Simplify your Laravel project with a folder-by-feature structure

By default, Laravel stores files in a folder-by-type structure:

app/
┣ Http/
┃ ┗ Controllers/
┃   ┣ CustomerController.php
┃   ┣ OrderController.php
┃   ┣ ProductController.php
┗ Models/
  ┣ Customer.php
  ┣ Order.php
  ┣ Product.php

This folder structure works ok for small projects, but as soon as you write more and more controllers, models, etc. it gets very hard to find the actual file you are looking for.

This is starting to get terrible…

So I like to structure my project in a folder-by-feature structure:

app/
┣ Customer/
┃ ┣ Customer.php
┃ ┗ CustomerController.php
┣ Order/
┃ ┣ Order.php
┃ ┗ OrderController.php
┗ Product/
  ┣ Product.php
  ┗ ProductController.php

Much cleaner!

To use this folder structure in a new Laravel project, follow these steps:

1. Remove everything inside the /app folder

rm -r ./app/*

2. Replace the default container bindings in /bootstrap/app.php

…or bind these to your own Kernel/Handler implementations.

3. Create your first feature

artisan make:provider App\\Product\\ProductServiceProvider

4. Register the service provider in /config/app.php

5. Bootstrap your feature in the service provider

For more info about Service Providers, see https://laravel.com/docs/providers

6. Build your amazing feature!

You can add everything you like to the feature folder, from database migrations to event listeners. Split the code to the extend that suits your project!

Neat and tidy 👌