New Features in Laravel 5.3

1. The new $loop variable

In 5.3, the @foreach directive is getting a bit of a superpower, in the form of a new $loop variable that will be available inside every @foreach loop.

The $loop variable is a stdClass object that provides meta information about the loop you're currently inside. Take a look at the properties it exposes:

• index: the 1-based index of the current item in the loop; 1 would mean "first item"
• remaining: how many items remain in the loop; if current item is first of three, would return 2
• count: the count of items in the loop
• first: boolean; whether this is the first item in the loop
• last: boolean; whether this is the last item in the loop
• depth: integer; how many "levels" deep this loop is; returns 1 for a loop, 2 for a loop within a loop, etc.
• parent: if this loop is within another @foreach loop, returns a reference to the $$oop variable for the parent loop item; otherwise returns null Most of this is pretty self-explanatory; it means you can do something like this:

<ul>
    @foreach ($pages as $page)
       <li>{{ $page->title }} ({{ $loop->index }} / {{ $loop->count }})</li>
    @endforeach
</ul>

But you also get a reference to parent $loop variables when you have a loop-within-a-loop. You can use depth to determine whether this is a loop-within-a-loop, and parent to grab the $loop variable of its parent. That opens up templating options like this:

<ul>
    @foreach ($pages as $page)
        <li>{{ $loop->index }}: {{ $page->title }}
            @if ($page->hasChildren())
            <ul>
            @foreach ($page->children() as $child)
                <li>{{ $loop->parent->index }}.{{ $loop->index }}:
                    {{ $child->title }}</li>
            @endforeach
            </ul>
            @endif
        </li>
    @endforeach
</ul>

2. Customizing additional parameters in FirstOrCreate

This is an update to the Eloquent firstOrCreate method. If you've never used it before, you can pass an array of values to firstOrCreate and it will look up whether a record exists with those properties. If so, it'll return that instance; if not, it'll create it and then return the created instance.

Here's an example:

$tag = Tag::firstOrCreate(['slug' => 'matts-favorites']);

This is good. It's very useful. But. What if the tag with the slug matts-favorites represents a tag with the label Matts favorites?

$tag = Tag::firstOrCreate(['slug' => 'matts-favorites', 'label' => 'Matts Favorites']);

OK, that worked well. But now, imagine this scenario: you want to create a tag with slug of matts-favorites and label of Matt's favorites unless there's already a tag with slug matts-favorites, in which case you just want that tag—even if it doesn't give you the label you want? Check it:

$tag = Tag::firstOrCreate(
    ['slug' => 'matts-favorites'],
    ['label' => "Matt's Favorites"]
);

3. Shortcut global helpers

I noticed a pattern in the global helper functions like session() and, in some ways, cookie(). There are three primary functions that they can perform: get a value, put a value, or return an instance of their backing service.

For example:

• session('abc', null) gets the value of abc, or an optional fallback of null.
• session(['abc' => 'def']) sets the value of abc to def.
• session() returns an instance of the SessionManager.

The third option means you can use session()->all() (or any other methods) just like you would Session::all().

Like session(), the cache() global helper can perform three primary functions: get, put, or return an instance of the backing service.

For example:

• cache('abc', null) gets the cached value of abc, or an optional fallback of null.
• cache(['abc' => 'def'], 5) sets the value of abc to def, for the duration of 5 minutes.
• cache() returns an instance of the CacheManager. The third option means you can use cache()->forever() (or any other methods) just like you would Cache::forever().

4. Advanced operations with Collection::where

If you want to filter a Laravel collection to only those records which meet particular criteria, you're most likely going to reach for filter() or reject(). For a quick refresh, this is how you might use both:

$vips = $people->filter(function ($person) {
    return $person->status === 'vip';
});

$nonVips = $people->reject(function ($person) {
    return $person->status === 'vip';
});

You might not know it, but there's also a where() method that's pretty simple that gives you the same functionality:

$vips = $people->where('status', 'vip');

Prior to 5.3, this would check strictly (===), just like in our examples above.

In 5.3, that same line is now a loose check (==), but you can also customize the comparison operator. That makes all of this possible:

$nonVips = $people->where('status', '!==', 'vip');
$popularPosts = $posts->where('views', '>', 500);
$firstTimeUsers = $people->where('logins', '===', 1);

That's it! Enjoy!

Source: https://mattstauffer.co/blog/series/new-features-in-laravel-5-3