a plain message.'); > self::success('Item has been added.'); > self::warning('Service is currently under maintenance.'); > self::danger('An unknown error occured.'); > } >
> ...

Hope it'l help you.

Simply return with the 'flag' that you want to be treated without using any additional user function. The Controller:

return \Redirect::back()->withSuccess( 'Message you want show in View' );

Notice that I used the 'Success' flag.

The View:

@if( Session::has( 'success' ))
     {{ Session::get( 'success' ) }}
@elseif( Session::has( 'warning' ))
     {{ Session::get( 'warning' ) }} <!-- here to 'withWarning()' -->
@endif

Yes, it really works!

Another solution would be to create a helper class How to Create helper classes here

class Helper{
     public static function format_message($message,$type)
    {
         return '<p class="alert alert-'.$type.'">'.$message.'</p>'
    }
}

Then you can do this.

Redirect::to('users/login')->with('message', Helper::format_message('A bla blah occured','error'));

or

Redirect::to('users/login')->with('message', Helper::format_message('Thanks for registering!','info'));

and in your view

@if(Session::has('message'))
    {{Session::get('message')}}
@endif

Not a big fan of the solutions provided (ie: multiple variables, helper classes, looping through 'possibly existing variables'). Below is a solution that instead uses an array as opposed to two separate variables. It's also easily extendable to handle multiple errors should you wish but for simplicity, I've kept it to one flash message:

Redirect with flash message array:

    return redirect('/admin/permissions')->with('flash_message', ['success','Updated Successfully','Permission "'. $permission->name .'" updated successfully!']);

Output based on array content:

@if(Session::has('flash_message'))
    <script type="text/javascript">
        jQuery(document).ready(function(){
            bootstrapNotify('{{session('flash_message')[0]}}','{{session('flash_message')[1]}}','{{session('flash_message')[2]}}');
        });
    </script>
@endif

Unrelated since you might have your own notification method/plugin - but just for clarity - bootstrapNotify is just to initiate bootstrap-notify from http://bootstrap-notify.remabledesigns.com/:

function bootstrapNotify(type,title = 'Notification',message) {
    switch (type) {
        case 'success':
            icon = "la-check-circle";
            break;
        case 'danger':
            icon = "la-times-circle";
            break;
        case 'warning':
            icon = "la-exclamation-circle";
    }

    $.notify({message: message, title : title, icon : "icon la "+ icon}, {type: type,allow_dismiss: true,newest_on_top: false,mouse_over: true,showProgressbar: false,spacing: 10,timer: 4000,placement: {from: "top",align: "right"},offset: {x: 30,y: 30},delay: 1000,z_index: 10000,animate: {enter: "animated bounce",exit: "animated fadeOut"}});
}

For my application i made a helper function:

function message( $message , $status = 'success', $redirectPath = null )
{
     $redirectPath = $redirectPath == null ? back() : redirect( $redirectPath );

     return $redirectPath->with([
         'message'   =>  $message,
         'status'    =>  $status,
    ]);
}

message layout, main.layouts.message:

@if($status)
   <div class="center-block affix alert alert-{{$status}}">
     <i class="fa fa-{{ $status == 'success' ? 'check' : $status}}"></i>
     <span>
        {{ $message }}
     </span>
   </div>
@endif

and import every where to show message:

@include('main.layouts.message', [
    'status'    =>  session('status'),
    'message'   =>  session('message'),
])

Just send an array in the session rather than a string, like this:

Session::flash('message', ['text'=>'this is a danger message','type'=>'danger']);

@if(Session::has('message'))
    <div class="alert alert-{{session('message')['type']}}">
        {{session('message')['text']}}
    </div>
@endif

You could use Laravel Macros.

You can create macros.php in app/helpers and include it routes.php.

if you wish to put your macros in a class file instead, you can look at this tutorial: http://chrishayes.ca/blog/code/laravel-4-object-oriented-form-html-macros-classes-service-provider

HTML::macro('alert', function($class='alert-danger', $value="",$show=false)
{

    $display = $show ? 'display:block' : 'display:none';

    return
        '<div class="alert '.$class.'" style="'.$display.'">
            <button type="button" class="close" data-dismiss="alert" aria-hidden="true">&times;</button>
            <strong><i class="fa fa-times"></i></strong>'.$value.'
        </div>';
});

In your controller:

Session::flash('message', 'This is so dangerous!'); 
Session::flash('alert', 'alert-danger');

In your View

@if(Session::has('message') && Session::has('alert') )
  {{HTML::alert($class=Session::get('alert'), $value=Session::get('message'), $show=true)}}
@endif

I usually do this

in my store() function i put success alert once it saved properly.

\Session::flash('flash_message','Office successfully updated.');

in my destroy() function, I wanted to color the alert red so to notify that its deleted

\Session::flash('flash_message_delete','Office successfully deleted.');

Notice, we create two alerts with different flash names.

And in my view, I will add condtion to when the right time the specific alert will be called

@if(Session::has('flash_message'))
    <div class="alert alert-success"><span class="glyphicon glyphicon-ok"></span><em> {!! session('flash_message') !!}</em></div>
@endif
@if(Session::has('flash_message_delete'))
    <div class="alert alert-danger"><span class="glyphicon glyphicon-ok"></span><em> {!! session('flash_message_delete') !!}</em></div>
@endif

Here you can find different flash message stlyes Flash Messages in Laravel 5

I think the following would work well with lesser line of codes.

        session()->flash('toast', [
        'status' => 'success', 
        'body' => 'Body',
        'topic' => 'Success']
    );

I'm using a toaster package, but you can have something like this in your view.

             toastr.{{session('toast.status')}}(
              '{{session('toast.body')}}', 
              '{{session('toast.topic')}}'
             );

In Controller:

Redirect::to('/path')->with('message', 'your message'); 

Or

Session::flash('message', 'your message'); 

in Blade show message in Blade As ur Desired Pattern:

@if(Session::has('message'))
    <div class="alert alert-className">
        {{session('message')}}
    </div>
@endif

I came across this elegant way to flash messages. It was made by Jeffrey Way from Laracast. check it out... https://github.com/laracasts/flash

We can use session() global helper instead of Session

// flash message create
session()->flash('message', 'This is a message!'); 
session()->flash('alert-class', 'alert-danger'); 

// get flash message by key from your blade file
@if(session()->has('message'))
<p class="alert {{ session('alert-class') }}">{{ session('message') }}</p>
@endif

If you want to use Bootstrap Alert to make your view more interactive. You can do something like this:

In your function:-

if($author->save()){
    Session::flash('message', 'Author has been successfully added');
    Session::flash('class', 'success'); //you can replace success by [info,warning,danger]
    return redirect('main/successlogin');

In your views:-

@if(Session::has('message'))
    <div class="alert alert-{{Session::get('class')}} alert-dismissible fade show w-50 ml-auto alert-custom"
        role="alert">
        {{ Session::get('message') }}
        <button type="button" class="close" data-dismiss="alert" aria-label="Close">
            <span aria-hidden="true">&times;</span>
        </button>
    </div>
@endif

I love the most upvoted answer. In my case, I decided to go with the session() function wrapper to avoid calling the facade in the blade template. Same in the Controller. It keeps code cleaner In my opinion.

The line

Session::flash('message', 'This is a message!');

becomes

session()->flash('message', 'This is a message!');

and in the blade template

session()->get('alert-class', 'alert-info');

Cheers!