Introduction
In addition to the commands provided with Artisan, you
may also build your own custom commands for working with
your application. You may store your custom commands in
the app/Console/Commands directory;
however, you are free to choose your own storage
location as long as your commands can be autoloaded
based on your composer.json settings.
Building A Command
Generating The Class
To create a new command, you may use the
make:console Artisan command, which will
generate a command stub to help you get started:
Generate A New Command Class
php artisan make:console FooCommand
The command above would generate a class at
app/Console/FooCommand.php.
When creating the command, the --command
option may be used to assign the terminal command
name:
php artisan make:console AssignUsers --command=users:assign
Writing The Command
Once your command is generated, you should fill out the
name and description
properties of the class, which will be used when
displaying your command on the list
screen.
The fire method will be called when your
command is executed. You may place any command logic in
this method.
Arguments & Options
The getArguments and getOptions
methods are where you may define any arguments or
options your command receives. Both of these methods
return an array of commands, which are described by a
list of array options.
When defining arguments, the array
definition values represent the following:
array($name, $mode, $description, $defaultValue)
The argument mode may be any of the
following: InputArgument::REQUIRED or
InputArgument::OPTIONAL.
When defining options, the array definition
values represent the following:
array($name, $shortcut, $mode, $description, $defaultValue)
For options, the argument mode may be:
InputOption::VALUE_REQUIRED,
InputOption::VALUE_OPTIONAL,
InputOption::VALUE_IS_ARRAY,
InputOption::VALUE_NONE.
The VALUE_IS_ARRAY mode indicates that the
switch may be used multiple times when calling the
command:
php artisan foo --option=bar --option=baz
The VALUE_NONE option indicates that the
option is simply used as a "switch":
php artisan foo --option
Retrieving Input
While your command is executing, you will obviously need
to access the values for the arguments and options
accepted by your application. To do so, you may use the
argument and option
methods:
Retrieving The Value Of A Command Argument
$value = $this->argument('name');
Retrieving All Arguments
$arguments = $this->argument();
Retrieving The Value Of A Command Option
$value = $this->option('name');
Retrieving All Options
$options = $this->option();
Writing Output
To send output to the console, you may use the
info, comment,
question and error methods.
Each of these methods will use the appropriate ANSI
colors for their purpose.
Sending Information To The Console
$this->info('Display this on the screen');
Sending An Error Message To The Console
$this->error('Something went wrong!');
Asking Questions
You may also use the ask and
confirm methods to prompt the user for
input:
Asking The User For Input
$name = $this->ask('What is your name?');
Asking The User For Secret Input
$password = $this->secret('What is the password?');
Asking The User For Confirmation
if ($this->confirm('Do you wish to continue? [yes|no]'))
{
//
}
You may also specify a default value to the
confirm method, which should be
true or false:
$this->confirm($question, true);
Calling Other Commands
Sometimes you may wish to call other commands from your
command. You may do so using the call
method:
$this->call('command:name', ['argument' => 'foo', '--option' => 'bar']);
Registering Commands
Registering An Artisan Command
Once your command is finished, you need to register it
with Artisan so it will be available for use. This is
typically done in the
app/Console/Kernel.php file. Within this
file, you will find a list of commands in the
commands property. To register your
command, simply add it to this list. When Artisan boots,
all the commands listed in this property will be
resolved by the IoC
container and registered with Artisan.