Basset 🐶 - the better asset() helper for Laravel

Easily use your CSS/JS/etc assets from wherever they are, not just your public directory:

{{-- if you're used to Laravel's asset helper: --}}
<link href="https://github.com/Laravel-Backpack/basset/blob/main/{{ asset('path/to/public/file.css') }}">

{{-- just change asset() to basset() and you can point to non-public files too, for example: --}}
<script src="https://github.com/Laravel-Backpack/basset/raw/main/{{ basset(storage_path('file.js')) }}">
<script src="https://github.com/Laravel-Backpack/basset/raw/main/{{ basset(base_path('vendor/org/package/assets/file.js')) }}">
<script src="https://github.com/Laravel-Backpack/basset/raw/main/{{ basset('https://cdn.com/path/to/file.js') }}">

That's all you need to do. Basset will download the file to storage/app/public/bassets from wherever it is, then output the now-public path to your asset.

Using Basset, you easily internalize and use:

• files from external URLs (like CDNs)
• files from internal, but non-public URLs (like the vendor directory)
• entire archives from external URLs (like GitHub)
• entire directories from local, non-public paths (like other local projects)

No more publishing package files. No more using NPM just to download some files. It's a simple yet effective solution in the age of HTTP/2 and HTTP/3.

Installation

composer require backpack/basset
php artisan basset:install

Optional publish the config file.

php artisan vendor:publish --provider="Backpack\Basset\BassetServiceProvider"

Note
Basset is disabled by default on local environment. If you want to change it, please set BASSET_DEV_MODE=false in your env file.

Storage Symlink

Basset uses the public disk to store cached assets in a directory that is publicly-accessible. So it needs you to run php artisan storage:link to create the symlink. The installation command will create ask to run that, and to add that command to your composer.json. That will most likely make it work on your development/staging/production servers. If that's not the case, make sure you create the links manually wherever you need them, with the command php artisan storage:link.

Disk

By default Basset uses the public disk. If you're having trouble with the assets not showing up on page, you might have an old Laravel configuration for it. Please make sure your disk is properly setup on config/filsystems.php - it should look like the default one.

Usage

The basset() Helper

You can just use the basset() helper instead of Laravel's asset() helper, and point to CDNs and non-public files too. Use Laravel's path helpers to construct the absolute path to your file, then Basset will take care of the rest.

For local from CDNs:

{{-- instead of --}}
<link href="https://github.com/Laravel-Backpack/basset/blob/main/{{ asset('path/to/public/file.css') }}">

{{-- you can do --}}
<link href="https://github.com/Laravel-Backpack/basset/blob/main/{{ basset('path/to/public/file.css' }}">
<link href="https://github.com/Laravel-Backpack/basset/blob/main/{{ basset('https://cdn.com/path/to/file.css') }}">
<link href="https://github.com/Laravel-Backpack/basset/blob/main/{{ basset(base_path('vendor/org/package/assets/file.css')) }}">
<link href="https://github.com/Laravel-Backpack/basset/blob/main/{{ basset(storage_path('file.css')) }}">

Basset will:

• copy that file from the vendor directory to your storage directory (aka. internalize the file)
• use the internalized file on all requests

The @basset() Directive

For known asset types like CSS, JS, images and videos, among others, Basset makes it even shorter to load assets. No need to write the HTML for your <script>, <link> or <img>, just use the @basset() directive and all of the needed HTML will be output for you:

{{-- instead of --}}
<script src="https://github.com/Laravel-Backpack/basset/raw/main/{{ asset('path/to/public/file.js') }}">
<link href="https://github.com/Laravel-Backpack/basset/blob/main/{{ asset('path/to/public/file.css') }}">
<img src="https://github.com/Laravel-Backpack/basset/raw/main/{{ asset('path/to/public/file.jpg') }}">
<object data="{{ asset('path/to/public/file.pdf') }}"></object>

