Unified Data Management in Laravel with Laravel-Data

Prerequisites and Toolkit

To follow this guide, you should be comfortable with PHP 8.x and the Laravel framework. You should understand the basics of Inertia.js if you plan on using the frontend features, and have a working knowledge of TypeScript for the automated type generation components. This tutorial assumes you have a Laravel project where you're tired of writing repetitive boilerplate for requests and resources.

Key Libraries & Tools

• Laravel-Data: The core package that creates powerful data objects to replace form requests and API resources.
• TypeScript Transformer: A built-in feature of the package that scans your PHP classes and generates matching TypeScript definitions.
• Inertia.js: Frequently used alongside this package to bridge the gap between backend data and frontend React or Vue components.

Code Walkthrough: Implementing a Data Object

Let's replace the standard Laravel ceremony with a single Laravel-Data object. Instead of creating a StoreContactRequest and a ContactResource, we create a ContactData class.

namespace App\Data;

use Spatie\LaravelData\Data;
use Spatie\LaravelData\Attributes\Validation\Email;

class ContactData extends Data
{
    public function __construct(
        public string $name,
        #[Email]
        public string $email,
        public ?string $address,
    ) {}
}

By extending the Data class, this object now performs multiple roles. When used in a controller, it automatically validates incoming request data based on the property types. For example, the string $name property implies a required|string validation rule. If you want more specific constraints, use attributes like #[Email].

In your controller, you can swap out the standard request and resource calls:

public function update(ContactData $contactData, Contact $contact)
{
    $contact->update($contactData->toArray());
    return back();
}

public function show(Contact $contact)
{
    return ContactData::from($contact);
}

The from() method is a "smart" factory. It accepts a model, an array, or a request and maps the attributes automatically. This eliminates the manual mapping usually found in Laravel.

Automated TypeScript Integration

One of the most powerful features of Laravel-Data is the ability to keep your frontend types in sync. By running a simple Laravel command, the package scans your data objects and generates a TypeScript file.

php artisan typescript:transform

This generates interfaces that match your PHP logic exactly. If a property is nullable in PHP (?string), it becomes optional or nullable in TypeScript. This bridge ensures that your React components have full auto-completion and type safety, preventing "undefined" errors at runtime.

Advanced Features: Nesting and Route Actions

Real-world data is rarely flat. Laravel-Data supports nested data objects seamlessly. If a Project has many Guests, you can define a ProjectData class that contains a collection of GuestData objects. The TypeScript transformer will respect this hierarchy, generating nested interfaces.

In the upcoming Version 4, the package introduces a Route Action Helper. This tool scans your Laravel routes and generates TypeScript helpers. This allows you to call routes in your frontend using the controller name and method with full auto-completion for route parameters. You no longer need to hardcode URLs or guess which parameters a specific endpoint requires.

Tips & Gotchas

While Laravel-Data is powerful, don't feel obligated to use it for every single interaction. Standard Laravel form requests are still excellent for simple validation logic in smaller projects. Use Laravel-Data when you find yourself repeating the same attribute list across three or more files.

Best Practice: Always use the from() method rather than manual instantiation. It handles the heavy lifting of converting models and multi-dimensional arrays into the correct object format. If you need to hide sensitive data like addresses for certain users, use the except() or only() methods on the data object to filter the output dynamically.