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Store strongly typed application settings

This package allows you to store settings in a repository (database, Redis, ...) and use them through an application without hassle. You can create a settings class as such:

If you want to use these settings somewhere in your application, you can inject them, since we register them in the Laravel Container. For example, in a controller:

You can update the settings as such:

Let's take a look at how to create your own settings classes.

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Installation

You can install the package via composer:

You can publish and run the migrations with:

You can publish the config file with:

This is the contents of the published config file:

Usage

The package is built around settings classes, which are classes with public properties that extend from Settings. They also have a static method group that should return a string.

You can create multiple groups of settings, each with their settings class. You could, for example, have GeneralSettings with the general group and BlogSettings with the blog group. It's up to you how to structure these groups.

Although it is possible to use the same group for different settings classes, we advise you not to use the same group for multiple settings classes.

You can generate a new settings class using this artisan command. Before you do, please check if the setting_class_path is correctly set. You can also specify a path option, which is optional.

Now, you will have to add this settings class to the settings.php config file in the settings array, so it can be loaded by Laravel:

Each property in a settings class needs a default value that should be set in its migration. You can create a migration as such:

This command will create a new file in database/settings where you can add the properties and their default values:

We add the properties site_name and site_active here to the general group with values Spatie and true. More on migrations later.

You should migrate your database to add the properties:

Now, when you want to use the site_name property of the GeneralSettings settings class, you can inject it into your application:

Or use it to load it somewhere in your application as such:

Updating the settings can be done as such:

Selecting a repository

Settings will be stored and loaded from the repository. There are two types of repositories database and redis. And it is possible to create multiple repositories for these types. For example, you could have two database repositories, one that goes to a settings table in your database and another that goes to a global_settings table.

You can explicitly set the repository of a settings class by implementing the repository method:

When a repository is not set for a settings class, the default_repository in the settings.php config file will be used.

Creating settings migrations

Before you can load/update settings, you will have to migrate them. Though this might sound a bit strange at the beginning, it is quite logical. You want to have some default settings to start with when you're creating a new application. And what would happen if we change a property of a settings class? Our code would change, but our data doesn't.

That's why the package requires migrations each time you're changing/creating your settings classes' structure. These migrations will run next to the regular Laravel database migrations, and we've added some tooling to write them as quickly as possible.

Creating a settings migration works just like you would create a regular database migration. You can run the following command:

This will add a migration to the application/database/settings directory:

We haven't added a down method, but this can be added if desired. In the up method, you can change the settings data in the repository when migrating. There are a few default operations supported:

Adding a property

You can add a property to a settings group as such:

We've added a timezone property to the general group, which is being used by GeneralSettings. You should always give a default value for a newly created setting. In this case, this is the Europe/Brussels timezone.

If the property in the settings class is nullable, it's possible to give null as a default value.

Renaming a property

It is possible to rename a property:

You can also move a property to another group:

Updating a property

It is possible to update the contents of a property:

As you can see, this method takes a closure as an argument, which makes it possible to update a value based upon its old value.

Deleting a property

Checking a property if it exists

There might be times when you want to check if a property exists in the database. This can be done as such:

Operations in group

When you're working on a big settings class with many properties, it can be a bit cumbersome always to have to prepend the settings group. That's why you can also perform operations within a settings group:

Typing properties

It is possible to create a settings class with regular PHP types:

Internally the package will convert these types to JSON and save them as such in the repository. But what about types like DateTime and Carbon or your own created types? Although these types can be converted to JSON, building them back up again from JSON isn't supported.

That's why you can specify casts within this package. There are two ways to define these casts: locally or globally.

Local casts

Local casts work on one specific settings class and should be defined for each property:

The DateTimeInterfaceCast can be used for properties with types like DateTime, DateTimeImmutable, Carbon and CarbonImmutable. You can also use an already constructed cast. It becomes handy when you need to pass some extra arguments to the cast:

As you can see, we provide DateTime::class to the cast, so it knows what type of DateTime it should use because the birth_date property was not typed, and the cast couldn't infer the type to use.

