Generate Different Types of QR Code in Laravel

How to generate different type of QR codes in laravel

Nowadays, QR codes are an essential part of a web application. It doesn't matter if you are creating an E-commerce site, social media, payment site, or any other, It helps to provide an easy user interface.

In this blog, you will learn how to create a QR code for your Laravel application using the simplesoftwareio/simple-qrcode Package. This package provides all functionality for almost all kinds of QR codes.

You can easily install this package in Laravel using the Composer package. after installation, it requires package services to be registered in config/app.php. After that, you can use it as per your requirements.

In this tutorial, you will need to follow these steps to create a QR code for your application from scratch.

Step 1: Create New Application
Step 2: Database Configuration
Step 3: Install the QR Code Package
Step 4: Register for QR Code Service
Step 5: Build Controller
Step 6: Creating Route
Step 7: Create Blade File
Step 8: Running Application

Note: Skip steps 1 and 2 if you already have an application.

Create New Application

First, open the terminal and create a new Laravel application using the below command :

composer create-project --prefer-dist laravel/laravel QrCodeApp
//If you already installed laravel globel installer
laravel new QrCodeApp

Database Configuration

Let's configure a database fora ur application. If you don't have a database then create a new one. After creating the database open .env file from root directory of your project. if .env file is missing from the project then copy content from .env.example and create file. .env file defines many common environment variables

DB_CONNECTION=mysql
DB_HOST=127.0.0.1
DB_PORT=3306
DB_DATABASE=database_name
DB_USERNAME=user_name
DB_PASSWORD=password

Install QR Code Package

Let's head back to terminal at root directory of project and enter below command :

composer require simplesoftwareio/simple-qrcode

It will take some time to install simplesoftwareio/simple-qrcode package. We will use this package to generate QR codes.

Register QR Code Service

Now, we have installed our package but in order to use it, we need to register it to our application. you can do that by registering it into config\app.php file. so open the file and update the providers and alias array with the given below services.

<?php

return [

    'providers' => [
        ...
        SimpleSoftwareIO\QrCode\QrCodeServiceProvider::class,
    ],

    'aliases' => [
        ...
        'QrCode' => SimpleSoftwareIO\QrCode\Facades\QrCode::class,
    ]
];

Building New Controller for QR Code

Let's create a controller which will handle, user request and pass user input to view. For creating a new controller enter below command into your terminal :

php artisan make:controller QrCodeController

Now let's modify our controller which will take user input and pass it to view. For that make the following changes to your controller :

App\Http\Controllers\QrCodeController.php

<?php

namespace App\Http\Controllers;

use Illuminate\Http\Request;

class QrCodeController extends Controller
{
    public function showQrCode(Request $request)
    {
        $user_name = $request->input('name');
        return view('qr_code', compact('user_name'));
    }
}

Adding QR Code Related Routes

Let's create a route which will interact with the QrCodeController and provides a link to view.

<?php

use App\Http\Controllers\QrCodeController;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Route;

Route::get('/', function () {
    return view('welcome');
});

Route::post('/show-qr-code',[QrCodeController::class, 'showQrCode'])->name('qr_code.show');

Creating Blade Files or Views

Here, we are planning to display a QR Code from user input so we need two views. First will take user input like name and second will display the QR code for that name.

We will use the default welcome view to get user input. In this blade file, we will remove all content and just add a simple form with one input.

resources\view\welcome.blade.php

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="{{ str_replace('_', '-', app()->getLocale()) }}">
    <head>
        <meta charset="utf-8">
        <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">

        <title>Laravel</title>

        <link href="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/bootstrap@5.0.2/dist/css/bootstrap.min.css" rel="stylesheet"/>
    </head>
    <body class="antialiased">
        <div class="container">
            <form action="{{route('qr_code.show')}}" method="POST">
                @csrf
                <div class="row">
                    <div class="col-md-6 offset-3 form-group mt-5">
                        <label for="qrcode">Enter Name :</label>
                        <input type="text" name="name" class="form-control" autofocus>
                    </div>
                </div>
                <div class="row">
                    <div class="col-md-6 offset-3 form-group mt-3">
                        <button type="submit" class="btn btn-outline-primary" >Generate QR Code</button>
                    </div>
                </div>
            </form>
        </div>
    </body>
</html>

Let's create new blade file for display qr codes to user. Here, we will bootstrap for styling output.

resources\view\qr_code.blade.php

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
    <meta charset="utf-8">
    <title>Laravel Generate QR Code Examples - Codewolfy</title>
    <meta name="csrf-token" content="{{ csrf_token() }}">
    <link href="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/bootstrap@5.0.2/dist/css/bootstrap.min.css" rel="stylesheet" />
</head>
<body>
    <div class="container mt-4">
        <div class="row">
            <div class="col-md-6">
                <div class="card">
                    <div class="card-header">
                        <h2>Simple QR Code</h2>
                    </div>
                    <div class="card-body">
                        {!! QrCode::size(150)->generate($user_name) !!}
                    </div>
                </div>
            </div>
            <div class="col-md-6">
                <div class="card">
                    <div class="card-header">
                        <h2>Simple QR Code In Red Color</h2>
                    </div>
                    <div class="card-body">
                        {!! QrCode::size(150)->backgroundColor(255, 0, 0)->generate($user_name) !!}
                    </div>
                </div>
            </div>
        </div>
        <div class="row">
            <div class="col-md-6">
                <div class="card">
                    <div class="card-header">
                        <h2>For Phone Number</h2>
                    </div>
                    <div class="card-body">
                        {!! QrCode::size(150)->phoneNumber('000-000-0000') !!}
                    </div>
                </div>
            </div>
            <div class="col-md-6">
                <div class="card">
                    <div class="card-header">
                        <h2>For Website URL</h2>
                    </div>
                    <div class="card-body">
                        {!! QrCode::size(150)->generate(Request::url()); !!}
                    </div>
                </div>
            </div>
        </div>
    </div>
</body>
</html>