5 · Your first resource

Goal: /admin/products lists products, and you can create, view and edit one.

A resource is one Eloquent model presented inside one panel: its table, its form, its pages, and the single query all of them read through. Anything that is not a model — a report, a settings screen — is a standalone page instead.

Do this

1. The model and its table

bash

php artisan make:model Product -m

Fill in the migration:

php

// database/migrations/xxxx_xx_xx_xxxxxx_create_products_table.php
public function up(): void
{
    Schema::create('products', function (Blueprint $table): void {
        $table->id();
        $table->string('name');
        $table->string('sku')->unique();
        $table->decimal('price', 10, 2)->default(0);
        $table->string('status')->default('draft');   // draft | published | archived
        $table->text('description')->nullable();
        $table->timestamp('published_at')->nullable();
        $table->timestamps();
    });
}

And the model:

php

<?php

declare(strict_types=1);

namespace App\Models;

use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Factories\HasFactory;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;

final class Product extends Model
{
    use HasFactory;

    protected $fillable = ['name', 'sku', 'price', 'status', 'description', 'published_at'];

    /**
     * @return array<string, string>
     */
    protected function casts(): array
    {
        return [
            'price' => 'decimal:2',
            'published_at' => 'datetime',
        ];
    }
}

bash

php artisan migrate

2. The resource

bash

php artisan make:panel-resource Product --panel=Admin

text

INFO  Created [app/Panels/Admin/Resources/Products/ProductResource.php]
INFO  Created [app/Panels/Admin/Resources/Products/Pages/ListProducts.php]
INFO  Created [app/Panels/Admin/Resources/Products/Pages/CreateProduct.php]
INFO  Created [app/Panels/Admin/Resources/Products/Pages/ViewProduct.php]
INFO  Created [app/Panels/Admin/Resources/Products/Pages/EditProduct.php]
INFO  Created [app/Panels/Admin/Resources/Products/Tables/ProductsTable.php]
INFO  Created [app/Panels/Admin/Resources/Products/Forms/ProductForm.php]

Nothing needs registering. The panel's discoverResources(app_path('Panels/Admin/Resources')) from step 3 already covers that directory, so /admin/products answers on the next request.

Directory plural, class singular. The table and the form live in their own classes because both grow — a resource whose form() is eighty lines of fields is a file where the navigation configuration is impossible to find.

3. The policy

bash

php artisan make:policy ProductPolicy --model=Product

php

<?php

declare(strict_types=1);

namespace App\Policies;

use App\Models\Product;
use App\Models\User;

final class ProductPolicy
{
    public function viewAny(User $user): bool
    {
        return true;
    }

    public function view(User $user, Product $product): bool
    {
        return true;
    }

    public function create(User $user): bool
    {
        return true;
    }

    public function update(User $user, Product $product): bool
    {
        return true;
    }

    public function delete(User $user, Product $product): bool
    {
        return true;
    }

    public function deleteAny(User $user): bool
    {
        return true;
    }
}

Without this, the resource answers 403

Not 404, and not an empty list — 403. Every panel screen delegates to Laravel's Gate, the gate is asked, and with no policy it answers no. That is the intended default: a panel that showed every record because nobody had written a rule yet would be worse. In development the panel logs which model is missing one, naming the make:policy command.

The return true above is a tutorial policy. Step 8 replaces it with a real one.

What the generator wrote

The resource is the small file. It names the model, the navigation, and the page map, and delegates the two schemas:

php

<?php

declare(strict_types=1);

namespace App\Panels\Admin\Resources\Products;

use App\Models\Product;
use App\Panels\Admin\Resources\Products\Forms\ProductForm;
use App\Panels\Admin\Resources\Products\Pages\CreateProduct;
use App\Panels\Admin\Resources\Products\Pages\EditProduct;
use App\Panels\Admin\Resources\Products\Pages\ListProducts;
use App\Panels\Admin\Resources\Products\Pages\ViewProduct;
use App\Panels\Admin\Resources\Products\Tables\ProductsTable;
use PandaPanel\Forms\FormSchema;
use PandaPanel\Resources\Resource;
use PandaPanel\Tables\TableSchema;

final class ProductResource extends Resource
{
    protected static string $model = Product::class;

    protected static ?string $navigationIcon = 'folder';

    protected static int $navigationSort = 0;

    public static function table(TableSchema $table): TableSchema
    {
        return ProductsTable::configure($table);
    }

    public static function form(FormSchema $schema): FormSchema
    {
        return ProductForm::configure($schema);
    }

