Laravel Content Renderer Laravel Package

Getting Started

Install via Composer: composer require code16/laravel-content-renderer. The package exposes a Blade component @content for rendering structured content (e.g., JSON or arrays) as HTML. Begin by defining simple content blocks as associative arrays (e.g., ['type' => 'text', 'text' => 'Hello']), then render them in Blade with @content($content, 'default'). Start with the included block types (like text, heading) to verify basic functionality before customizing.

Implementation Patterns

• Content-as-data architecture: Store rich content (e.g., page layouts, blog sections) as JSON in your database (e.g., Page::jsonContent column), then render via @content($content, 'context').
• Block-type registration: Extend BaseBlockRenderer for custom blocks (e.g., CardRenderer) and bind them in a service provider using ContentRenderer::registerBlockType('card', CardRenderer::class).
• Context-aware rendering: Pass context strings (e.g., 'hero', 'sidebar') to @content() to reuse the same content structure with different styling/behavior—e.g., @content($blocks, 'hero') vs. @content($blocks, 'card').
• Form integration: Pair with code16/laravel-form-builder to build WYSIWYG-style content editors—save structured output as JSON and leverage the same renderer for display.

Gotchas and Tips

• Strict type matching: Block types are case-sensitive and resolved from the type key—'Text' won’t match 'text'. Always normalize types before saving or rendering.
• Silent failures: Unknown block types render empty output unless debugging is enabled. Use ContentRenderer::debug(true) in development to log unhandled types.
• No auto-escaping: User-provided content (e.g., from admin inputs) must be sanitized in renderers—override renderContent() and wrap output with e() or use Blade’s {{ }} inside your renderer’s view.
• Empty/null content: The renderer may throw if passed null or malformed JSON. Always validate or default content (e.g., @content($content ?? [], 'default')).
• Debugging tip: Set CONTENT_RENDERER_DEBUG=true in .env or call ContentRenderer::debug() in your service provider to enable verbose logging of rendering steps.