Introduction | laravel-data | Spatie

           laravel-data
============

Powerful data objects for Laravel

  [Docs](https://spatie.be/docs)  [Laravel-data](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v1)  Introduction

 Version   v4   v3   v2   v1

 Other versions for crawler [v4](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v4) [v3](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v3) [v2](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v2) [v1](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v1)

- [ Introduction ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v1/introduction)
- [ Support us ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v1/support-us)
- [ Requirements ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v1/requirements)
- [ Installation &amp; setup ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v1/installation-setup)
- [ Questions and issues ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v1/questions-issues)
- [ Changelog ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v1/changelog)
- [ About us ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v1/about-us)

Getting started
---------------

- [ Quickstart ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v1/getting-started/quickstart)

As a DTO
--------

- [ Creating a data object ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v1/as-a-data-transfer-object/creating-a-data-object)
- [ Nesting ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v1/as-a-data-transfer-object/nesting)
- [ Collections ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v1/as-a-data-transfer-object/collections)
- [ Casts ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v1/as-a-data-transfer-object/casts)
- [ From a request ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v1/as-a-data-transfer-object/request-to-data-object)

As a resource
-------------

- [ From data to resource ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v1/as-a-resource/from-data-to-resource)
- [ Transforming data ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v1/as-a-resource/transformers)
- [ Lazy properties ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v1/as-a-resource/lazy-properties)

Advanced usage
--------------

- [ Eloquent casting ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v1/advanced-usage/eloquent-casting)
- [ Transforming to TypeScript ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v1/advanced-usage/typescript)
- [ Creating a cast ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v1/advanced-usage/creating-a-cast)
- [ Creating a transformer ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v1/advanced-usage/creating-a-transformer)
- [ Creating a rule inferrer ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v1/advanced-usage/creating-a-rule-inferrer)
- [ Internal structures ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v1/advanced-usage/internal-structures)
- [ Validation attributes ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v1/advanced-usage/validation-attributes)

      You are viewing the documentation for **an older version** of this package. You can check the version you are using with the following command:

 `                                    composer show spatie/laravel-data                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    `

 Laravel Data
==============

Powerful data objects for Laravel
---------------------------------

 Create rich data objects that can be used in various ways.

 [    Repository ](https://github.com/spatie/laravel-data)

 [    Open Issues ](https://github.com/spatie/laravel-data/issues)

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    1,693

Introduction
------------

###  On this page

1. [ We have badges! ](#content-we-have-badges)

This package enables the creation of rich data objects which can be used in various ways. Using this package you only need to describe your data once:

- instead of a form request, you can use a data object
- instead of an API transformer, you can use a data object
- instead of manually writing a typescript definition, you can use... 🥁 a data object

A `laravel-data` specific object is just a regular PHP object that extends from `Data`:

```
use Spatie\LaravelData\Data;

class SongData extends Data
{
    public function __construct(
        public string $title,
        public string $artist,
    ) {
    }
}
```

By extending from `Data` you enable a lot of new functionality like:

- Automatically transforming data objects into resources (like the Laravel API resources)
- Transform only the requested parts of data objects with lazy properties
- Automatically creating data objects from request data and validating them
- Automatically resolve validation rules for properties within a data object
- Make it possible to construct a data object from any type you want
- Add support for automatically validating data objects when creating them
- Generate TypeScript definitions from your data objects you can use on the frontend
- Save data objects as properties of an Eloquent model
- And a lot more ...

Why would you be using this package?

- You can be sure that data is typed when it leaves your app and comes back again from the frontend which makes a lot less errors
- You don't have to write the same properties three times (in a resource, in a data transfer object and in request validation)
- You need to write a lot less of validation rules because they are obvious through PHP's type system
- You get TypeScript versions of the data objects for free

Let's dive right into it!

We have badges!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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