Enum Laravel Package

Getting Started

This package provides a simple base class for defining enumerations in PHP. To get started:

1. Require it via Composer: composer require daverandom/enum
2. Extend the DaveRandom\Enum class for your enum types
3. Define valid enum values as class constants
4. Instantiate enums using MyEnum::valueOf($value) or MyEnum::fromString($value)

First use case: Model status constants in a clean, type-safe way instead of raw strings or ints.

use DaveRandom\Enum;

class OrderStatus extends Enum
{
    const PENDING = 'pending';
    const SHIPPED = 'shipped';
    const DELIVERED = 'delivered';
}

$status = OrderStatus::valueOf('pending'); // returns instance of OrderStatus

Implementation Patterns

• Use enum classes for domain concepts with fixed sets of values (e.g., PaymentMethod, UserRole, MediaType)
• Leverage ::isValid($value) and ::getAll() for validation and dropdown population
• Override __construct() only for custom logic (rarely needed)
• Type-hint against the enum class in services or controllers for better IDE autocomplete and static analysis
• Combine with DTOs (Data Transfer Objects) to enforce enum constraints in request payloads
• Use === for comparison (enum instances are immutable and singleton per value)

Gotchas and Tips

• The package is unmaintained (last release 2018); consider modern alternatives like myclabs/php-enum or native-backed enums in PHP 8.1+
• valueOf() throws an exception for invalid values — wrap calls with try/catch or use isValid() first
• Ensure case-sensitive matches — constants like PENDING = 'Pending' will not match input 'pending'
• Enums are immutable; methods returning self will return new instances if reassignment occurs (though this class uses string-based singleton caching internally)
• PHPDoc type hints (@return OrderStatus) help IDEs but don’t enforce type safety at runtime beyond comparisons
• If serializing to JSON, override jsonSerialize() to return the underlying scalar value ($this->getValue())