Service Classes​

A service class is a class that performs some business logic that you want to use in various places. It is any PHP object that performs some sort of a "global" task.

When code does not naturally fit into one class or another nicely then you have a candidate for a service. For example, there may be a mailing service or a user creation service. These are tasks that need to be repeated over and over again in different places. This makes them good candidates for a service class.

Some ideas for service classes:

• Service class responsible for sending SMS via Twilio.
• Service class responsible for sending Emails via Mailgun (Newsletter Service).
• Service class responsible for connecting to UptimeRobot APIs and retrieving data.
• Service class responsible for cropping, watermarking, and storing images on the server or cloud.

Example of a Service Class (in Laravel)​

Here is an example of the App\Services\UptimeRobotAPI.php service class that is responsible for connecting to the UptimeRobot API and retrieving data:

<?php

namespace App\Services;

use GuzzleHttp\Client;

class UptimeRobotAPI
{
  protected string $url;
  protected string $http;
  protected array $headers;

  public function __construct (Client $client)
  {
    $this->url = 'https://api.uptimerobot.com/v2/';
    $this->http = $client;
    $this->headers = [
      'cache-control' => 'no-cache',
      'content-type'  => 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded',
    ];
  }

  private function getResponse (string $uri = NULL)
  {
    // Making a GET request to UptimeRobot API using GuzzleHttp...
  }

  private function postResponse (string $uri = NULL, array $params = [])
  {
    // Making a POST request to UptimeRobot API using GuzzleHttp...
  }

  public function getMonitors ()
  {
    return $this->getResponse('getMonitors');
  }
}

The UptimeRobotAPI service is now can be used like so:

<?php

namespace App\Http\Controllers;

use App\Services\UptimeRobotAPI;

class MonitorsController extends Controller
{
  public function showMonitors (UptimeRobotAPI $uptimeRobotAPI)
  {
    $monitors = $uptimeRobotAPI->getMonitors();

    return view('monitors.index', compact('monitors'));
  }
}

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Traits

A trait is a set of methods that you want to reuse across multiple classes, but can't because those classes extend to different parents. Traits are a language construct and were created because PHP does not support multi-class extensions.

Example of a Trait (in Laravel)​

Here is an example of the app/Traits/ApiResponder.php trait I often use when developing Laravel applications:

<?php

namespace App\Traits;

use Illuminate\Http\JsonResponse;
use Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\Response;

trait ApiResponder
{
  public function successResponse ($data, int $code = Response::HTTP_OK): JsonResponse {
    return response()->json([
      'data' => $data,
      'code' => $code,
    ], $code)->header('Content-Type', 'application/json');
  }

  public function errorResponse ($error, int $code): JsonResponse
  {
    return response()->json([
      'error' => $error,
      'code'  => $code,
    ], $code)->header('Content-Type', 'application/json');
  }
}

Once the trait is created, you can import it as follows:

<?php

namespace App\Http\Controllers;

use App\Traits\ApiResponder;
use Illuminate\Foundation\Auth\Access\AuthorizesRequests;
use Illuminate\Foundation\Bus\DispatchesJobs;
use Illuminate\Foundation\Validation\ValidatesRequests;
use Illuminate\Routing\Controller as BaseController;

class Controller extends BaseController
{
  use AuthorizesRequests, DispatchesJobs, ValidatesRequests, ApiResponder;

  // ...
}

Once the trait is imported it is ready to use:

<?php

namespace App\Http\Controllers;

use Illuminate\Http\JsonResponse;

class TwilioSettingsController extends Controller
{
  public function fetchSettings (): JsonResponse
  {
    $response = TwilioSettings::getSettings();

    return $this->successResponse($response);
  }
}

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The end. I hope you found this article helpful. Stay tuned for more content!

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