Basics

Backpack\CRUD provides a fast way to build administration panels - places where your administrators can Create, Read, Update, Delete entries for a specific Eloquent model. One CRUD Panel provides functionality for one Eloquent Model.

Requirements

In order to create a CRUD Panel, you'll need:

• a table in the database (and maybe connection tables for relationships);
• an Eloquent Model that points to that db table;

If you don't already have the models, don't worry, Backpack also includes a faster way to generate database migrations and models.

Architecture

A Backpack CRUD Panel uses the same elements you would have created for an administration panel, if you were doing it from scratch:

• a custom route - will be generated in routes/backpack/custom.php; points to a controller;
• a custom controller - will be generated in app/Http/Controllers/Admin; holds the logic for the all operations an admin can perform on that Eloquent model;
• a request file (optional) - will be generated in app/Http/Requests; used to validate Create/Update forms;

The only differences between building it from scratch and using Backpack\CRUD are that:

• your controller will be extending Backpack\CRUD\app\Http\Controllers\CrudController, which allows you to easily add traits to handle the already-built operations: Create, Update, Delete, List, Show, Reorder, Revisions etc.
• your model will use \Backpack\CRUD\CrudTrait;

This simple architecture (ProductCrudController extends CrudController) means:

• your CRUD Panel will not be a black box; you can easily see the logic for each operation, by checking the methods on this controller, or the traits you'll be using;
• you can easily override what happens inside each operation;
• you can easily create custom operations;

For example:

• want to change how a single Product is shown to the admin? just create a method called show() in your ProductCrudController; simple OOP dictates that your method will be picked up, instead of the one in the ShowOperation trait; some goes for create(), store(), etc - you have complete control;
• want to create a new "Publish" operation on a Product? your ProductCrudController is a great place for that logic; just create a custom publish() method and a route that points to it;

Example Files

For a Tag entity, your CRUD Panel would consist of:

• your existing model (app/Models/Tag.php);
• a route inside routes/backpack/custom.php;
• a controller (app/Http/Controllers/Admin/TagCrudController.php);
• a request (app/Http/Requests/TagCrudRequest.php);

To further your understanding of how a CRUD Panel works, read more about this example in the tutorial.