Valueobjects Laravel Package

Product Decisions This Supports

• Domain-Driven Design (DDD) Adoption: Enables implementation of rich domain models with immutable, self-validating value objects (e.g., Money, Email, Percentage), aligning with DDD principles for cleaner architecture.
• Data Integrity & Validation: Reduces reliance on database constraints or frontend validation by enforcing rules at the object level (e.g., valid email formats, non-negative prices).
• Roadmap for Microservices: Facilitates decoupled, reusable components for shared domain logic across services (e.g., Address, DateRange).
• Build vs. Buy: Avoids reinventing wheel for common value objects (e.g., currency, timestamps) while allowing customization for niche use cases.
• Use Cases:
  • E-commerce: Money, ProductSKU, ShippingAddress.
  • SaaS: UserEmail, SubscriptionPlan, APIRateLimit.
  • Enterprise: InvoiceNumber, TaxRate, AuditLogEntry.

When to Consider This Package

• Adopt if:

  • Your team prioritizes DDD or clean architecture and needs immutable, type-safe domain primitives.
  • You’re building complex business logic where validation/behavior must live with data (e.g., financial systems).
  • You want to reduce boilerplate for common value objects (e.g., no need to manually validate emails in 10+ places).
  • Your stack is PHP/Laravel and you’re open to MIT-licensed dependencies.

• Look elsewhere if:

  • Your project is simple CRUD with minimal domain logic (overkill for basic models).
  • You need active maintenance (last release: 2020; check for forks or alternatives like spatie/value-object).
  • Your team lacks PHP/DDD experience (steep learning curve for immutable patterns).
  • You require advanced features (e.g., serialization/deserialization out-of-the-box; consider symfony/ux or custom solutions).

How to Pitch It (Stakeholders)

For Executives: "This package lets us model business data as self-contained, validated objects (e.g., Money, Email), reducing bugs and improving code clarity. For example, instead of storing a raw price as a float in the database, we’d use a Money object that enforces currency rules and validation—cutting support costs and enabling safer refactoring. Low risk (MIT license), high reward for complex domains like payments or inventory. Comparable to tools like Ruby’s Money gem but for PHP."

For Engineers: *"The funeralzone/valueobjects package gives us a lightweight, immutable value object framework for PHP/Laravel. Key benefits:

• No more N+1 validation: Define rules once (e.g., Email::validate()) and reuse across the app.
• Type safety: Replace string|int with Email, Money, or Percentage for clearer intent.
• DDD-friendly: Works seamlessly with Laravel’s Eloquent or API resources.
• Minimal overhead: ~50KB, no complex setup. Example:

  $price = new Money(100, 'USD'); // Validates currency, rejects negative values.
  

Tradeoff: Last updated in 2020, but the pattern is stable. If we need active updates, we could fork or pair with spatie/value-object."*