7. Adding Views for Posts

 To fully implement the functions in the post controller mentioned in the previous post, it is necessary to create views associated with each function.

Post index (resources/views/posts/index.blade.php): This view shows all recent posts, created by all users - only the post heading and some minor details (author and publish date) are shown in this view. This view will be accessible by all users (guests and authenticated users). Users can click on a post image or heading to be taken to the post show view.
(Note: This screen capture had to be retaken after the tag functionality was implemented.)

The code snippet below is from the post index view. Posts are looped through using the @forelse tag. An @if tag checks to see if the current post has an associated image, if not, a placeholder image is used. Posts without images make use of a placeholder, which differs depending on whether the post has an odd or even id.

Post show (resources/views/posts/show.blade.php): This view shows a full single post - the heading, subheading and body text are all visible, as well as other minor details (author and publish date). This view will be accessible by all users (guests and authenticated users).

The code snippet below is from the post show view. Again, an @if tag checks to see if the current post has an associated image, if not, a placeholder image is used. In this case, a loop is not necessary, as only one post is being shown. Line breaks in the body text are implemented by using:

{!! nl2br(e($post->body)) !!}
This converts new lines to <br> tags, while the e() function still escapes other characters.

Home (resources/views/home.blade.php): This view is the page users are redirected to after logging in, it shows all posts created by the current user. There are also buttons for the user to create a new post, edit a post and delete a post. In this view, every post is shown in full.

The code snippet below is from the home view. Again, an @if tag checks to see if the current post has an associated image, if not, a placeholder image is used.  Posts belonging to the current user are looped through using the @forelse tag. Again, line breaks in the body text are implemented by using:

{!! nl2br(e($post->body)) !!}
This converts new lines to <br> tags, while the e() function still escapes other characters.

Post create (resources/views/posts/create.blade.php): This view displays the create post form.

The image below shows an example of the code for the post create view. Note the use of the @csrf tag, which creates a hidden CSRF field, Laravel's approach to preventing Cross-Site Request Forgery attacks. This screen capture focuses on the heading form field, however, the other fields use an identical approach. A Bootstrap 'border-danger' class is added to the input if the is an error with the heading input. The value is set as:
{{ old('heading') }}
This means that invalid form submissions will not result in a user having to re-type every field again, rather the information from the request is restored in the form field. Lastly, a paragraph is displayed below the form field in the event of an error occurring with the heading field when the form is submitted.

Post edit (resources/views/posts/edit.blade.php): This view displays the edit post form. The existing data from the post is pre-inserted into the appropriate fields.

The image below shows an example of the code for the post edit view. Again, note the use of the @csrf tag, which creates a hidden CSRF field, Laravel's approach to preventing Cross-Site Request Forgery attacks. As a PUT request is being made, this can be spoofed by using:
@method('PUT')
This screen capture focuses on the heading form field, however, the other fields in the form use an identical approach. A Bootstrap 'border-danger' class is added to the input if the is an error with the heading input. The value is set as:
{{ $post->heading }}
This sets the value of the heading input field as the value of the current post's heading. Lastly, a paragraph is displayed below the form field in the event of an error occurring with the heading field when the form is submitted.