So I took almost 2.5 hours to complete this task and I'm writing my insights here in details:
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Committed the code above with refactored code above and original below to it. (Form request wasn't there so its all new.) ~150+ lines have been reduced
These are the points that I emphasis on myself during my development and they are not in the original code.
No uses of Form Requests
It is a good way to reduce cluttered code inside controller/repository and defy the Single Responsibility Principle. Any repository method should not validate the data. if the method is to create a new entry into the database then it should just create the entry and nothing else.
Else usage
unnecessary usage of else statements. else makes code look cluttered. I have refactored so many statements but there are still tons of left. else statements are the most hateful statement for me 😄
Eloquent usage
Eloquent usage can be made better. I didn't have access to the models but scope methods are great ways to reduce the queries inside controller/repository and make code clean. Same as for accessors and mutators. For example in code, it is checking the consumer_type and assigning a variable its value, these 4 lines can be eliminated by using accessor/mutator. There is a difference between get() and first() methods. get() brings all the matched results means no limit, first() gets the single result. $job->user()->get()->first(); this line will get all the users of the job and then select the first one. $job->user()->first(); this line will get the single user which means it is faster.
Environment Variables
env() returns the variables written in .env files, it is recommended to never use this function outside of config files. Why? On production we cache the env variables, after caching using env() function can result in a null value which can break the code. So the good practice is to define all the variables of .env file into a config file and then access values from them using config() method.
Response pattern
For controllers handling APIs should follow the proper procedure of REST standards. response() can send a JSON response but it will go and run through an extra check. response()->json() can directly send the data as JSON and you can send relevant HTTP status codes.