Hello developer, In this guide, I’ll walk you through the process of creating custom helper functions in Laravel 11.

Laravel is an amazing PHP framework that simplifies web development, and creating custom helper functions can make your coding experience even smoother.

In this article, we’ll create a custom helper function in laravel. So, you can easily use the anywhere in the laravel 11 application.

Step 1: Install Laravel 11

In this step, we’ll install the laravel 11 application using the following command.

composer create-project laravel/laravel laravel-11-example

Step 2: Create helpers.php File

After that, we’ll create a helpers.php file and create functions to that file.

app/Helpers/helpers.php

<?php
   
use Carbon\Carbon;
  
/**
 * Write code on Method
 *
 * @return response()
 */
if (! function_exists('convertYmdToMdy')) {
    function convertYmdToMdy($date)
    {
        return Carbon::createFromFormat('Y-m-d', $date)->format('m-d-Y');
    }
}
  
/**
 * Write code on Method
 *
 * @return response()
 */
if (! function_exists('convertMdyToYmd')) {
    function convertMdyToYmd($date)
    {
        return Carbon::createFromFormat('m-d-Y', $date)->format('Y-m-d');
    }
}

Step 3: Register File Path In composer.json File

In this step, we’ll specify the path to the helpers file. To do this, open the composer.json file and add the following code snippet.

composer.json

...
  
    "autoload": {
        "psr-4": {
            "App\\": "app/",
            "Database\\Factories\\": "database/factories/",
            "Database\\Seeders\\": "database/seeders/"
        },
        "files": [
            "app/Helpers/helpers.php"
        ]
    },
  
...

Then, run the following command to load the helper.php file.

composer dump-autoload

Step 4: Add Route

Now, we’ll define the routes into the web.php file.

routes/web.php

<?php
  
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Route;
    
Route::get('date-convert', function(){
  
    $mdY = convertYmdToMdy('2024-03-27');
    var_dump("Converted into 'MDY': " . $mdY);
    
    $ymd = convertMdyToYmd('03-27-2024');
    var_dump("Converted into 'YMD': " . $ymd);
});

Step 5: Run the Laravel App

Then, run the laravel application using the following command.

php artisan serve

Step 1: Install Laravel 11

To install Laravel 11, execute the following command.

composer create-project laravel/laravel example-app

Step 2: Create a Command

To create a new custom command that will be executed with task scheduling using a cron job, run the following command.

php artisan make:command TestCron --command=test:cron

app/Console/Commands/TestCron.php

<?php
  
namespace App\Console\Commands;
  
use Illuminate\Console\Command;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Http;
use App\Models\User;
  
class TestCron extends Command
{
    /**
     * The name and signature of the console command.
     *
     * @var string
     */
    protected $signature = 'test:cron';

    /**
     * The console command description.
     *
     * @var string
     */
    protected $description = 'Command description';
  
    /**
     * Execute the console command.
     */
    public function handle()
    {
        info("Cron Job running at ". now());
              
        $response = Http::get('https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/users');
          
        $users = $response->json();
      
        if (!empty($users)) {
            foreach ($users as $key => $user) {
                if(!User::where('email', $user['email'])->exists() ){
                    User::create([
                        'name' => $user['name'],
                        'email' => $user['email'],
                        'password' => bcrypt('123456789')
                    ]);
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

Step 3: Register Task Scheduler

In this step, we’ll define our commands in the console.php file along with the scheduled time for running each command. We’ll use functions like ->daily(), ->hourly(), etc.

routes/console.php

<?php
  
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Schedule;
  
Schedule::command('test:cron')->everyFiveMinutes();

Step 4: Run Scheduler Command

Now, we’ll run the custom create command using the following laravel artisan command.

php artisan schedule:run

After running, the above command you will see an output like this.

storage/logs/laravel.php

[2024-04-10 23:45:03] local.INFO: Cron Job running at 2024-04-10 23:45:03
[2024-04-10 23:50:05] local.INFO: Cron Job running at 2024-04-10 23:50:05
[2024-04-10 23:55:04] local.INFO: Cron Job running at 2024-04-10 23:45:04

To view an overview of your scheduled tasks, use the schedule:list Artisan command.

php artisan schedule:list

Laravel 11 Cron Job Setup on Server

In this step, we’ll set up a cron job command on the server. If you’re using Ubuntu Server, crontab is likely already installed. Run the command below to add a new entry for the cron job.

crontab -e

* * * * * cd /path-to-your-project & php artisan schedule:run >> /dev/null 2>&1