• # Introduction
• # Where things are
• # The module system
  • # Metadata tables
  • # LAModule
  • # Form maker
• # Code generator
• # Routing
• # Service provider & packages

Introduction

LaraAdmin is inspired by the data management philosophy of the open source project SugarCRM, which has a module manager, workflows and many other features, but is large and hard to customize. At Dwij IT Solutions we needed rapid development of web applications, so we built LaraAdmin: an admin backend that can grow into a CRM.

LaraAdmin is schema driven. Modules and their fields are rows in the database. The admin panel reads those rows at run time to build forms, listings, validation and access checks, and the code generator reads them to write controllers, models and views. Since 1.1 it is a Laravel application template: all of this code is in your application, not in a package.

Where things are

The module system

Metadata tables

LAModule

• LAModule::generate($name, $table, $viewCol, $icon, $fields) is called from migrations. It creates the table and the module's rows.
• LAModule::create_field_schema() maps each field type to Laravel schema builder columns. When a field is edited, it restates the whole column with ->change(). Since 1.13 this is Laravel's native column change: Doctrine DBAL is no longer used, and columns are read with Schema::getColumns() / Schema::getForeignKeys().
• At run time, controllers call LAModule::validateRules(), insert() and updateRow(), which turn a request into a row field by field, skipping fields the user may not write.
• LAModule::get('Courses') returns the module with its fields. hasAccess() and hasFieldAccess() check access (see Roles & Access Control).
• LAModule::deleteModule() removes a module, its table and its generated code.

Form maker

LAFormMaker renders each field type's input and display value on top of laraadmin/html (Form::). Views use it through Blade directives:

@la_form($module)                         {{-- every field the user may write --}}
@la_form($module, ['name', 'fees'])       {{-- only these fields --}}
@la_input($module, 'fees')                {{-- one input with its label --}}
@la_display($module, 'fees')              {{-- one value, with its label --}}
@la_config_input('sitename')              {{-- input of a setting --}}
@la_access('Courses', 'edit') ... @endla_access
@la_field_access('Courses', 'fees') ... @endla_field_access

Because generated views call these directives instead of listing the fields, fields added later in Module Manager appear in the forms without regenerating the views.

Code generator

CodeGenerator fills the templates in app/Stubs/*.stub, replacing tokens like __module_name__, __model_class_name__ and __db_table_name__, and writes the results into your application.

It also edits three existing files, by finding a marker and inserting before it. If a marker is changed or removed, generation silently stops updating that file:

Module deletion finds the routes to remove by the controller names in them ('CoursesController' and 'CoursesController@dtajax'), so keep that form when editing generated routes.

Routing

routes/web.php ends with require __DIR__.'/admin.php'. routes/admin.php has two route groups with the App\Http\Controllers\LA namespace and the config('laraadmin.adminRoute') prefix:

1. Super Admin only (role:SUPER_ADMIN): Module Manager, fields, menus, settings, the code editor.
2. Admin panel (permission:ADMIN_PANEL): the dashboard and every module's resource route plus its *_dt_ajax DataTables endpoint. Controllers check module access.

Public routes in routes/web.php: the home page, the blog, registration, and /files/{hash}/{name} for uploads.

Service provider & packages

LAProvider registers the facade aliases Form, HTML, LAModule, LAConfig, LAHelper, CodeGenerator and Entrust, the Blade directives above, the la:* commands, and the observers. If the optional laraadmin/editor package is installed, it loads it too (see Code Editor).

The application keeps the Laravel 8 structure (app/Http/Kernel.php, app/Console/Kernel.php, app/Exceptions/Handler.php and the classic bootstrap/app.php), which Laravel 13 still supports.

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