Laravel Sharelink Laravel Package

Product Decisions This Supports

• Enables secure temporary sharing capabilities without reinventing complex security logic, accelerating feature delivery for file sharing, client previews, or internal document access
• Reduces build-vs-buy trade-offs by providing battle-tested security features (IP filtering, burn-after-reading, password throttling) that would require significant engineering effort to implement correctly in-house
• Supports compliance requirements through built-in audit trails for access monitoring, critical for industries handling sensitive data (e.g., healthcare, finance)
• Influences roadmap prioritization by allowing teams to ship "shareable previews" features in days instead of weeks, freeing engineering capacity for core product differentiation
• New in v1.4.0: the package now tracks PHP 8.4/8.5 only, which aligns adoption with a platform-upgrade decision — teams still on PHP 8.3 must either upgrade or defer this feature, so treat the PHP bump as a scheduling dependency rather than a blocker

When to Consider This Package

• When your application requires secure, time-bound access to files, routes, or model data with features like expiration, password protection, or IP restrictions
• For Laravel 11+/12+ projects running PHP 8.4 or 8.5 where you need to avoid custom implementation of token-based sharing with audit trails
• When compliance or security requirements make DIY solutions risky (e.g., GDPR, HIPAA-related sharing scenarios)
• Avoid if: you're using non-Laravel frameworks, are pinned to PHP 8.3 or older (v1.4.0 dropped PHP 8.3 support — you'd need to stay on a prior release or upgrade PHP first), need enterprise-grade SLAs beyond open-source support, or require highly customized sharing logic not covered by the package's feature set (e.g., dynamic permission hierarchies)

How to Pitch It (Stakeholders)

For executives: "This package delivers enterprise-grade temporary sharing capabilities in 2 hours of integration time – eliminating 3+ weeks of custom development for secure file sharing, client previews, and audit trails. It reduces security risks with built-in protections against brute-force attacks and data leaks while meeting compliance needs, directly accelerating revenue-generating features like client document portals or beta feature sharing. The latest release keeps the package on the current PHP runtime (8.4/8.5), so it stays maintained and secure — but it does mean this feature lands alongside our PHP upgrade rather than before it." For engineering: "It handles the complex security and infrastructure work (signed URLs, X-Sendfile streaming, token rotation, rate limiting) so your team can focus on core product logic. The 100% test coverage, clear API, and migration-friendly design ensure zero technical debt – just composer require and configure. Note the v1.4.0 breaking change: minimum PHP is now 8.4 (8.3 support removed), CI and the dev container moved to 8.4, and Rector was bumped to 2.x with src/ reformatted — so confirm our runtime matrix before upgrading, and expect a minor lint/format diff if we run Rector ourselves. There are no API changes in this release; the upgrade risk is confined to the PHP version floor."