Laravel 4: CSS error classes in forms

Laravel and its validation system make it easy to handle form errors.

But what if you want to add a special CSS class to your form fields if the submitted value was invalid? Well, here you go:

<input
    type="text"
    name="field"
    class="input-text<?php echo $errors->first('field', ' errorclass'); ?>"
/>

See what we did there? The first() helper of Laravel’s Message class has two arguments: the field name and, optionally, a format string for the output of the error message. Usually, this can be used to customize the HTML around the error message. Without a placeholder for the actual error message, the output will simply be a static string.

If the given field did not produce any error message, the return value of first() will simply be an empty string.

Serves the purpose.