- What is kudashevs/laravel-share-buttons used for?
- It renders social media share links for networks such as Facebook, X/Twitter, LinkedIn, Reddit, and Telegram into Laravel Blade views. It is a presentation-layer utility driven by config templates, so you can add share buttons without hand-rolling provider URLs in every template. It has no persistence, queues, or scheduled jobs, which keeps adoption and removal simple.
- How do I install laravel-share-buttons in a Laravel app?
- Install it with composer require kudashevs/laravel-share-buttons:^7.0, then optionally publish its config and views if you need to customize defaults. Version 7 requires Laravel 12.0+ and PHP 8.2+, so confirm your host application meets those platform floors first. After installation, render buttons through the package's Blade components or directives in the templates where share links are needed.
- Which Laravel and PHP versions does laravel-share-buttons support?
- Version 7.0.0 requires Laravel 12.0+ and PHP 8.2+, with PHP 8.5 explicitly supported. Applications still on Laravel 10 or 11 must stay on v6.1.1 because v7 cannot be installed there. There is no supported workaround short of forking the package with a widened Composer constraint.
- How do I render share buttons with Blade directives?
- The package provides configurable button components and Blade directives for popular social networks. You use them inside Blade templates with the target URL and network details, keeping share-link markup out of your own partials. Check the README for exact directive names and attribute syntax before wiring them into content pages.
- Can I customize share button icons, links, and appearance?
- Yes. The package is config-driven and supports publishable configuration and views, so you can customize networks, share URLs, icons, and rendered markup. Published assets do not update automatically, so diff your published copies against the new defaults before upgrading. Re-publish only after reviewing changes to avoid overwriting intentional customizations.
- Does laravel-share-buttons call social network APIs or fetch share counts?
- Based on the package's documented behavior, it generates share URLs locally rather than calling provider APIs at runtime. That means no server-side egress, allowlisting, or provider deprecation concerns for basic share links. It is not positioned as a share-count or metadata fetching solution, so verify before assuming those features exist.
- Is laravel-share-buttons safe to use in production?
- Functional risk is low because it only touches the view layer and adds no migrations, queues, or infrastructure. The real concerns are version gating to Laravel 12 and PHP 8.2 for v7, plus single-maintainer abandonment risk. Exit cost is trivial since you can remove the package per template without data changes.
- How do I upgrade laravel-share-buttons from v6 to v7?
- Bump the Composer constraint to ^7.0, run composer update kudashevs/laravel-share-buttons, and diff v6.1.1 against v7.0.0 before trusting the release summary. Re-publish config and views only after comparing published assets with the new defaults. Then smoke-test every template that renders share buttons, ideally inside your Laravel 12 upgrade branch.
- How do I test share buttons in a Laravel application?
- The package's own suite uses PHPUnit 11 as a require-dev dependency, which does not affect consuming applications. In your app, write normal Blade or feature tests that assert the rendered share links, network labels, and expected attributes for each template. This catches misconfigured directives and published view drift after upgrades.
- What are the alternatives to laravel-share-buttons?
- Alternatives include hand-rolled Blade partials for share URLs or a JavaScript share library for client-side rendering. Choose this package when you want config-driven Blade components and directives that keep templates clean and maintainable. If your app already has reliable share partials or uses a JS share library, the fit is limited.