> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://kawax.biz/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# Views
> How to create views in Laravel, return them from routes and controllers, and pass data to them.
## Introduction
Returning an entire HTML document as a string from a route or controller is not practical. Views let you keep all your HTML in separate files.
Views separate your controller and application logic from your presentation logic. Laravel stores views in the `resources/views` directory. By convention, Laravel views are written using the [Blade templating language](/en/blade).
```blade theme={null}
Hello, {{ $name }}
```
This view is stored at `resources/views/greeting.blade.php` and you can return it using the global `view` helper.
```php theme={null}
Route::get('/', function () {
return view('greeting', ['name' => 'James']);
});
```
## Creating views
To create a view, place a file with a `.blade.php` extension in the `resources/views` directory, or use the Artisan command:
```shell theme={null}
php artisan make:view greeting
```
The `.blade.php` extension tells the framework that the file contains a [Blade template](/en/blade).
## Returning views
Once you have created a view, you can return it from a route or controller using the global `view` helper:
```php theme={null}
Route::get('/', function () {
return view('greeting', ['name' => 'James']);
});
```
You can also use the `View` facade:
```php theme={null}
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\View;
return View::make('greeting', ['name' => 'James']);
```
The first argument to `view` corresponds to the name of the view file in the `resources/views` directory. The second argument is an array of data to make available to the view.
### Nested view directories
Views can be nested inside subdirectories of `resources/views`. Use dot notation to reference nested views.
For example, a view stored at `resources/views/admin/profile.blade.php` can be returned like this:
```php theme={null}
return view('admin.profile', $data);
```
Do not include a `.` character in your view directory names.
### Returning the first existing view
Use the `first` method on the `View` facade to return the first view that exists from an array:
```php theme={null}
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\View;
return View::first(['custom.admin', 'admin'], $data);
```
### Checking if a view exists
Use the `exists` method on the `View` facade to check whether a view exists:
```php theme={null}
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\View;
if (View::exists('admin.profile')) {
// ...
}
```
## Passing data to views
As shown in the examples above, you pass an array of data to a view to make it available inside:
```php theme={null}
return view('greetings', ['name' => 'Victoria']);
```
The data must be a key/value array. Inside the view, you can access each value using its corresponding key.
You can also add individual pieces of data using the `with` method. It returns the view instance, so you can chain calls:
```php theme={null}
return view('greeting')
->with('name', 'Victoria')
->with('occupation', 'Engineer');
```
## Sharing data with all views
To share data with every view in your application, use the `share` method on the `View` facade. Call it in the `boot` method of a service provider:
```php theme={null}
Learn how to use Blade syntax to build dynamic views.