Development Guides

Last Updated: 2026-01-29

This directory contains development standards and guides for the Client Portal project.

Quick Links

Core Standards

Guide	Description
Documentation Standards	How to write and maintain documentation
Naming Conventions	PHP, database, route, and file naming rules
Contributing	How to contribute to the project

Development Guides

Guide	Description
Testing Standards	PHPUnit testing conventions and best practices
Security	Security best practices and implementation
Database Patterns	Eloquent ORM patterns and query optimization
Validation Guide	Form Requests and validation rules
Logging Standards	Logging conventions and activity tracking
Error Handling	Exception handling and user-friendly errors
Configuration	Environment variables and config management

Architecture Patterns

Guide	Description
Service Patterns	Business logic organization and action classes
Controller Patterns	Resource controllers and response handling
Middleware	HTTP middleware patterns and conventions
Events & Listeners	Event-driven architecture patterns

Laravel Features

Guide	Description
Blade Components	Blade component patterns and conventions
Views Organization	Directory structure and file placement for views
Queue & Jobs	Background job processing patterns
Mail & Notifications	Email and notification patterns
Notifications	All notification types, triggers, and recipients
File Storage	File upload and storage patterns
Caching	Caching strategies and patterns
Seed System	Database seeding and factories
Blog Posts	Creating and managing blog content

API & Integration

Guide	Description
API Standards	RESTful API design and conventions

Operations

Guide	Description
Local Development	Multi-domain local setup with hosts config
Mobile Development	React Native/Expo mobile app setup and Android SDK for WSL2
Deployment	Deployment procedures and best practices
Monitoring	Correlation IDs, health checks, Sentry, deployment verification

Features

Guide	Description
Feature Index	All implemented features

Authentication & Authorization

Guide	Description
Authentication	User login, 2FA, password reset, session management
Authorization	Role-based access control, policies, gates

Core Business

Guide	Description
Client Management	Client CRUD, user associations, status management
Project Management	Project lifecycle, status workflow, milestones
Project Timeline	Visual timeline, milestones, progress tracking
Invoicing	Invoice management, line items, payment tracking
PDF Generation	Invoice PDFs, company branding, templates

Files & Documents

Guide	Description
File Sharing	File upload/download, visibility controls
Enhanced File Management	Virus scanning, versioning, bulk operations
Document Templates	Template variables, document generation

Communication

Guide	Description
Notifications	Email and in-app notifications, preferences
Webhooks	Event webhooks, payload format, signatures
Real-time Updates	WebSocket channels, presence, Laravel Echo

Dashboards & UI

Guide	Description
Admin Dashboard	Admin metrics, widgets, quick actions
Client Dashboard	Client portal overview, scoped data
Portal UI	Blade components, layouts, Tailwind CSS
UI Components	Icon library, content width, data table

Search & Analytics

Guide	Description
Advanced Search	Full-text search, saved searches
Client Portal Search	Portal search, keyboard shortcuts, scoped results
Search & Filtering	Filter types, saved filters, operators
Reports	Report types, exports, scheduled reports
Analytics	KPIs, charts, custom dashboards

Admin Tools

Guide	Description
Activity Logging	Audit trail, LogsActivity trait
Admin Tools	Bulk operations, cache, data import/export
Audit & Compliance	GDPR, data retention, privacy requests

System & Infrastructure

Guide	Description
Background Jobs	Queue configuration, job types, Supervisor
Code Architecture	Controller decomposition, service patterns, query optimization
Performance & Caching	Cache strategies, query optimization
Security	Security headers, CSRF, encryption
Workflow Automation	Triggers, conditions, actions, workflows

Integration

Guide	Description
API Guide	REST API endpoints, authentication, rate limiting
Time Tracking	Time entries, timesheets, resource planning

Collaboration

Guide	Description
Client Collaboration	Document requests, deliverable approvals, surveys

Marketing & Public

Guide	Description
Marketing Site	Public pages, multi-domain, contact forms, SEO
Blog Post Creation	Brand-aligned blog content guidelines and templates

By Topic

Getting Started

Local Development - Multi-domain local setup
Contributing - Setup and workflow
Naming Conventions - Code style basics
Configuration - Environment setup
Documentation Standards - Writing docs

Code Quality

Testing Standards - Write effective tests
Validation Guide - Input validation
Error Handling - Exception patterns
Logging Standards - Proper logging

Architecture

Service Patterns - Business logic layer
Controller Patterns - HTTP handling
Database Patterns - Eloquent best practices
Middleware - Request/response filtering
Events & Listeners - Event-driven design

Frontend

Blade Components - Reusable UI components
Views Organization - Directory structure and file placement

Backend Features

Queue & Jobs - Background processing
Mail & Notifications - Messaging
Notifications - All notification types and triggers
File Storage - File management
Caching - Performance optimization
Seed System - Test data generation
Blog Posts - Blog content management
Blog Post Creation - Brand guidelines for marketing content

API Development

API Standards - RESTful conventions
Security - Security implementation

Mobile

Mobile Development - Expo/React Native setup and Android SDK

DevOps

Deployment - Production deployment

Features

See Features section above for the complete list of 35 feature guides organized by category.

