Download the PHP package laravelldone/sql-to-signal without Composer

sql-to-signal

UNDER-DEVELOPMENT

Call ->toSignal() on any Eloquent or Query Builder chain and get back a reactive Signal object — ready to wire into Livewire 3/4 components and Alpine.js without any boilerplate.

Why not just clone $query?

The clone pattern is the typical workaround when you need to reuse a query builder — but it falls apart quickly in Livewire and Alpine.js contexts.

Reusing a query in a Livewire component

Without toSignal() — clone pattern

Problems:

• clone only works within the same request — you can't put a Builder in a Livewire property
• The query definition is repeated or called through a private helper — easy to drift out of sync
• 3 separate database hits to get the same data
• toArray() discards the model — you get raw stdClass, no Eloquent methods on rows

With toSignal()

Passing data to Alpine.js

Without toSignal()

Gotchas:

• Two database hits for the same filter
• You manually json_encode each piece
• Polling interval is a magic number hard to change in one place
• No single object you can pass to a sub-component or an API response

With toSignal()

Summary

Requirements

• PHP 8.2+
• Laravel 11, 12, or 13
• Livewire 3 or 4

Installation

The service provider is auto-discovered. To publish the config file:

Configuration

config/sql-to-signal.php:

Basic Usage

Query Builder

Eloquent Builder

Override config per call

Using in Livewire

Declare a Signal as a public property — it serializes/hydrates automatically via the built-in Livewire synthesizer:

What Livewire sends over the wire (dehydrated payload):

For a paginated Signal, pagination_meta carries the full page state:

On the next request Livewire hydrates this back into a full Signal — no database hit until you call refresh().

Auto-polling with Livewire

Every 5 seconds Livewire calls refresh(), re-executes the query, and re-renders only the changed rows.

Using with Alpine.js

Signal implements JsonSerializable, so you can pass it directly to @js or an API endpoint:

@js($orders) renders:

Use signal.meta.polling_interval to drive a JS polling interval without hard-coding it:

Pagination

Unlike Livewire's built-in WithPagination (which only works inside render()), Signal pagination works anywhere — including mount().

Pagination meta is carried in toArray() and survives the Livewire wire round-trip:

Pass it to Alpine.js for client-side pagination controls without any extra wiring:

Pagination API

Signal API

Safety: max_rows

To prevent accidentally serializing large datasets through Livewire's JSON cycle, an OverflowException is thrown when the result count exceeds max_rows:

Scope your query before calling toSignal(), or set max_rows to null to disable the limit entirely:

License

MIT — see LICENSE.