Laravel: Difference between View::share() and View::composer()

Technically they are not at all alike. View::share simply sets a variable, while View::composer is a callback function.

Let me explain in greater detail:

View::share is really straight forward it sets a variable which can be used within any of the views, think of it like a global variable.

View::composer registers an event which is called when the view is rendered, don't confuse it with a View::creator which is fired when a view is instantiated.

View::composer / View::creator can both be used as a class which is well documented.

While these give you the ability to pass additional data to a view, they also give you to ability to do a lot of other things, for example they could:

• Aid in debugging a view
• Log information about views
• Be used to create custom caching (probably not a great idea, but possible)

These are just some examples of what could be possible using View::composer and View::creator.

View::composer('*', callback());

Means that the callback will be called for all views (*).

View::share

Means that a variable will be shared with all outputed views.

Because the first is in filters.php, it'll apply for all routes.

The second is in a controller contructor, so it'll apply for all views triggered by this controller.

One last thing: when overriding a constructor, it's a good pratice to allways call the parent constructor with this code:

parent::_construct();