All Guides (Alphabetical)

Development Guides

Guide	Description
API Standards	RESTful API design and conventions
Blade Components	Blade component patterns and conventions
Blog Post Creation	Brand-aligned blog content guidelines and templates
Blog Posts	Creating and managing blog content
Caching	Caching strategies and patterns
Configuration	Environment variables and config management
Contributing	How to contribute to the project
Controller Patterns	Resource controllers and response handling
Database Patterns	Eloquent ORM patterns and query optimization
Deployment	Deployment procedures and best practices
Documentation Standards	How to write and maintain documentation
Local Development	Multi-domain local setup with hosts config
Error Handling	Exception handling and user-friendly errors
Events & Listeners	Event-driven architecture patterns
File Storage	File upload and storage patterns
Logging Standards	Logging conventions and activity tracking
Mail & Notifications	Email and notification patterns
Mobile Development	React Native/Expo mobile app setup and Android SDK for WSL2
Middleware	HTTP middleware patterns and conventions
Naming Conventions	PHP, database, route, and file naming rules
Notifications	All notification types, triggers, and recipients
Queue & Jobs	Background job processing patterns
Security	Security best practices and implementation
Seed System	Database seeding and factories
Service Patterns	Business logic organization and action classes
Testing Standards	PHPUnit testing conventions and best practices
Validation Guide	Form Requests and validation rules
Views Organization	Directory structure and file placement for views

Feature Guides

Guide	Description
Activity Logging	Audit trail, LogsActivity trait
Admin Dashboard	Admin metrics, widgets, quick actions
Admin Tools	Bulk operations, cache, data import/export
Advanced Search	Full-text search, saved searches
Analytics	KPIs, charts, custom dashboards
API Guide	REST API endpoints, authentication, rate limiting
Audit & Compliance	GDPR, data retention, privacy requests
Authentication	User login, 2FA, password reset
Authorization	Role-based access control, policies, gates
Background Jobs	Queue configuration, job types, Supervisor
Client Collaboration	Document requests, approvals, surveys
Client Dashboard	Client portal overview, scoped data
Client Management	Client CRUD, user associations
Client Portal Search	Portal search, keyboard shortcuts
Code Architecture	Controller decomposition, service patterns
Document Templates	Template variables, document generation
Enhanced File Management	Virus scanning, versioning, bulk ops
File Sharing	File upload/download, visibility controls
Invoicing	Invoice management, line items, payments
Marketing Site	Public pages, multi-domain, SEO
Notifications	Email and in-app notifications
PDF Generation	Invoice PDFs, company branding
Performance & Caching	Cache strategies, query optimization
Portal UI	Blade components, layouts, Tailwind CSS
Project Management	Project lifecycle, status workflow
Project Timeline	Visual timeline, milestones
Real-time Updates	WebSocket channels, presence
Reports	Report types, exports, scheduled reports
Search & Filtering	Filter types, saved filters
Security	Security headers, CSRF, encryption
Time Tracking	Time entries, timesheets, resources
UI Components	Icon library, data table, content width
Webhooks	Event webhooks, payload format
Workflow Automation	Triggers, conditions, actions

CLAUDE.md - AI assistant instructions
DOCS_GUIDE.md - Documentation structure
Implementation Plans - Feature development plans
Backlog - Planned but not yet active features
Completion Reports - Admin-facing feature summaries

Development Guides

Quick Links

Core Standards

Development Guides

Architecture Patterns

Laravel Features

API & Integration

Operations

Features

Authentication & Authorization

Core Business

Files & Documents

Communication

Dashboards & UI

Search & Analytics

Admin Tools

System & Infrastructure

Integration

Collaboration

Marketing & Public

By Topic

Getting Started

Code Quality

Architecture

Frontend

Backend Features

API Development

Mobile

DevOps

Features

All Guides (Alphabetical)

Development Guides

Feature Guides

Related Documentation