Multipart Middleware Laravel Package

Product Decisions This Supports

• File-upload API design: Enables Laravel APIs to accept multipart/form-data on PUT/PATCH requests, supporting RESTful update semantics rather than forcing all uploads through POST.
• Client compatibility: Helps support mobile apps, integrations, or legacy clients that expect to upload files directly against a resource URL using PUT/PATCH.
• Build-vs-buy: Provides a narrow, middleware-based capability that can be adopted faster than custom request parsing, but the low adoption and unclear license mean it should be treated as a build/buy/fork decision rather than an automatic dependency.
• Roadmap sequencing: Useful for near-term API contract decisions where file uploads are part of an existing Laravel monolith/API and changing the API contract would be costly.
• Use cases: Resource updates with attachments, document/image replacement endpoints, internal tooling APIs, and services migrating from form-based uploads to more RESTful endpoint conventions.

When to Consider This Package

Consider it when:

• The product/API contract specifically requires multipart/form-data uploads on PUT or PATCH routes in Laravel.
• Engineering wants a small middleware-based solution instead of custom request-body parsing or client-side workarounds.
• The team can pin the dependency, review the source, and accept a small, low-maintenance package.
• Legal/security can clarify the NOASSERTION license before production use.
• There is a plan to vendor/fork the middleware if the upstream package becomes inactive.

Do not adopt it as-is when:

• POST uploads, JSON/base64 uploads, or direct-to-object-storage presigned URLs are acceptable alternatives.
• The organization has strict dependency, license, or supply-chain review requirements that cannot be satisfied.
• The feature needs resumable/chunked uploads, virus scanning, complex validation, or high-scale upload orchestration; this package is only a parser, not an upload platform.
• The team cannot own a fork or internal implementation if needed.

How to Pitch It (Stakeholders)

Executive summary: This is a small Laravel middleware that lets our API accept file uploads on PUT/PATCH endpoints, which Laravel does not handle natively. It supports cleaner API contracts and can reduce client workarounds, but it has low community adoption and an unclear license. Recommendation: treat it as a timeboxed technical spike, not a default dependency. If the API contract truly requires PUT/PATCH multipart uploads, have engineering review the code, legal clarify the license, and plan to vendor/fork it if adopted.

For engineering: Evaluate integration effort, test coverage for file validation/error handling, and whether the middleware behaves correctly with Laravel’s request lifecycle. Compare against simply using POST uploads or presigned object-storage uploads.