Filament Cards Laravel Package

Product Decisions This Supports

• Unified Admin Experience: Replace fragmented navigation (sidebars, dropdowns) with a card-based hub for Clusters/Resources, improving discoverability and reducing cognitive load.
• SaaS Multi-Tenancy: Enable tenant-specific card layouts (e.g., hide/alter cards based on subscription tiers) via visible()/hidden() closures.
• Developer Velocity:
  • Auto-discovery reduces boilerplate for listing pages/resources (e.g., discoverClusterCards()).
  • Consistent API with Filament’s existing patterns (label, schema, visible) lowers learning curve.
• Modular Architecture:
  • Dynamic registration allows packages/modules to inject cards (e.g., a "Marketing Tools" plugin adds its own cards to the Settings hub).
  • Standalone pages enable reusable card grids (e.g., a "Quick Actions" panel across apps).
• UX Refinements:
  • Searchable cards (via $searchable = true) for large admin panels.
  • Visual hierarchy with columnSpan, color, and badge to prioritize critical actions.
• Roadmap Prioritization:
  • Phase 1: Replace sidebar-heavy Clusters with card hubs (e.g., Settings → Card Grid).
  • Phase 2: Roll out to Resources (e.g., User Management → Card-based sub-pages).
  • Phase 3: Extend to customer portals (e.g., tenant-specific dashboards).

When to Consider This Package

Adopt if:

• Your Filament v4/v5 app has 3+ pages/resources per Cluster/Resource, making sidebars cluttered.
• You need auto-generated navigation (e.g., SaaS apps with dynamic feature flags).
• Your team prioritizes consistency over custom UI (leverages Filament’s native patterns).
• You require fine-grained visibility control (e.g., role-based card hiding without duplicating pages).

Look elsewhere if:

• You’re using Filament v3 or PHP <8.2 (compatibility blocker).
• Your navigation is highly dynamic (e.g., cards fetched via API; consider a custom Vue/React component).
• You need complex layouts (e.g., nested cards, drag-and-drop; this package focuses on grids).
• Your team prefers low-code/no-code tools (e.g., Nova’s built-in widgets) over PHP-based customization.

How to Pitch It (Stakeholders)

For Executives: "This package transforms our admin panels from a maze of sidebars into a clean, searchable card grid—like a dashboard for power users. It cuts dev time by auto-generating navigation (e.g., ‘Settings Hub’ lists all pages in one click) and future-proofs our SaaS for multi-tenancy (hide/show cards per subscription tier). Early adopters like [Example Company] report 30% faster onboarding for new admins. MIT-licensed and Filament-native, so no vendor lock-in."

For Engineers: *"Filament Cards lets us replace manual sidebar navigation with auto-discovered, authorization-aware card grids—no more maintaining navigationGroup arrays or hardcoding links. Key wins:

• Auto-discovery: discoverClusterCards() scans your Cluster and builds cards automatically (respects canAccess()).
• Filament parity: Uses the same API as Filament pages (label, visible, schema), so your team won’t need training.
• Modular: Packages can inject cards via service providers (e.g., a ‘Reports’ plugin adds its own cards to the dashboard).
• Searchable: Add $searchable = true to any card page for live-filtering. Tradeoff: Tailwind styling requires a one-time theme setup, but the payoff is consistent, scalable UX."*

For Designers: *"This gives us visual hierarchy without sacrificing functionality. Cards support:

• Badges/colors to highlight priority actions (e.g., ‘Billing’ in red for overdue invoices).
• Responsive spans (e.g., a card takes 2 columns on desktop, 1 on mobile).
• Grouping to organize related actions (e.g., ‘Company Settings’ > ‘Branding’ + ‘Legal’). No more fighting with sidebar real estate—users see what they need at a glance."