{{-- you can do --}}
@basset('https://cdn.com/path/to/file.js')
@basset('https://cdn.com/path/to/file.css')
@basset(resource_path('/path/to/file.jpg'))
@basset(resource_path('/path/to/file.pdf'))

These are the know file types;

File extension	HTML element
.js	<script>
.css	<style>
.jpg .jpeg .png .webp .gif .svg	<img>
.mp4 .webm .avi .mp3 .ogg .wav	<source>
.ico	<link>
.pdf	<object>
.vtt	<track>

Basset will:

• copy that file from the vendor directory to your storage directory (aka. internalize the file)
• use the internalized file on all requests
• make sure that file is only loaded once per pageload

The @bassetBlock() Directive

Easily move code blocks to files, so they're cached

+   @bassetBlock('path/or/name-i-choose-to-give-this')
    <script>
      alert('Do stuff!');
    </script>
+   @endBassetBlock()

Basset will:

• create a file with that JS code in your storage/app/public/basset directory (aka. internalize the code)
• on all requests, use the local file (using <script src="https://github.com/Laravel-Backpack/basset/raw/main/">) instead of having the JS inline
• make sure that file is only loaded once per pageload

The @bassetArchive() Directive

Easily use archived assets (.zip & .tar.gz):

+    @bassetArchive('https://github.com/author/package-dist/archive/refs/tags/1.0.0.zip', 'package-1.0.0')
+    @basset('package-1.0.0/plugin.min.js')

Basset will:

• download the archive to your storage/app/public/basset directory (aka. internalize the code)
• unarchive it
• on all requests, use the local file (using <script src="https://github.com/Laravel-Backpack/basset/raw/main/">)
• make sure that file is only loaded once per pageload

Note: when referencing .zip archives, the PHP zip extension is required.

The @bassetDirectory() Directive

Easily internalize and use entire non-public directories:

+    @bassetDirectory(resource_path('package-1.0.0/'), 'package-1.0.0')
+    @basset('package-1.0.0/plugin.min.js')

Basset will:

• copy the directory to your storage/app/public/basset directory (aka. internalize the code)
• on all requests, use the internalized file (using <script src="https://github.com/Laravel-Backpack/basset/raw/main/">)
• make sure that file is only loaded once per pageload

The basset Commands

Copying an asset from CDNs to your server could take a bit of time, depending on the asset size. For large pages, that could even take entire seconds. You can easily prevent that from happening, by internalizing all assets in one go. You can use php artisan basset:cache to go through all your blade files, and internalize everything that's possible. If you ever need it, basset:clear will delete all the files.

php artisan basset:cache         # internalizes all @bassets
php artisan basset:clear         # clears the basset directory

In order to speed up the first page load on production, we recommend you to add php artisan basset:cache command to your deploy script.

Basset Cached Event

If you require customized behavior after each asset is cached, you can set up a listener for the BassetCachedEvent in your EventServiceProvider. This event will be triggered each time an asset is cached.

Configuration

Take a look at the config file for all configuration options. Notice some of those configs also have ENV variables, so you can:

• enable/disable dev mode using BASSET_DEV_MODE=false - this will force Basset to internalize assets even on localhost
• change the disk where assets get internalized using BASSET_DISK=yourdiskname
• disable the cache map using BASSET_CACHE_MAP=false (needed on serverless like Laravel Vapor)

Deployment

There are a lot of deployment options for Laravel apps, but we'll try to cover the gotchas of the most popular ones here:

VPS / SSH / Composer available

• it is mandatory to run php artisan storage:link in production, for Basset to work; so it's recommended you add that to your composer.json's scripts section, either under post-composer-install or post-composer-update;
• it is recommended to run php artisan basset:fresh after each deployment; so it's recommended you add that to your composer.json's scripts section, either under post-composer-update;

Laravel Forge

It's just a managed VPS, so please see the above.

