A Blade component is a reusable piece of UI in Laravel. It allows you to create custom HTML tags with optional data binding and logic. Components help keep your views clean and modular.

Generate a component using Artisan:

php artisan make:component Alert

This creates:

• app/View/Components/Alert.php
• resources/views/components/alert.blade.php

Invoke your component in a Blade view:

<x-alert type="danger" message="Something went wrong!" />

Inside alert.blade.php:

<div class="alert alert-{{ $type }}">
    {{ $message }}
</div>

Blade automatically binds values passed as props:

<x-alert :type="$type" :message="$message" />

Component class:

public function __construct(public string $type, public string $message) {}

In Laravel Blade components, a slot is a placeholder for the content that you pass into a component when you use it.

Imagine you have a reusable component called <x-alert>.

You want the look of the alert to always be the same (colors, layout), but the message inside the alert should change.

That dynamic message goes into the slot.

<div class="alert alert-{{ $type }}">
    {{ $slot }}
</div>

Here, {{ $slot }} will be replaced with whatever content you place inside the <x-alert> tag.

<x-alert type="success">
    Your changes have been saved successfully!
</x-alert>

<div class="alert alert-success">
    Your changes have been saved successfully!
</div>

So the text Your changes have been saved successfully! is what fills the $slot.

• You create a consistent layout or design once.
• You reuse it with different content in different places.
• Clean separation of structure (component) and content (slot).

You can also define multiple custom areas using named slots.

<div class="card">
    <div class="card-header">
        {{ $title }}
    </div>
    <div class="card-body">
        {{ $slot }}
    </div>
</div>

<x-card>
    <x-slot:title>
        My Card Title
    </x-slot:title>

    This is the body of the card.
</x-card>

{{ $title }} becomes My Card Title, and {{ $slot }} becomes This is the body...

You can nest components into folders:

resources/views/components/dashboard/button.blade.php

Usage:

<x-dashboard.button>Click me</x-dashboard.button>

You can create a component without a class:

resources/views/components/card.blade.php

Usage:

<x-card title="Post Title">
    Post body content here.
</x-card>

Component view:

<div class="card">
  <h1>{{ $title }}</h1>
  {{ $slot }}
</div>

• Reusability – Write once, reuse anywhere
• Separation of concerns – Logic vs. layout
• Improved readability – Semantic and clean
• Maintainability – Easier updates and DRY code

Used for:

• Navigation links
• Buttons
• Alerts
• Modals
• Layouts

Laravel's database seeding and model factories are powerful tools that allow you to populate your database with dummy data. This is essential during development and testing to simulate real-world usage.

• Seeders are classes that insert records into your database.
• Factories define the blueprint for generating model instances with random/fake data using the Faker library.

Create a new seeder class:

php artisan make:seeder UserSeeder

Location: database/seeders/UserSeeder.php

Example:

use Illuminate\Database\Seeder;
use App\Models\User;

class UserSeeder extends Seeder
{
    public function run(): void
    {
        User::factory()->count(10)->create();
    }
}

Generate a factory linked to a model:

php artisan make:factory UserFactory --model=User

Location: database/factories/UserFactory.php

Example:

use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Factories\Factory;
use Illuminate\Support\Str;

class UserFactory extends Factory
{
    public function definition(): array
    {
        return [
            'name' => $this->faker->name(),
            'email' => $this->faker->unique()->safeEmail(),
            'email_verified_at' => now(),
            'password' => bcrypt('password'),
            'remember_token' => Str::random(10),
        ];
    }
}

Run a specific seeder:

php artisan db:seed --class=UserSeeder

Run all seeders defined in DatabaseSeeder.php:

php artisan db:seed

Refresh database and seed:

php artisan migrate:fresh --seed

Located in database/seeders/DatabaseSeeder.php. Use it to call multiple seeders:

public function run(): void
{
    $this->call([
        UserSeeder::class,
        PostSeeder::class,
    ]);
}

Define specialized versions (states) of a model:

public function admin()
{
    return $this->state(fn(array $attributes) => [
        'role' => 'admin',
    ]);
}

Override attributes directly:

User::factory()->create([
    'email' => '[email protected]'
]);

Seed users with posts and comments:

User::factory()
    ->count(10)
    ->has(
        Post::factory()
            ->count(3)
            ->hasComments(5)
    )
    ->create();

Ensure factories like PostFactory and CommentFactory define user_id/post_id foreign keys.

Use factories in tests:

public function test_post_creation()
{
    $post = Post::factory()->create();
    $this->assertDatabaseHas('posts', [ 'id' => $post->id ]);
}

php artisan migrate:fresh --seed

This clears all tables, reruns migrations, and executes seeders—perfect for testing and development.