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Rahul Gupta
Rahul Gupta

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Handling Routes and Views in a NativePHP Desktop App

#nativephp #laravel #php #desktop

Handling Routes and Views in a NativePHP Desktop App

NativePHP brings Laravel’s power to the desktop — and guess what? Your familiar routes and views still play a huge role. In this post, we'll break down how routing and views work inside a NativePHP application and how you can structure them to build a polished, native-like experience.

🧠 The Core Idea

Even though you’re building a desktop application, NativePHP runs a Laravel application in the background — just like you would on the web. The Electron shell opens a window and points to a local Laravel server, usually something like http://localhost:8000.

What this means:

All your Laravel routing logic remains the same.

📁 Setting Up Routes in NativePHP

Routes in NativePHP are handled using Laravel’s standard route files, typically found in:

routes/web.php routes/api.php
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Example: Basic Route Setup 

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Route; Route::get('/', function () { return view('welcome'); }); Route::get('/dashboard', function () { return view('dashboard'); });
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When you call Window::open('/') in NativePHP, it loads the root route (/) from your Laravel backend — just like a browser would.

🪟 Loading a View in a NativePHP Window

Inside your MainWindow.php (or any other NativePHP window class), you can define what route the window should load:

use Native\Laravel\Facades\Window; public function launch(): void { Window::open() ->title('My First NativePHP App') ->url('/') // This hits your Laravel route ->width(1000) ->height(700); }
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This means your Laravel view (like welcome.blade.php) will be rendered inside a native window. Super cool, right?

🔄 Dynamic Views and Data

You can pass data to your views just like in a normal Laravel app.

Route::get('/profile', function () { return view('profile', [ 'user' => Auth::user(), ]); });
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And then use the data inside your Blade view:

<h1>Welcome, {{ $user->name }}</h1>
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🔁 Navigating Between Views

Since Electron wraps your Laravel app in a Chromium window, navigation works like a standard web browser. You can:

  • Use anchor tags (<a href="/settings">)

  • Use Inertia.js or Vue Router for SPA-like behavior

  • Handle redirects inside your controllers

You can even use window.location.href = '/some-route' in JavaScript.

🎯 Tips for Desktop-Like Experience

To make the UI feel more native:

  • Avoid full-page reloads — consider using Inertia.js or Livewire

  • Use custom Electron menus and tray icons with NativePHP

  • Keep transitions smooth and instant

  • Disable back/forward navigation if unnecessary

🔐 Route Protection & Middleware

You can still use middleware, authentication, and role-based access just like a web app.

Route::middleware('auth')->group(function () { Route::get('/dashboard', function () { return view('dashboard'); }); });
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Login sessions are stored locally, so users don’t need to connect to a remote server unless your app requires it.

🧪 Localhost Server Behavior

Behind the scenes:

  • NativePHP runs Laravel on a local development server.

  • Electron opens a window that hits this server via HTTP.

  • Laravel renders the view → Electron shows it in a native shell.

So yes, it’s technically a web view, but with native power, menus, and integrations.

🧰 Tools to Supercharge Your Views

Here are a few optional tools to make things snappy:

  • ✅ Inertia.js — for SPA-style routing and state management.

  • ✅ Vue.js or React — for component-based UI.

  • ✅ Tailwind CSS — for fast, responsive styling.

  • ✅ Livewire — if you want reactive behavior with PHP.

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