    /**
     * @return array<string, class-string>
     */
    public static function pages(): array
    {
        return [
            'index' => ListProducts::class,
            'create' => CreateProduct::class,
            'view' => ViewProduct::class,
            'edit' => EditProduct::class,
        ];
    }
}

The four things a resource must declare

Member	Why it is required
`$model`	Everything starts from it: the query, the slug, the labels, the policy lookup
`table()`	The index has nothing to show without columns
`form()`	A resource with no form should say so explicitly, rather than inherit a create page that silently saves nothing
`pages()`	The page map is what gets routed; a resource with no pages has no URLs

The page keys are not decoration

They become route name suffixes, and the four standard keys have fixed shapes. Every key is optional, and the framework stops offering links to a page that was never declared — remove 'create' and ListRecords renders no New button; remove 'edit' and the view page renders no Edit button.

Key	URL	Route name
`index`	`/admin/products`	`panel.admin.resources.products.index`
`create`	`/admin/products/create`	`…products.create`
`view`	`/admin/products/{record}`	`…products.view`
`edit`	`/admin/products/{record}/edit`	`…products.edit`

Two lines on the resource, both optional, both worth setting now:

php

final class ProductResource extends Resource
{
    protected static string $model = Product::class;

    protected static ?string $navigationIcon = 'package';       
    protected static ?string $navigationLabel = 'Products';     
    protected static string|BackedEnum|null $navigationGroup = 'Catalogue';  
    protected static int $navigationSort = 10;

    // ...
}

Add use BackedEnum; at the top for that third line. The group only needs declaring on the panel if you care about its order:

php

// app/Panels/Admin/AdminPanelProvider.php
->navigationGroups(['Catalogue', 'System'])

An icon key that is not in the registry renders nothing

Icons are resolved through a build-time registry rather than at runtime. After using a new key, run php artisan panel:icons.

Check it worked

bash

php artisan route:list --name=panel.admin.resources
php artisan panel:cache      # should now report 1 panel, 1 resource
php artisan panel:clear

Then open /admin/products. You get an empty table with a New product button. Create one, and it appears in the list — with whatever placeholder columns the generator wrote, which is what step 6 fixes.

If it did not work

Symptom	Cause	Fix
403 on `/admin/products`	No policy, or `viewAny()` returns false	Create `ProductPolicy`
404 on `/admin/products`	The class is outside the discovered path, or `panel:cache` is stale	`php artisan panel:clear`
No sidebar entry, but the URL works	`viewAny()` says no — navigation hides what the user may not see	Check the policy
`PanelSchemaException: model not set`	`$model` was never assigned	Add `protected static string $model = Product::class;`
The resource appears in the wrong panel	`--panel=` named a different directory	Move the class, or generate again

Why panel:cache matters here

After panel:cache, discovery does not run — a resource added afterwards has no route, no navigation entry and no error. The manifest records a fingerprint of the discovery paths and warns in development when it is stale. php artisan panel:clear is the fix, and it is the first thing to try whenever a new class does not show up.

The resource works. It is not yet pleasant to use.

→ 6 · Shape the form and the table

5 · Your first resource

Do this

1. The model and its table

2. The resource

3. The policy

What the generator wrote

The four things a resource must declare

The page keys are not decoration

Make the navigation read better

Check it worked

If it did not work

Next

See also

5 · Your first resource ​

Do this ​

1. The model and its table ​

2. The resource ​

3. The policy ​

What the generator wrote ​

The four things a resource must declare ​

The page keys are not decoration ​

Make the navigation read better ​

Check it worked ​

If it did not work ​

Next ​

See also ​

5 · Your first resource

Do this

1. The model and its table

2. The resource

3. The policy

What the generator wrote

The four things a resource must declare

The page keys are not decoration

Make the navigation read better

Check it worked

If it did not work

Next

See also