Creating a Data Object

Learn how to create and initialize data objects using various methods including arrays, models, and magical creation methods.

Let’s get started with the following simple data object:

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

Since this is just a simple PHP object, it can be initialized as such:

new SongData('Never gonna give you up', 'Rick Astley');

But with this package, you can initialize the data object also with an array:

SongData::from(['title' => 'Never gonna give you up', 'artist' => 'Rick Astley']);

Creating from Different Sources

You can use the from method to create a data object from nearly anything. For example, let’s say you have an Eloquent model like this:

class Song extends Model
{
    // Your model code
}

You can create a data object from such a model like this:

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

The package will find the required properties within the model and use them to construct the data object.

Data can also be created from JSON strings:

SongData::from('{"title" : "Never Gonna Give You Up","artist" : "Rick Astley"}');

Constructor Properties vs Regular Properties

Although the PHP 8.0 constructor properties look great in data objects, it is perfectly valid to use regular properties without a constructor like so:

class SongData extends Data
{
    public string $title;
    public string $artist;
}

Magical Creation

It is possible to overwrite or extend the behaviour of the from method for specific types. So you can construct a data object in a specific manner for that type. This can be done by adding a static method starting with ‘from’ to the data object.

For example, we want to change how we create a data object from a model. We can add a fromModel static method that takes the model we want to use as a parameter:

class SongData extends Data
{
    public function __construct(
        public string $title,
        public string $artist,
    ) {
    }
    
    public static function fromModel(Song $song): self
    {
        return new self("{$song->title} ({$song->year})", $song->artist);
    }
}

Now when creating a data object from a model like this:

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

Instead of the default method, the fromModel method will be called to create a data object from the found model.

Multiple Magical Methods

You’re truly free to add as many from methods as you want. For example, you could add one to create a data object from a string:

class SongData extends Data
{
    public function __construct(
        public string $title,
        public string $artist,
    ) {
    }
    
    public static function fromString(string $string): self
    {
        [$title, $artist] = explode('|', $string);
    
        return new self($title, $artist);
    }
}

From now on, you can create a data object like this:

SongData::from('Never gonna give you up|Rick Astley');

Multiple Arguments

It is also possible to use multiple arguments in a magical creation method:

class SongData extends Data
{
    public function __construct(
        public string $title,
        public string $artist,
    ) {
    }
    
    public static function fromMultiple(string $title, string $artist): self
    {
        return new self($title, $artist);
    }
}

Now we can create the data object like this:

SongData::from('Never gonna give you up', 'Rick Astley');

Requirements for Magical Methods

There are a few requirements to enable magical data object creation:

• The method must be static and public
• The method must start with from
• The method cannot be called from

Default Creation Flow

When the package cannot find such a method for a type given to the data object’s from method. Then the data object will try to create itself from the following types:

• An Eloquent model by calling toArray on it
• A Laravel request by calling all on it
• An Arrayable by calling toArray on it
• An array

This list can be extended using extra normalizers, find more about it here.

When a data object cannot be created using magical methods or the default methods, a CannotCreateData exception will be thrown.

Optional Creation

It is impossible to return null from a data object’s from method since we always expect a data object when calling from. To solve this, you can call the optional method:

SongData::optional(null); // returns null

Underneath the optional method will call the from method when a value is given, so you can still magically create data objects. When a null value is given, it will return null.

Creation Without Magic Methods

You can ignore the magical creation methods when creating a data object as such:

SongData::factory()->withoutMagicalCreation()->from($song);

It is possible to configure how a data object is created, whether it will be validated, which casts to use and more. You can read more about it here.

DTO Classes

The default Data class from which you extend your data objects is a multi versatile class, it packs a lot of functionality. But sometimes you just want a simple DTO class. You can use the Dto class for this:

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

The Dto class is a data class in its most basic form. It can be created from anything using magical methods, can validate payloads before creating the data object and can be created using factories. But it doesn’t have any of the other functionality that the Data class has.