Normalizers

This package allows you to dynamically create data objects from any kind of object. For example, you can use an eloquent model to create a data object like this:

SongData::from(Song::findOrFail($id));

A Normalizer will take a payload like a model and will transform it into an array so it can be used in the pipeline (see further).

By default, there are five normalizers for each data object:

• ModelNormalizer will cast eloquent models
• ArrayableNormalizer will cast Arrayable's
• ObjectNormalizer will cast stdObject's
• ArrayNormalizer will cast arrays
• JsonNormalizer will cast json strings

Normalizers can be globally configured in config/data.php, and can be configured on a specific data object by overriding the normalizers method.

class SongData extends Data
{
    public function __construct(
        // ...
    ) {
    }

    public static function normalizers(): array
    {
        return [
            ModelNormalizer::class,
            ArrayableNormalizer::class,
            ObjectNormalizer::class,
            ArrayNormalizer::class,
            JsonNormalizer::class,
        ];
    }
}

A normalizer implements the Normalizer interface and should return an array representation of the payload, or null if it cannot normalize the payload:

class ArrayableNormalizer implements Normalizer
{
    public function normalize(mixed $value): ?array
    {
        if (! $value instanceof Arrayable) {
            return null;
        }

        return $value->toArray();
    }
}

Normalizers are executed the order as they are defined in the normalize method. The first normalizer not returning null will be used to normalize the payload. Magical creation methods always have precedence on normalizers.