This comprehensive guide leads you through seamlessly integrating Spackle into a Laravel application. Upon completion, your Laravel app will leverage Spackle for managing user entitlements, allowing you to control access to certain features based on user subscription status.

Preparing Your Environment and Installation

Setting Up Laravel

If Laravel is not yet installed in your environment, you can install it through Composer:

composer global require laravel/installer

Creating a New Laravel Project and Model

Execute the following command to start a new Laravel project:

laravel new myproject

Navigate into your project to create a new model within it:

cd myproject
php artisan make:model User -m

Integrating Spackle Library

Install the Spackle library via Composer with this command:

composer require spackleso/spackle-php

And include Composer's autoload to enable the Spackle bindings:

require_once('vendor/autoload.php');

Extending Laravel's User Model

Begin by installing the Stripe PHP library:

composer require stripe/stripe-php

Then, update the User model to include a stripe_customer_id attribute.

// app/Models/User.php
namespace App\Models;

use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;
use Stripe\Stripe;

class User extends Model
{
    protected $fillable = ['stripe_customer_id'];

    public function save(array $options = [])
    {
        if (empty($this->stripe_customer_id)) {
            Stripe::setApiKey(env('STRIPE_SECRET'));
            $customer = \Stripe\Customer::create([
                'email' => $this->email,
            ]);
            $this->stripe_customer_id = $customer->id;
        }
        parent::save($options);
    }
}

Next, ensure your Laravel application uses this extended User model by updating your auth configuration as necessary.

Configuration

Setting Spackle API Key

Add your Spackle API key to your .env file for Laravel:

SPACKLE_API_KEY=<your_spackle_api_key>

And then access this API key in your application by adding it to your config/services.php file:

'spackle' => [
    'api_key' => env('SPACKLE_API_KEY'),
],

Implementing Spackle Middleware

Create a new middleware file named SpackleMiddleware.php in your app/Http/Middleware directory and include the following code:

// app/Http/Middleware/SpackleMiddleware.php
namespace App\Http\Middleware;

use Closure;
use Spackle\Spackle;

class SpackleMiddleware
{
    public function handle($request, Closure $next)
    {
        Spackle::setApiKey(config('services.spackle.api_key'));

        if ($request->user()) {
            $stripeCustomerId = $request->user()->stripe_customer_id;
            $request->spackle_customer = Spackle\Customer::retrieve($stripeCustomerId);
        }

        return $next($request);
    }
}

Remember to register this middleware in your app/Http/Kernel.php file within the $middlewareGroups array.

Feature Gating in Controllers

In your controller, you can check if a user has access to a feature like so:

// app/Http/Controllers/FeatureController.php
namespace App\Http\Controllers;

use Illuminate\Http\Request;

class FeatureController extends Controller
{
    public function protectedFeature(Request $request)
    {
        if (!$request->spackle_customer->enabled('feature_key')) {
            return response('Access denied to this feature.', 403);
        }

        return response('Welcome to the protected feature!');
    }
}

Dynamically Rendering a Pricing Table

To dynamically render a pricing table from Spackle, first add a controller method to fetch and pass the pricing table data to your view:

// app/Http/Controllers/PricingController.php
namespace App\Http\Controllers;

use Illuminate\Http\Request;
use Spackle\Spackle;

class PricingController extends Controller
{
    public function showPricingTable()
    {
        Spackle::setApiKey(config('services.spackle.api_key'));
        $pricingTable = Spackle\PricingTable::retrieve("abcde123");

        return view('pricing', ['pricingTable' => $pricingTable]);
    }
}

Then, define the route in your routes/web.php file:

Route::get('/pricing', 'PricingController@showPricingTable');

Update your view files accordingly to display the pricing table as obtained from Spackle, allowing for dynamic updates straight from your Spackle dashboard without any code