When searching for the right way to add a simple Helper class in Laravel 5, I’ve come across several suboptimal solutions. Some advice to create a folder and then glob() all files and incrementally require or include them. There is an easy way and you don’t have to rewrite any code.

In your app/ folder, create a folder named Helpers. Now in this folder, add a Helper.php file. Now here’s the trick: With namespacing, you can reference your class without any other hassle. Simple include the following at the top of your file:

namespace App\Helpers;
/* if you named your folder differently than Helpers, use your folder name! */
/* add class now */
class ClassName {
    ....
}

And that’s it. You can now use your Helpers class anywhere in your code simply by calling \App\Helpers\ClassName::doSomething().

Of course, if you would like to make it easier to access the function only with ClassName you can add a class alias in the config/app.php file in the aliases array. Simply add your alias and full referenced class like so:

'ClassName'   => \App\Helpers\ClassName::class

I hope this is helpful and avoids any glob() headache. Happy coding!