Getting Started

Install with Composer: composer require flowgistics/laravel-xml. On modern Laravel, package discovery should register the service provider and facade automatically; check the README if you are on an older Laravel version.
Publish any package config only if you need to override defaults: use the package’s documented vendor:publish tag/provider. If unsure, start without publishing.
Look first at the package README usage section, the registered facade, Flowgistics\XML\XMLBuilder, and the package tests/examples. Those show the supported fluent API and expected output shape.
First practical use case: generate an XML sitemap, RSS/Atom feed, or partner API payload from an Eloquent query, then return it as an XML response or write it to storage.
Version 1.2.0 is a maintenance release: the only noted change is PHPStan support for XMLBuilder. There are no documented breaking changes or new runtime features.

Implementation Patterns

Keep XML generation out of controllers. Put feed/sitemap/payload construction in a dedicated action, service, or builder class so it is testable and reusable.
Use the package’s fluent XMLBuilder API to compose documents rather than string-concatenating XML. This keeps escaping, nesting, and attributes consistent.
For large datasets, stream or chunk generation instead of loading all records into memory. For sitemaps, split at the protocol limit and generate a sitemap index.
Wrap repeated document shapes in small factory methods, e.g. buildSitemapUrl(), buildRssItem(), or buildOrderPayload(), and compose them with the builder.
Return XML responses with the correct content type and encoding, e.g. application/xml; charset=UTF-8, and avoid Laravel’s JSON response helpers for XML payloads.
Test generated XML with XML-aware assertions or snapshot tests. For integrations, validate against an XSD or at least parse the result with SimpleXMLElement/DOM to catch malformed output.
Cache expensive generated feeds where appropriate, and invalidate cache keys when underlying records change.

Do not manually escape values unless you are bypassing the builder. Mixed manual escaping and builder escaping is a common source of double-escaped entities.
Use CDATA deliberately. It is useful for HTML fragments, but it changes how consumers parse text and can hide malformed content.
Set namespaces and attributes before adding child elements; changing namespace context afterward can produce surprising prefixes or XPath behavior.
Watch memory usage on large feeds. Building one giant in-memory string is fine for small sitemaps but risky for catalogs or exports.
Ensure the XML declaration is the first output. Accidental whitespace from Blade templates or echo statements before the document can break strict consumers.
If you use Laravel config caching, clear/rebuild cache after changing package config. If the package registers a facade alias, confirm it is available after config changes.
For 1.2.0, upgrading should be low risk. If you maintain a PHPStan baseline, remove stale ignores for XMLBuilder and rerun static analysis to benefit from improved type information.
Debug by dumping the generated XML before sending the response, then validate with xmllint or libxml_use_internal_errors(true) plus DOM loading. Log builder inputs when an external consumer rejects a payload.