php 69 lines · 9 steps

Building a multi-step onboarding wizard in Laravel

A Laravel controller drives a session-backed wizard, validating each step and assembling the pieces into one final record.

Explained by highlit

Laravel Intermediate session-state validation multi-step-forms progress-tracking

1<?php
2 
3namespace App\Http\Controllers;
4 
5use Illuminate\Http\Request;
6use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Validator;
7use App\Models\Registration;
8 
9class OnboardingWizardController extends Controller
10{
11    private const SESSION_KEY = 'onboarding.wizard';
12 
13    private array $steps = [
14        'account' => ['name' => 'required|string|max:120', 'email' => 'required|email'],
15        'company' => ['company' => 'required|string|max:200', 'size' => 'required|in:solo,small,large'],
16        'billing' => ['plan' => 'required|in:free,pro,enterprise'],
17    ];
18 
19    public function show(Request $request, string $step)
20    {
21        abort_unless(array_key_exists($step, $this->steps), 404);
22 
23        $state = $request->session()->get(self::SESSION_KEY, []);
24 
25        return view("onboarding.{$step}", [
26            'step' => $step,
27            'data' => $state[$step] ?? [],
28            'progress' => $this->progress($step),
29        ]);
30    }
31 
32    public function store(Request $request, string $step)
33    {
34        abort_unless(array_key_exists($step, $this->steps), 404);
35 
36        $validated = Validator::make($request->all(), $this->steps[$step])->validate();
37 
38        $request->session()->put(self::SESSION_KEY . ".{$step}", $validated);
39 
40        $keys = array_keys($this->steps);
41        $next = $keys[array_search($step, $keys) + 1] ?? null;
42 
43        if ($next === null) {
44            return $this->finish($request);
45        }
46 
47        return redirect()->route('onboarding.show', ['step' => $next]);
48    }
49 
50    private function finish(Request $request)
51    {
52        $state = $request->session()->get(self::SESSION_KEY, []);
53 
54        $registration = Registration::create(array_merge(...array_values($state)));
55 
56        $request->session()->forget(self::SESSION_KEY);
57 
58        return redirect()
59            ->route('dashboard')
60            ->with('status', "Welcome aboard, {$registration->name}!");
61    }
62 
63    private function progress(string $current): int
64    {
65        $keys = array_keys($this->steps);
66 
67        return (int) round((array_search($current, $keys) + 1) / count($keys) * 100);
68    }
69}

01 / 01

STEP 01

Walkthrough

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Three takeaways

1Storing partial form state in the session lets a wizard survive across separate HTTP requests.
2Defining each step's rules in one data structure keeps validation, ordering, and progress in sync.
3Merging the accumulated per-step state into a single create call defers persistence until the flow completes.

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