String Laravel Package

Getting Started

Install via Composer: composer require joomla/string. The package provides StringHelper and Inflector classes for common string operations—ideal for lightweight, framework-agnostic utilities. Start by reviewing the src/ directory (especially StringHelper.php and Inflector.php) as official docs are minimal (currently TODO). Begin with basic tasks like cleaning user input:

use Joomla\String\StringHelper;

$title = StringHelper::clean('  My  Category  Title  '); // "My Category Title"

For pluralization/singularization:

use Joomla\String\Inflector;

$inflector = new Inflector();
$singular = $inflector->singular('categories'); // "category"

Implementation Patterns

• Input sanitization: Use StringHelper::clean() for normalizing whitespace in titles, slugs, or search queries; StringHelper::truncate() and StringHelper::short() for preview summaries.
• Inflection in domain logic: Leverage Inflector for generating pluralized route segments or DB table names in generic CRUD scaffolding (e.g., Inflector::plural('item') → "items").
• Strict dependency isolation: Integrate only where cross-platform compatibility is critical (e.g., shared console tools between Joomla/Laravel). Avoid replacing Laravel’s built-in Str::of()—this package adds little beyond native PHP + Doctrine Inflector.
• Test-driven discovery: Since docs are sparse, inspect tests/ for usage examples and edge-case expectations (e.g., how truncate() handles multi-byte characters).

Gotchas and Tips

• PHP version locked: v3.x requires PHP ≥8.1; v4.x (per changelog) requires PHP ≥8.3. Explicitly pin version in composer.json to avoid runtime failures from auto-updates.
• Inflector limitations: Irregular plurals (e.g., "data" → "datum", "people" → "person") aren’t guaranteed—Doctrine Inflector’s rules apply. Add custom overrides via subclassing if needed.
• No stable API surface: Last releases (3.0.4, 2025-07-23) fix packaging/CI, not features. Treat as stable only for basic clean/truncate—not future-proof for new functionality.
• Debugging tips: If clean() or short() behaves unexpectedly, verify encoding (use mb_internal_encoding('UTF-8')); v4.x drops legacy phputf8 and relies solely on symfony/polyfill-mbstring.
• Laravel-specific advice: Wrap Inflector in a service provider if used, but prefer Str::singular()/Str::plural() for consistency. This package adds maintenance cost without Laravel integration value.