How to execute code on every page load on laravel

Question

I need to prepare a set of dates and store them in Session variables when the user reloads the page. This is done from the Controller. This is a problem because the app calls about 18 different controllers on each load, so I need to change the way these dates are stored.

I've thought about using a middleware but that would mean setting this middleware for each method where I load the view, otherwise it would still be loading this dates 18 times per call. Also I've tried setting a rate limiter of one minute, but the reason I have to change the way this is done is because the dates mix up on successive calls, and this idea prevented that happening more than once a minute.

So I was wondering if there was a way of calling a method just once per view load or something aprox.

Answer 1

1. Create a new Service Provider:

php artisan make:provider DateServiceProvider

2. Open config/app.php and add your service provider to the providers array:

'providers' => [
    // ...
    App\Providers\DateServiceProvider::class,
],

3. In the newly created DateServiceProvider, use the boot method to set up your dates:

namespace App\Providers;

use Illuminate\Support\ServiceProvider;
use Session;

class DateServiceProvider extends ServiceProvider
{
    /**
     * Bootstrap services.
     *
     * @return void
     */
    public function boot()
    {
        if (!Session::has('dates')) {
            // Calculate your dates here...
            $dates = '...';

            // Store the dates in session
            Session::put('dates', $dates);
        }
    }

    /**
     * Register services.
     *
     * @return void
     */
    public function register()
    {
        //
    }
}

Now, you can access these dates from any controller, middleware, or view via the session:

$dates = session('dates');