Livewire Development

Livewire Development

Documentation

Use search-docs for detailed Livewire 4 patterns and documentation.

Basic Usage

Creating Components

# Single-file component (SFC - default in v4)
# Creates: resources/views/components/⚡create-post.blade.php
php artisan make:livewire create-post

# Page component (SFC - Full Page in v4)
# Creates: resources/views/pages/⚡create-post.blade.php
php artisan make:livewire pages::create-post

# Multi-file component (MFC)
# Creates: resources/views/components/⚡create-post/create-post.php
#          resources/views/components/⚡create-post/create-post.blade.php
php artisan make:livewire create-post --mfc

# Class-based component (v3 style)
# Creates: app/Livewire/CreatePost.php AND resources/views/livewire/create-post.blade.php
php artisan make:livewire create-post --class

# With namespace
php artisan make:livewire Posts/CreatePost

Converting Between Formats

Use php artisan livewire:convert create-post to convert between single-file, multi-file, and class-based formats.

Choosing a Component Format

Always follow the project's existing conventions first. Before creating any component, inspect the project's existing Livewire components to determine the established format (SFC, MFC, or class-based) and directory structure. Check app/Livewire/, resources/views/components/, and resources/views/livewire/ for existing components. If the project already uses a consistent format, use that same format — even if it differs from the Livewire v4 defaults below. Only fall back to the v4 defaults (SFC in resources/views/components/) when no existing convention is established.

Also check config/livewire.php for make_command.type, make_command.emoji, component_locations, and component_namespaces overrides, which change the default format and where files are stored.

Component Format Reference

Important: The ⚡ prefix shown above is the default behavior in Livewire v4 — it is configurable. Check config/livewire.php for the make_command.emoji setting. When true (default), always include the ⚡ prefix in filenames you create. When false, omit the ⚡ prefix from all paths above.

Namespaced components map to subdirectories: make:livewire Posts/CreatePost creates resources/views/components/posts/⚡create-post.blade.php (single-file by default). Use make:livewire Posts/CreatePost --mfc for multi-file output at resources/views/components/posts/⚡create-post/create-post.php and resources/views/components/posts/⚡create-post/create-post.blade.php.

Single-File Component Example

<?php
use Livewire\Component;

new class extends Component {
    public int $count = 0;

    public function increment(): void
    {
        $this->count++;
    }
};
?>

<div>
    <button wire:click="increment">Count: @{{ $count }}</button>
</div>

Livewire 4 Specifics

Key Changes From Livewire 3

These things changed in Livewire 4, but may not have been updated in this application. Verify this application's setup to ensure you follow existing conventions.

• Use Route::livewire() for full-page components (e.g., Route::livewire('/posts/create', CreatePost::class)); config keys renamed: layout → component_layout, lazy_placeholder → component_placeholder.
• wire:model now ignores child events by default (use wire:model.deep for old behavior); wire:scroll renamed to wire:navigate:scroll.
• Component tags must be properly closed; wire:transition now uses View Transitions API (modifiers removed).
• JavaScript: $wire.$js('name', fn) → $wire.$js.name = fn; commit/request hooks → interceptMessage()/interceptRequest().

New Features

• Component formats: single-file (SFC), multi-file (MFC), view-based components.
• Islands (@island) for isolated updates; async actions (wire:click.async, #[Async]) for parallel execution.
• Deferred/bundled loading: defer, lazy.bundle for optimized component loading.

New Directives

• wire:sort, wire:intersect, wire:ref, .renderless, .preserve-scroll are available for use.
• data-loading attribute automatically added to elements triggering network requests.

Best Practices

• Always use wire:key in loops
• Use wire:loading for loading states
• Use wire:model.live for live updates; wire:model is deferred by default
• Validate and authorize in actions (treat like HTTP requests)

Configuration

• smart_wire_keys defaults to true; new configs: component_locations, component_namespaces, make_command, csp_safe.

Alpine & JavaScript

• wire:transition uses browser View Transitions API; $errors and $intercept magic properties available.
• Non-blocking wire:poll and parallel wire:model.live updates improve performance.

For interceptors and hooks, see reference/javascript-hooks.md.

Testing

Livewire::test(Counter::class)
    ->assertSet('count', 0)
    ->call('increment')
    ->assertSet('count', 1);

Verification

1. Browser console: Check for JS errors
2. Network tab: Verify Livewire requests return 200
3. Ensure wire:key on all @foreach loops

Common Pitfalls

• Missing wire:key in loops → unexpected re-rendering
• Expecting wire:model real-time → use wire:model.live
• Unclosed component tags → syntax errors in v4
• Using deprecated config keys or JS hooks
• Including Alpine.js separately (already bundled in Livewire 4)