Helpers

redot/core ships a set of global helper functions for everyday needs: reading settings, building permission-aware UI, formatting values, working with assets, and shaping API responses. They are plain global functions, so you can call them anywhere — controllers, Livewire components, or Blade — without importing anything.

Settings

• setting('key', $default) — read an application setting, falling back to the schema default (or your $default) when none is stored. Pass true as a third argument for an uncached read. Call with no key to get the full map. See Settings for the full reference.

  <x-input name="site_title" :value="setting('site_title')" />

• app_name() — the application name for the current locale (from the translatable app_name setting), falling back to config('app.name').

  <a href="{{ url('/') }}">{{ app_name() }}</a>

• app_url() — the application base URL. Mostly used to tell whether a URL is internal or external.

URLs & routing

• route_allowed('route.name') — whether the current admin may access a named route. Use it to show/hide permission-gated UI. Unprotected routes are always allowed; protected ones defer to the gate. See Datatables for the common use.

  Action::edit('posts.edit')->visible(route_allowed('posts.edit'));

• url_allowed($url) — the URL counterpart to route_allowed(). External URLs are always allowed; internal ones resolve to a route name and defer to route_allowed(). Handy for conditionally rendering links in Blade.

  @if ($create && url_allowed($create))
      <a href="{{ $create }}" class="btn btn-primary">{{ __('Create') }}</a>
  @endif

• route_from_url($url) — resolve a URL string to its matched route name (or null if nothing matches).

• back_or_route('route.name', $params) — a safe "go back" URL: the previous page when it belongs to the app, otherwise the named route. Prevents open redirects to external referrers.

  <a href="{{ back_or_route($back, $backParams) }}" class="btn">{{ __('Back') }}</a>

Requests & API responses

• throw_api_exception($e) — turn any caught exception into the standard JSON error envelope (mapping common exceptions to the right HTTP status). You rarely call this directly — it is wired in as the global JSON exception renderer. See Controllers & API Responses.

  try {
      // ...
  } catch (Throwable $e) {
      return throw_api_exception($e);
  }

• is_mobile() / is_desktop() — detect the device from the request's user agent. Both return false safely when there is no request (e.g. console).

  if (is_mobile()) {
      // serve a compact layout
  }

Formatting & display

• format_phone($phone, $country) — normalize a phone number to E.164 form. The default region is EG. Validate the input first (with the Phone rule) — an unparseable string throws.

  format_phone('01001234567');        // +201001234567
  format_phone('2025550123', 'US');   // +12025550123

• switch_badge($value, $true, $false) — render a green/red yes/no badge for a truthy/falsy value. Returns raw HTML, so echo it unescaped.

  {!! switch_badge($post->is_active) !!}
  {!! switch_badge($post->published, __('Published'), __('Draft')) !!}

• no_content() — a muted "No content" placeholder for empty rich-text fields. Echo it raw.

  {!! $post->body ?: no_content() !!}

• collect_ellipsis($items, $limit, $ellipsis) — take the first few items of a collection and, when there are more, append a translated "and N more" marker. The :count placeholder receives the number of hidden items.

  collect_ellipsis($tags, 2, ':count more')->implode(', ');
  // tag-a, tag-b, 3 more

Files & images

• is_image($path) — whether a file is an image (by MIME type). Takes a filesystem path, not a URL.

  if (is_image(public_path($path))) {
      // ...
  }

• create_thumbnail($path, $width, $height, $quality) — generate a thumbnail next to an image (in a thumbnails/ subfolder) and return its public-relative path. Keeps aspect ratio, preserves PNG/GIF transparency, and reuses an existing thumbnail when it is newer than the source. Defaults to 100×100.

  $thumb = create_thumbnail(public_path($path));            // 100x100
  $thumb = create_thumbnail(public_path($path), 200, 200, 90);

• parse_csv($csv, $separator, $callback) — turn a comma-separated string (or array) into a clean, trimmed, re-indexed array with empties removed.

  parse_csv('a, b, , c'); // ['a', 'b', 'c']

Assets & build

See the Asset & Init System for the bigger picture.

• hashed_asset($path) — a public asset URL with a cache-busting ?v= suffix derived from the file's modification time.

  <link rel="stylesheet" href="{{ hashed_asset('/assets/css/app.css') }}" />

• dist_path($suffix) — the path to the build output directory, optionally with a file appended.

  dist_path('init.js'); // .../public/assets/dist/init.js

• trigger_dependencies_build() — clear the build output so front-end dependencies are regenerated on the next request.

Querying & components

• search_model($query, $columns, $term) — apply a grouped LIKE search across columns onto a query. Dotted columns (e.g. category.name) search the related model. An empty term leaves the query untouched.

  search_model(Post::query(), ['title', 'body', 'category.name'], 'laravel');

• component('name', $data) — render a Blade component to a string from PHP, outside the usual <x-...> syntax. Useful inside Datatable column getters.

  ->getter(fn ($value, User $user) => component('avatar', [
      'name' => $user->name,
      'image' => $user->avatar,
  ]))

Related

• Settings — the store behind setting() and app_name().
• Controllers & API Responses — where throw_api_exception() is used.
• Datatables — heavy consumer of route_allowed() and component().