Laravel Vapor

Step 1. In your vapor.yml include storage: yourbucketname

Step 2. In your Vapor .ENV file make sure you have

BASSET_DISK=s3
BASSET_CACHE_MAP=false

(optional) Before you deploy to Vapor, you might want to set up S3 on localhost to test that it's working. If you do, the steps here might help. If you encounter problems with deployment on Vapor (particularly through GitHub actions) there are some tips here.

FTP / SFTP / ZIP

If you deploy your project by uploading it from localhost (either manually or automatically), you should:

• make sure the alias exists that would have been created by php artisan storage:link; otherwise your alias might point to an inexisting localhost path; alternatively you can change the disk that Basset is using, in its config;
• before each deployment, make sure to disable dev mode (do BASSET_DEV_MODE=false in your .ENV file) then run php artisan basset:fresh; that will make sure your localhost downloads all assets, then you upload them in your zip;

Why does this package exist?

1) Keep a copy of the CDN dependencies on your side.

For many reasons you may want to avoid CDNs, CDNs may fail sometimes, the uptime is not 100%, or your app may need to work offline.

2) Forget about compiling your assets.

Most of the times backend developers end up messing around with npm and compiling dependencies. Backpack has been there, at some point we had almost 100Mb of assets on our main repo. Basset will keep all that mess away from backend developers.

3) Avoid multiple loads of the same assets.

In Laravel, if your CSS or JS assets are loaded inside a blade file:

// card.blade.php

<div class="card">
  Lorem ipsum
</div>

<script src="https://github.com/Laravel-Backpack/basset/raw/main/path/to/script.js"></script>

And you load that blade file multiple times per page (eg. include card.blade.php multiple times per page), you'll end up with that script tag being loaded multiple times, on the same page. To avoid that, Larvel 8 provides the @once directive, which will echo the thing only once, no matter how many times that blade file loaded:

// card.blade.php

<div class="card">
  Lorem ipsum
</div>

@once
<script src="https://github.com/Laravel-Backpack/basset/raw/main/path/to/script.js"></script>
@endonce

But what if your script.js file is not only loaded by card.blade.php, but also by other blade templates (eg. hero.blade.php, loaded on the same page? If you're using the @once directive, you will have the same problem all over again - that same script loaded multiple times.

That's where this package comes to the rescue. It will load the asset just ONCE, even if it's loaded from multiple blade files.

FAQ

Basset is not working, what may be wrong?

Before making any changes, you can run the command php artisan basset:check. It will perform a basic test to initialize, write, and read an asset, giving you better insights into any errors.

The most common reasons for Basset to fail are:

1) Incorrect APP_URL in the .env file.
Ensure that APP_URL in your .env matches your server configuration, including the hostname, protocol, and port number. Incorrect settings can lead to asset loading issues.

2) Improperly configured disk.
By default, Basset uses the Laravel public disk. For new Laravel projects, the configuration is usually correct. If you're upgrading a project and/or changed the public disk configuration, it's advised that you change the basset disk in config/backpack/basset.php to basset. The basset disk is a copy of the original Laravel public with working configurations.

3) Missing or broken storage symlink.
If you use the default public disk, Basset requires that the symlink between the storage and the public accessible folder to be created with php artisan storage:link command. During installation, Basset attempts to create the symlink. If it fails, you will need to manually create it with php artisan storage:link. If you encounter issues (e.g., after moving the project), recreating the symlink should resolve them.

Note for Homestead users: the symlink can't be created inside the virtual machine. You should stop your instance with: vagrant down, create the symlink in your local application folder and then vagrant up to bring the system back up.

Change log

Please see the releases tab for more information on what has changed recently.

Testing

$ composer test

Contributing

Please see contributing.md for details and a todolist.

Security

If you discover any security related issues, please email hello@backpackforlaravel.com instead of using the issue tracker.

Credits

• Antonio Almeida
• Cristian Tabacitu
• All Contributors

License

MIT. Please see the license file for more information.