You can also provide arguments to a cast without constructing it:

Global casts

Local casts are great for defining types for specific properties of the settings class. But it's a lot of work to define a local cast for each regularly used type like a DateTime. Global casts try to simplify this process.

You can define global casts in the global_casts array of the package configuration. We've added some default casts to the configuration that can be handy:

A global cast can work on:

• a specific type (DateTimeZone::class)
• a type that implements an interface (DateTimeInterface::class)
• a type that extends from another class (Data::class)

In your settings class, when you use a DateTime property (which implements DateTimeInterface), you no longer have to define local casts:

The package will automatically find the cast and will use it to transform the types between the settings class and repository.

Typing properties

There are quite a few options to type properties. You could type them in PHP:

Or you can use docblocks:

Docblocks can be very useful to type arrays of objects:

Locking properties

When you want to disable the ability to update the value of a setting, you can add a lock to it:

It is now impossible to update the value of birth_date. When trying to overwrite birth_date and saving settings, the package will load the old value of birth_date from the repository, and it looks like nothing happened.

You can also lock multiple settings at once:

You can get all the locked settings:

Unlocking settings can be done as such:

Checking if a setting is currently locked can be done as such:

Checking if a setting is currently unlocked can be done as such:

Encrypting properties

Some properties in your settings class can be confidential, like API keys, for example. It is possible to encrypt some of your properties, so it won't be possible to read them when your repository data was compromised.

Adding encryption to the properties of your settings class can be done as such. By adding the encrypted static method to your settings class and list all the properties that should be encrypted:

Using encryption in migrations

Creating and updating encrypted properties in migrations works a bit differently than non-encrypted properties.

Instead of calling the add method to create a new property, you should use the addEncrypted method:

The same goes for the update method, which should be replaced by updateEncrypted:

You can make a non-encrypted property encrypted in a migration:

Or make an encrypted property non-encrypted:

Of course, you can use these methods when using inGroup migration operations.

Custom encoders and decoders

It is possible to define custom encoders and decoders instead of the built-in json_encode and json_decode ones by changing the package configuration like so:

Faking settings classes

In tests, it is sometimes desired that some settings classes can be quickly used with values different from the default ones you've written in your migrations. That's why you can fake settings. Faked settings classes will be registered in the container. And you can overwrite some or all the properties in the settings class:

Now, when the DateSettings settings class is injected somewhere in your application, the birth_date property will be DateTime('16-05-1994').

If all properties are overwritten, no calls to repositories will be made. If only some properties are overwritten, the package will first add the overwritten properties and then load the missing settings from the repository. It is possible to explicitly throw an MissingSettings exception when a property is not overwritten in a fake method call like this:

Caching settings

It takes a small amount of time to load a settings class from a repository. When you've got many settings classes, these added small amounts of time can grow quickly out of hand. The package has built-in support for caching stored settings using the Laravel cache.

You should first enable the cache within the settings.php config file:

We suggest you enable caching in production by adding SETTINGS_CACHE_ENABLED=true to your .env file. It is also possible to define a store for the cache, which should be one of the stores you defined in the cache.php config file. If no store were defined, the default cache store would be taken. To avoid conflicts within the cache, you can also define a prefix that will be added to each cache entry.

That's it. The package is now smart enough to cache the settings the first time they're loaded. Whenever the settings are edited, the package will refresh the settings.

You can always clear the cached settings with the following command:

Auto discovering settings classes

Each settings class you create should be added to the settings array within the settings.php config file. When you've got a lot of settings, this can be quickly forgotten.

That's why it is also possible to auto-discover settings classes. The package will look through your application and tries to discover settings classes. You can specify the paths where will be searched in the config auto_discover_settings array. By default, this is the application's app path.

