HackerPair is the companion project to the bestselling book, Easy Laravel 5], authored by W. Jason Gilmore.
It's easy to run a local version of HackerPair. Presuming you've already configured a local development environment using a solution such as Homestead or Valet, you'll just need to follow these steps:
Open a terminal and navigate to the location where you typically manage your web projects. Then clone the HackerPair repository by executing the following command:
$ [email protected]:wjgilmore/hackerpair.git
Enter the repository directory and copy the project configuration file
template (.env.example) to one which will be recognized by your local
HackerPair application (.env):
$ cd hackerpair
$ cp .env.example .env
Next, run the following command from your project's root directory:
$ php artisan key:generate
This command will generate a new unique application key which will subsequently be used by Laravel to encrypt various types of data used by your application.
Next, open .env in your editor and update any relevant configuration
settings. Most notably you'll need to update those associated with connecting
to the database:
DB_CONNECTION=mysql
DB_HOST=local.mysql.com
DB_PORT=3306
DB_DATABASE=test_hackerpair
DB_USERNAME=homestead
DB_PASSWORD=secret
The project does not include a relational database such as MySQL,
meaning you'll need to install and configure one separately if you
haven't already done so. You'll also need to create the database and
associated settings, using these values to populate the above settings
in your .env file.
With the database credentials in place, it's time to build the database
schema. To do so you'll use Laravel Artisan's migrate command:
$ php artisan migrate
After this command completes, have a look inside the project database and you'll see quite a few tables have been created. Next we'll populate several of these tables with seed data which will allow you to interact with the application in an environment approximating reality.
A major goal behind the HackerPair project was to demonstrate how to present highly localized data. In order to present the seed data in the most realistic fashion possible, I assembled location data from a variety of free online resources (see Credits) which matches zip codes with latitudinal and longitudinal coordinates, cities, and states. This information is used in the user and event seeders to aid in the generation of seemingly realistic data.
Before this data can be used in the seeders, it needs to be compiled using the following custom Artisan console command. The script will download two source files from GitHub and http://federalgovernmentzipcodes.us/ (a free database containing zip code data), and then assemble a final seed file which will be used in Step #5:
$ php artisan hackerpair:compile_zip_code_data
Once the command is completed, you'll find a new file inside database/seeds/data
named hackerpair_zips.csv. This file is used within the seeders to
generate location data.
Finally, run the Artisan seeder to populate the database with seed data:
$ php artisan db:seed
The seeder requires a few minutes to run due to the time required to seed the zip codes table.
The new edition of Easy Laravel 5 is in beta format, as is the HackerPair companion project. Notably certain key features don't yet exist because I haven't yet written the associated chapters. :-) For instance, there is currently no or little support for:
-
Query Optimization: Not all of the queries are optimized. Forthcoming.
-
Search: I'm planning on integrating Algolia search, and additionally demonstrating how to create powerful search-driven data filters using scopes.
-
Column sorting: This is a very high priority and should be integrated as soon as I can write the companion instructional material.
-
Event Lifecycle Improvements: All sorts of interesting concepts can be introduced by adding event lifecycle features. Forthcoming.
-
Analytics: There are lots of opportunities to simulate event and attendance generation, and then use advanced Eloquent queries to query the data in interesting ways.
-
Event tagging: Currently only a simple event categorization solution is available. I plan on adding tagging using Spatie's great Laravel Tags package.
-
Avatars: Just for kicks I'd like to add avatars to user profiles
-
Tests: A number of demonstrative tests are already in place but I'll be adding plenty more in the coming weeks.
-
Mapping: Each event includes a simple map however I'd like to build out some additional cool map-based interfaces.
You can view a complete list of upcoming tasks and other notes on the project's Trello board: https://trello.com/b/pqR9nbsH/hackerpair
This zip code data was assembled from a variety of online resources, including:
- FederalGovernmentZipCodes.us: http://federalgovernmentzipcodes.us/
- Eric Hurst's GitHub Gist: https://gist.github.com/erichurst/7882666
In addition, throughout the code you'll find the occasional "hat tip", denoted by "HT", pointing to various online resources such as Stack Overflow and blog posts which helped me sort out the associated code.
This project is MIT licensed (see LICENSE.markdown). Please do not use the HackerPair name, the Easy Laravel 5 book cover, or other intellectual property without written permission from the appropriate parties.
Have questions, problems, or suggestions? E-mail Jason at [email protected].