asset() vs mix() and relative vs absolute URLs

[ethanclevenger91]

• Laravel Version: 7.25.0
• PHP Version: 7.4.8
• Database Driver & Version: MySQL (MariaDB), Ver 14.14 Distrib 5.7.29, for Linux (x86_64)

Description:

The mix() helper produces a relative URL unless you've defined mix_url in config/app.php. Or that's the implication of this line.

Out of the box, however, asset() produces an absolute URL based on the app's configured URL.

And in config/app.php, we actually have an asset_url value out of the box for parity with mix_url - asset() just doesn't rely on it.

This can result in some edge cases like this one where you end up doing asset(mix()) to get the absolute URL you want.

Seems like the behavior should be consistent. asset should either depend on the config file, or mix shouldn't, and having a consistent configuration from one to the other should result in a consistent URL treatment.

Also could be worth considering dropping the mix_url config entirely (I think it's undocumented?) and using the same config value to generate both, but that may have side-effects.

Steps To Reproduce:

1. Create Laravel install with Mix
2. Generate some CSS/JS and insert it in a view using {{ asset('css/app.css') }}.
3. See absolute URL in page source
4. Replace with {{ mix('css/app.css') }}
5. See relative URL in page source
6. Replace with {{ asset(mix('css/app.css')) }}
7. See absolute URL in page source

[taylorotwell]

mix_url is used by Laravel Vapor.

[taylorotwell]

Since this seems to be more of a feature request than a true "bug", will convert this to a discussion for now.