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Laravel Dt0

A powerful Laravel integration for fab2s/dt0, bringing true immutability, Laravel validation, and Eloquent model casting to your Data Transfer Objects.

Why Dt0?

Traditional DTOs with mutable properties miss the core purpose: guaranteeing that data won't be accidentally modified. Dt0 leverages PHP 8.2+'s native readonly properties to enforce immutability at the language level, not by convention, but by design.

Key Benefits:

• True Immutability — Readonly properties prevent accidental modifications (fatal error, not silent bug)
• Laravel Validation — Full power of Laravel's validation rules on DTO properties
• Eloquent Casting — Use DTOs directly as model attributes with automatic serialization
• Flexible Hydration — Create from arrays, JSON strings, or other instances
• Type Safety — Strong typing with bidirectional casting support, strict_types enforced, PHPStan level 9 clean
• Performance — Logic compiled once per process and cached

Note: This package extends fab2s/dt0 with Laravel-specific features (validation, Eloquent casting). All features from the base package, including property casting, property renaming, default values, output filtering, and more, work seamlessly here. Visit the dt0 documentation for the complete feature set.

Flexible, not dogmatic. While immutability is the core feature, Dt0 doesn't force it. Use mutable properties when needed. Expose protected properties via with(). The package provides capabilities; you decide how to use them.

Dt0 vs spatie/laravel-data

Feature Comparison

Performance

Benchmarks from fab2s/dt0 (reproducible via the benchmark script):

Table of Contents

• Installation
• Quick Start
• Real-World Example
• Core Features
  • Creating DTOs
  • Factory Methods
  • Serialization
  • Immutable Updates
• Laravel Validation
  • Defining Rules
  • Rule Priority
  • Triggering Validation
  • Custom Validation Rules
• Model Attribute Casting
• Casters
  • Built-in Casters
  • CollectionOfCaster
  • EncryptedCaster
• Artisan Generator
• Compatibility
• Contributing
• License

Installation

Quick Start

Real-World Example

A complete request-to-response flow with validation, Eloquent casting, and typed access:

Form Request Integration

Dt0 pairs with Form Requests for teams that prefer that pattern:

Core Features

Creating DTOs

Extend fab2s\Dt0\Laravel\Dt0 for full Laravel integration:

Factory Methods

Dt0 provides multiple ways to instantiate:

Serialization

Immutable Updates

Create modified copies without mutating the original:

Laravel Validation

Laravel Dt0 integrates seamlessly with Laravel's validation system. Validation runs on input data before any casting or instantiation.

Note: This package uses Laravel's Validator under the hood. All Laravel validation rules, custom rule objects, and error message customization work exactly as documented in Laravel.

Defining Rules

Rules can be defined at three levels:

1. Via Validate Class Attribute

2. Via Rules Class Attribute

3. Via Rule Property Attribute

When to use each approach:

Rule Priority

When the same property has rules defined at multiple levels, only the highest priority rule applies — rules are not merged.

Priority order: Property #[Rule] > Class #[Rules] > #[Validate] Rules

Triggering Validation

Custom Validation Rules

Use Laravel's custom rule classes:

Model Attribute Casting

Use DTOs directly as Eloquent model attributes with automatic JSON serialization:

Usage

Requirements

Your DTO must either:

• Extend fab2s\Dt0\Laravel\Dt0, or
• Extend fab2s\Dt0\Dt0 and use fab2s\Dt0\Laravel\LaravelDt0Trait

Casters

Casters transform property values during hydration (input) and serialization (output). The #[Cast] attribute supports in:, out:, and both: parameters:

Built-in Casters

From fab2s/dt0:

CollectionOfCaster

Laravel Dt0 adds CollectionOfCaster for strongly-typed Laravel Collections:

Supported types:

• Dt0 classes — Each element cast via Dt0::from()
• Enums — Each element cast to the enum
• Scalars — int, float, bool, string

EncryptedCaster

Encrypt/decrypt property values using Laravel's encryption:

Auto-detection: On input, the caster automatically detects Laravel's encrypted payload format. Encrypted values are decrypted, while plaintext strings, arrays, and objects pass through unchanged. This allows flexible initialization from both plaintext and encrypted sources.

Custom encryption key and cipher: By default, EncryptedCaster uses your APP_KEY and app cipher. When you need different values, always use the config: prefix to reference config paths rather than hardcoding key material or cipher names in your source code. This also avoids source code changes when rotating keys or updating ciphers — just update the config:

The config values support base64:-encoded keys, just like APP_KEY:

Other options:

Performance: Encrypter instances are statically cached by key and cipher combination. Multiple DTO instances or properties using the same encryption key share a single Encrypter, avoiding repeated instantiation overhead.

Stack trace safety: All sensitive parameters (keys, plaintext values) are annotated with #[\SensitiveParameter] and redacted from exception stack traces.

Eloquent model safety: When using an EncryptedCaster DTO as an Eloquent model attribute, calling $model->toArray() or $model->toJson() will trigger the DTO's output casters, meaning encrypted fields are always encrypted in the serialized output. Plaintext is only accessible through direct property access on the DTO instance ($model->myDto->apiKey).

Artisan Generator

Scaffold new DTOs with the make:dt0 Artisan command:

The service provider is auto-discovered — no manual registration needed.

Compatibility

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to:

• Open issues for bugs or feature requests
• Submit pull requests
• Improve documentation

License

Laravel Dt0 is open-sourced software licensed under the MIT license.