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Laravel Argonaut DTO

Laravel Argonaut DTO is a lightweight, highly composable package for transforming arrays, objects, or collections into structured DTOs (Data Transfer Objects), with built-in support for:

• 🧱 Deep nested transformation and casting
• 🔁 Type-safe data conversion
• ✅ Validation using Laravel’s validator
• 🧠 Explicit attribute prioritization
• 📦 Clean serialization (toArray, toJson)
• ♻️ Consistent data shape enforcement across boundaries

📦 Installation

Install via Composer:

🚀 Quick Start

1. Define a DTO

DTOs extend ArgonautDTO, and define your expected structure via public properties, casting rules, and validation.

This defines a strongly typed DTO with both validation rules and simple type casting.

2. Create an Assembler

Assemblers are responsible for mapping raw inputs (arrays or objects) into your DTOs.

Assembler method names must follow the format to<ClassName> or from<ClassName>, and are resolved automatically using class_basename.

3. Assemble a DTO

Use the assembler to transform raw data into structured, casted DTO instances.

You can also batch transform arrays or collections:

🧪 Real-World Static Usage Example: Product + Features + Reviews

This example demonstrates nested relationships and complex type casting in action.

ProductDTO with nested casting:

ProductDTOAssembler mapping input structure:

🎯 Advanced: Dependency Injection in Assemblers

ArgonautAssembler offers enhanced flexibility for your Assembler logic by supporting dependency injection. This allows you to leverage services or custom logic, whether defined in static or non-static methods, during the DTO assembly process. This is particularly powerful when integrating with Laravel's service container.

This feature enables you to:

• Integrate Application Services: Easily inject your existing application services (e.g., a custom formatting utility, a validation service) directly into your assembler methods.
• Decouple Complex Logic: Keep your assembler methods focused on the core task of data mapping by delegating more complex operations or external data fetching/processing to injected dependencies.
• Improve Testability: By injecting dependencies, you can more easily mock them in your unit tests, leading to more robust and isolated tests for your assemblers.

How Dependency Injection Works

ArgonautAssembler supports dependency injection in non-static transformation methods (e.g., toUserDTO or fromUserDTO) by leveraging Laravel’s service container. When you call ArgonautAssembler::assemble(), fromCollection(), fromArray(), or assembleInstance() with an instance of the assembler, the transformation method is invoked on that instance. Laravel’s container automatically resolves and injects any dependencies declared in the method’s signature.

• Static Methods: Static transformation methods (e.g., public static function toUserDTO($input)) do not support dependency injection, as they are called statically without an instance.
• Instance Methods: Non-static transformation methods (e.g., public function toUserDTO($input)) are called on an assembler instance, allowing Laravel to inject dependencies into the method.

Example: Using Dependency Injection

Below is an example of an assembler with a non-static transformation method that uses dependency injection to format a user’s name via an injected service.

Registering the Assembler

Using the Assembler

To use the assembler with dependency injection, you need to provide an instance of the assembler to the assemble method or related methods (fromCollection, fromArray, or assembleInstance). Laravel’s container will resolve the dependencies when the method is invoked.

In this example:

• The toUserDTO method requires a UserFormattingService dependency.
• The assembler instance ($assembler) is passed to assemble, fromArray or fromCollection, ensuring the non-static toUserDTO method is invoked on the instance.

Advanced: 🎯 DTOs with Prioritized Attributes and Custom Setters

ArgonautDTO allows you to prioritize the assignment of specific fields using $prioritizedAttributes, which is critical for cases where one field influences others.

🔁 Casting Reference

Casting allows you to automatically transform values into other DTOs, Laravel Collections, arrays, dates, and more.

✅ Validation

Validate DTOs with Laravel’s validator:

📤 Serialization

Serialize DTOs for output, API responses, etc.

🛠️ DTO Collection Helper

Create DTO collections directly:

🧪 Testing

Run the test suite using:

📚 Credits

• Yorda
• All Contributors

📃 License

This package is open-sourced software licensed under the MIT license.