Charts Laravel Package

Getting Started

Because corals/charts is a low-traffic, single-maintainer package with no published docs site and zero dependents, treat the repository README and src/ directory as the primary documentation. Do these steps in order:

1. Check compatibility before installing. The last tagged release is 2022-08-08, which places it in the Laravel 9 era. Open composer.json on the repo (or run composer show corals/charts --all after adding it) and inspect the illuminate/* and php constraints. If it requires ^9.0, either stay on Laravel 9 or add a composer.json fork/override before pulling it into a Laravel 10/11 app.
2. Install and publish.

   composer require corals/charts
   php artisan vendor:publish --provider="Corals\Charts\ChartsServiceProvider"
   

   Publishing typically exposes a config file (defaults for the JS chart library, CDN vs. local assets, colour palettes) and possibly Blade views/components. Read the published config first — it is the fastest way to learn what the package actually parameterises.
3. Inspect the service provider. vendor/corals/charts/src/ChartsServiceProvider.php will show you what is registered: a facade alias, Blade directives, view namespace, or singleton bindings. This tells you the intended entry point far faster than guessing at the API.
4. Render one hard-coded chart. Pick the simplest surface the package offers — usually a Blade component or directive such as @chart(...) / <x-chart ... /> — and feed it a static array of labels and values. Confirm the script tags and canvas element appear in the rendered HTML before wiring in real data.

First real use case: an admin dashboard "orders per month" line chart. Query with Order::selectRaw('COUNT(*) as total, DATE_FORMAT(created_at, "%Y-%m") as period')->groupBy('period'), map to labels/datasets, and pass into the chart view. That single flow exercises everything the package does: data shaping, view rendering, and client-side initialisation.

Implementation Patterns

Controller → view data contract. Keep chart payload construction out of Blade. Build a small array or DTO in the controller (or a dedicated ChartData class) with a stable shape — ['labels' => [...], 'datasets' => [['label' => ..., 'data' => [...]]]] — and hand that to the package. This mirrors the Chart.js data model that most Laravel chart wrappers adopt and makes swapping the rendering layer later trivial.

Dedicated chart classes / view components. If the package ships an abstract chart class or a Blade component, extend it per chart type (RevenueChart, SignupsChart) rather than inlining config in views. You get one place to change colours, axis formatting, and number formatting, and the chart becomes unit-testable in isolation.

AJAX / lazy-loaded datasets. For dashboards with several charts, render the shell with an empty dataset and fetch numbers from a JSON endpoint (GET /api/charts/revenue?range=30d). The controller returns exactly the labels/datasets structure the front-end expects. This keeps the initial page render cheap and lets you cache each dataset independently.

Range and filter handling. Standardise on a ?from=&to= (or ?range=7d|30d|90d) contract and resolve it in one form request / helper. Every chart endpoint then shares validation and default windows, which prevents the classic drift where one chart treats "last 30 days" differently from another.

Cache aggressively at the query layer. Wrap the aggregate query in Cache::remember("chart.revenue.{$range}", now()->addMinutes(5), fn () => ...). Chart queries are usually GROUP BY scans over large tables; on a dashboard with six charts this is the difference between a 200 ms and a 3 s page.

Integration with existing layouts. The package will expect its JS dependency (Chart.js or similar) to be present. Add the script tag to your layout's stack (@push('scripts')) rather than letting the component inject it per-chart, so you don't load the library six times on a dashboard page.

Testing. Assert on the data contract, not the canvas: $response->assertViewHas('chart', fn ($c) => $c['datasets'][0]['data'] === [1, 2, 3]), plus a assertSee('canvas') smoke test. Optionally snapshot the JSON endpoint's shape so a refactor that silently changes key names fails loudly.

Gotchas and Tips

• Abandonment risk is the headline issue. Zero stars, zero dependents, no release since August 2022. Pin the version in composer.json, commit composer.lock, and be prepared to fork. For a production dashboard, seriously consider Chart.js + a 30-line Blade partial instead — you would own less risk than adopting this.
• Asset pipeline surprises. Older packages frequently reference a CDN URL in config or expect a public/vendor/corals/charts path that vendor:publish --tag=assets must create. If charts render as blank canvases, check the browser console first: 404s on the JS bundle and "Chart is not defined" errors are the two most common causes.
• JSON escaping in Blade. Passing a PHP array straight into a JS initialiser is an XSS vector and breaks on strings containing quotes or </script>. Use @json($data) / json_encode($data, JSON_HEX_TAG | JSON_HEX_APOS) rather than interpolating with {{ }} inside script tags.
• Timezone drift. DATE_FORMAT(created_at, ...) groups in the DB timezone (often UTC) while users read local time. Either set the session timezone consistently or convert in PHP before grouping, otherwise month boundaries shift for non-UTC users and totals won't reconcile with other reports.
• Empty datasets crash more chart libraries than you'd expect. datasets: [{ data: [] }] with beginAtZero can produce an axis with no ticks. Always coalesce to a zero-filled series for the requested range so a quiet week still draws a flat line.
• Configuration quirks. Since there's no documentation, treat the published config as authoritative but verify each key is actually read — small packages often leave dead config keys behind. grep -r "config('charts" vendor/corals/charts/src gives you the exact set that matters.
• Extension points. The service provider and any abstract chart/component classes are your escape hatches. If you need a chart type the package doesn't expose, overriding the view or subclassing and calling the parent's data method is usually cleaner than patching vendor/ — and it survives composer update.
• Debugging blank charts. Work outward: (1) does the canvas element exist in the HTML? (2) is the data JSON present and valid? (3) did the JS library load? (4) is the initialiser running after DOM ready? Ninety percent of issues land at step 2 or 3.
• Have an exit plan. Isolate the package behind your own ChartData DTO and a single Blade partial. If you later replace it with Chart.js, ApexCharts, or a livewire chart component, you edit one file instead of every dashboard view.