Autodiscovering settings require some extra time before your application is booted up. That's why it is possible to cache them using the following command:

You can clear this cache by running:

Writing your own casters

A caster is a class implementing the SettingsCast interface:

A created caster can be used for local and global casts, but there are slight differences between them. The package will always try to inject the type of property it is casting. This type is a class string and will be provided as a first argument when constructing the caster. When it cannot deduce the type, null will be used as the first argument.

An example of such caster with a type injected is a simplified DtoCast:

The above is a caster for the spatie/laravel-data package, within its constructor, the type will be a specific Data class, for example, SongData::class. In the get method, the caster will construct a Data::class with the repository properties. The caster receives a Data::class as payload in the set method and converts it to an array for safe storing in the repository.

Local casts

When using a local cast, there are a few different possibilities to deduce the type:

In that last case: by explicit definition, it is possible to provide extra arguments that will be passed to the constructor:

Although in this case, it might be more readable to construct the caster within the settings class:

Global casts

When using global casts, the package will again try to deduce the type of property it's casting. In this case, it can only use the property type or infer the type of the property's docblock.

A global cast should be configured in the settings.php config file and always has a specific (set) of type(s) it works on. These types can be a particular class, a group of classes implementing an interface, or a group of classes extending from another class.

A good example here is the DateTimeInterfaceCast we've added by default in the config. It is defined in the config as such:

Whenever the package detects a Carbon, CarbonImmutable, DateTime, or DateTimeImmutable type as the type of one of a settings class's properties. It will use the DateTimeInterfaceCast as a caster. This because Carbon, CarbonImmutable, DateTime and DateTimeImmutable all implement DateTimeInterface. The key that was used in settings.php to represent the cast.

The type injected in the caster will be the type of the property. So let's say you have a property with the type DateTime within your settings class. When casting this property, the DateTimeInterfaceCast will receive DateTime:class as a type.

Repositories

There are two types of repositories included in the package, the redis and database repository. You can create multiple repositories for one type in the setting.php config file. And each repository can be configured.

Database repository

The database repository has two optional configuration options:

• model the Eloquent model used to load/save properties to the database
• table the table used in the database
• connection the connection to use when interacting with the database

Redis repository

The Redis repository also has two optional configuration options:

• prefix an optional prefix that will be prepended to the keys
• connection the connection to use when interacting with Redis

Caching

It is possible to add a custom caching configuration per repository, by adding a cache configuration like the default one to your repository config within the settings.php config file:

Creating your own repository type

It is possible to create your own types of repositories. A repository is a class which implements SettingsRepository:

All these functions should be implemented to interact with the type of storage you're using. The payload parameters are raw values(int, bool, float, string, array). Within the database, and redis repository types, These raw values are converted to JSON. But this is not required.

It is required to return raw values again in the getPropertiesInGroup and getPropertyPayload methods.

Each repository's constructor will receive a $config array that the user-defined for the repository within the application settings.php config file. It is possible to add other dependencies to the constructor. They will be injected when the repository is created.

Refreshing settings

You can refresh the values and locked properties within the settings class. This can be useful if you change something within your repository and want to see it reflected within your settings:

You should only refresh settings when the repository values were changed when the settings class was already loaded.

Events

The package will emit a series of events when loading/saving settings classes:

• LoadingSettings whenever settings are loaded from the repository but not yet inserted in the settings class
• SettingsLoaded after settings are loaded into the settings class
• SavingSettings whenever settings are saved to the repository but are not yet cast or encrypted
• SettingsSaved after settings are stored within the repository

Testing

Changelog

Please see CHANGELOG for more information on what has changed recently.

Contributing

Please see CONTRIBUTING for details.

Security

If you've found a bug regarding security please mail [email protected] instead of using the issue tracker.

Credits

• Ruben Van Assche
• All Contributors

License

The MIT License (MIT). Please see License File for more information.