From data to array

A data object can automatically be transformed into an array as such:

SongData::from(Song::first())->toArray();

Which will output the following array:

[
    'name' => 'Never gonna give you up',
    'artist' => 'Rick Astley'
]

By default, calling toArray on a data object will recursively transform all properties to an array. This means that nested data objects and collections of data objects will also be transformed to arrays. Other complex types like Carbon, DateTime, Enums, etc... will be transformed into a string. We'll see in the transformers section how to configure and customize this behavior.

If you only want to transform a data object to an array without transforming the properties, you can call the all method:

SongData::from(Song::first())->all();

You can also manually transform a data object to JSON:

SongData::from(Song::first())->toJson();

##Using collections

Here's how to create a collection of data objects:

SongData::collect(Song::all());

A collection can be transformed to array:

SongData::collect(Song::all())->toArray();

Which will output the following array:

[
    [
        "name": "Never Gonna Give You Up",
        "artist": "Rick Astley"
    ],
    [
        "name": "Giving Up on Love",
        "artist": "Rick Astley"
    ] 
]

##Nesting

It is possible to nest data objects.

class UserData extends Data
{
    public function __construct(
        public string $title,
        public string $email,
        public SongData $favorite_song,
    ) {
    }
    
    public static function fromModel(User $user): self
    {
        return new self(
            $user->title,
            $user->email,
            SongData::from($user->favorite_song)
        );
    }
}

When transformed to an array, this will look like the following:

[
    "name": "Ruben",
    "email": "ruben@spatie.be",
    "favorite_song": [
        "name" : "Never Gonna Give You Up",
        "artist" : "Rick Astley"
    ]
]

You can also nest a collection of data objects:

class AlbumData extends Data
{
    /**
    * @param Collection<int, SongData> $songs
    */
    public function __construct(
        public string $title,
        public array $songs,
    ) {
    }

    public static function fromModel(Album $album): self
    {
        return new self(
            $album->title,
            SongData::collect($album->songs)
        );
    }
}

As always, remember to type collections of data objects by annotation or the DataCollectionOf attribute, this is essential to transform these collections correctly.