Laravel Integration

Complete guide for using Data Helpers with Laravel.

Introduction

Data Helpers provides seamless Laravel integration:

• ✅ Automatic Service Provider - Zero configuration
• ✅ Controller Injection - Automatic validation & filling
• ✅ Eloquent Integration - fromModel(), toModel()
• ✅ Request Validation - validateAndCreate()
• ✅ Artisan Commands - make:dto, dto:typescript
• ✅ Laravel Attributes - WhenAuth, WhenGuest, WhenCan, WhenRole
• ✅ API Resources - Replace Laravel Resources

Installation

composer require event4u/data-helpers

Laravel automatically discovers the service provider. No configuration needed!

Publish Configuration (Optional)

php artisan vendor:publish --tag=data-helpers-config

Controller Injection

Automatic Validation & Injection

Type-hint your DTO in controller methods:

use App\DTOs\UserRegistrationDTO;
use Illuminate\Http\JsonResponse;

class UserController extends Controller
{
    public function register(UserRegistrationDTO $dto): JsonResponse
    {
        // $dto is automatically validated and filled with request data
        $user = User::create($dto->toArray());

        return response()->json($user, 201);
    }
}

How It Works

1. Laravel’s service container detects the DTO type hint
2. Service provider creates an instance
3. Request data is automatically passed to the DTO
4. Validation runs automatically
5. Controller receives the validated DTO

Manual Creation

public function register(Request $request): JsonResponse
{
    $dto = UserRegistrationDTO::fromRequest($request);
    $dto->validate(); // Throws ValidationException on failure

    $user = User::create($dto->toArray());
    return response()->json($user, 201);
}

Eloquent Integration

From Eloquent Model

$user = User::find(1);
$dto = UserDTO::fromModel($user);

To Eloquent Model

$dto = UserDTO::fromArray($data);
$user = new User();
$dto->toModel($user);
$user->save();

Update Existing Model

$user = User::find(1);
$dto = UserDTO::fromRequest($request);
$dto->toModel($user);
$user->save();

Request Validation

Validate and Create

try {
    $dto = UserDTO::validateAndCreate($request->all());
    $user = User::create($dto->toArray());
} catch (ValidationException $e) {
    return response()->json(['errors' => $e->errors()], 422);
}

Custom Validation Messages

class UserDTO extends SimpleDTO
{
    public function __construct(
        #[Required(message: 'Email is required')]
        #[Email(message: 'Invalid email format')]
        public readonly string $email,
    ) {}
}

Laravel-Specific Attributes

WhenAuth

Show property only when user is authenticated:

class UserProfileDTO extends SimpleDTO
{
    public function __construct(
        public readonly string $name,

        #[WhenAuth]
        public readonly ?string $email = null,
    ) {}
}

WhenGuest

Show property only when user is guest:

#[WhenGuest]
public readonly ?string $registerPrompt = null;

WhenCan

Show property when user has permission:

#[WhenCan('edit-posts')]
public readonly ?string $editUrl = null;

WhenRole

Show property when user has role:

#[WhenRole('admin')]
public readonly ?array $adminPanel = null;

// Multiple roles (OR logic)
#[WhenRole(['admin', 'moderator'])]
public readonly ?array $moderationPanel = null;

Artisan Commands

Generate DTO

php artisan make:dto UserDTO

Creates app/DTOs/UserDTO.php:

<?php

namespace App\DTOs;

use event4u\DataHelpers\SimpleDTO\SimpleDTO;

class UserDTO extends SimpleDTO
{
    public function __construct(
        public readonly string $name,
        public readonly string $email,
    ) {}
}

Generate TypeScript

php artisan dto:typescript

Generates TypeScript interfaces from your DTOs.

See also: Artisan Commands - Complete guide to all available Artisan commands