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Global Helpers & Static Facades

NexusPHP provides a variety of global PHP functions and static facades. These components keep your code clean, expressive, and predictable while adhering to the framework's zero-dependency architectural design.

Core Helpers

app()

Returns the singleton instance of the Nexus\Foundation\Application container. If a class or interface name is provided, it resolves that dependency.

$container = app();
$userService = app(UserService::class);

config()

Gets a configuration value using dot notation with an optional default.

$value = config('app.timezone', 'UTC');

env()

Retrieves an environment variable value.

$env = env('APP_ENV', 'production');

value()

Returns the value given, executing closures if provided.

$result = value(function () {
    return 'dynamic value';
});

HTTP & Rendering Helpers

response()

Creates a Nexus\Http\Response or returns the ResponseFactory.

return response()->json(['status' => 'ok']);

view()

Returns a rendered HTML view response.

return view('welcome', ['name' => 'John']);

Static Support Facades

NexusPHP provides static facade accessors for common core services.

Storage Facade (Nexus\Support\Storage)

Provides a unified interface to read, write, move, and store files inside storage/app/.

use Nexus\Support\Storage;

// Write text file
Storage::put('documents/notes.txt', 'File contents');

// Store uploaded HTTP file with automatic hash filename
$path = Storage::putFile('avatars', $request->file('avatar'));

// Get file contents
$content = Storage::get('documents/notes.txt');

// Check existence & delete
if (Storage::exists('documents/notes.txt')) {
    Storage::delete('documents/notes.txt');
}

Session Facade (Nexus\Support\Session)

Manages session data with full dot-notation support and flash messaging.

use Nexus\Support\Session;

// Put nested data
Session::put('user.settings.theme', 'dark');

// Retrieve nested data
$theme = Session::get('user.settings.theme', 'light');

// Check if key exists
if (Session::has('user.settings')) {
    // ...
}

// Store flash message for next request
Session::flash('status', 'Profile updated successfully!');

// Clear session
Session::forget('user');

Logger Facade (Nexus\Support\Log)

Writes structured PSR-3 compliant logs to storage/logs/app.log. Supports string message placeholder interpolation.

use Nexus\Support\Log;

Log::info('User {username} logged in from IP {ip}', [
    'username' => 'alice',
    'ip' => $request->ip()
]);

Log::error('Database transaction failed', ['exception' => $e->getMessage()]);

String & HTML Helpers

e()

Escapes strings for UTF-8 HTML output to prevent XSS attacks.

echo e('<html>foo</html>'); // &lt;html&gt;foo&lt;/html&gt;

str()

Returns a fluent Nexus\Support\Str\Stringable instance.

$slug = str('  Hello World  ')->trim()->slug(); // "hello-world"

Array & Collection Helpers

collect()

Creates a new Nexus\Support\Collection instance.

$collection = collect([1, 2, 3])->map(fn($n) => $n * 2);

blank() & filled()

Determines whether a value is empty/blank or filled with content.

blank(''); // true
filled('NexusPHP'); // true

tap()

Passes a value to a callback and returns the value.

return tap(new User, function ($user) {
    $user->name = 'John Doe';
    $user->save();
});

Date & Time Helpers

now() & today()

Creates a Nexus\Support\DateTime\DateTime instance for current time or date.

$now = now();
$tokyoNow = now('Asia/Tokyo');
$today = today();