Laravel Extend Collections Laravel Package

Getting Started

• Install the package with Composer and publish any config/service provider if the package exposes one (php artisan vendor:publish).
• Look first at the fromDot helper and its relationship to Laravel’s Arr::undot(). That is the core behavior changed in 0.3.1.
• A good first use case is normalizing flat, dot-keyed payloads — settings imports, env-style config maps, or form submissions using keys like mail.host — into nested arrays before validation or persistence.

$nested = fromDot([
    'mail.host' => 'smtp.example.com',
    'mail.port' => 587,
]);

Implementation Patterns

• Use fromDot at the boundary where flat data enters your domain: request normalization, config importers, or settings loaders.
• Validate the flat dot keys first, then convert. This keeps validation rules readable and avoids validating a deeply nested structure you just built.
• Pair with Arr::dot() when you need round-tripping: flatten for storage or comparison, then fromDot back to nested form.
• For mixed payloads, keep nested and flat data separate before conversion. The 0.3.1 fix reduces over-eager undotting, but explicit boundaries remain the safest pattern.
• If you maintain custom normalizers or macros around the package, route them through fromDot rather than calling undot() directly so you inherit the package’s fixed behavior.

Gotchas and Tips

• 0.3.1 is a patch release — no breaking changes expected. The fix addresses fromDot being “overzealous” with undot, meaning keys that should have remained literal dotted keys were being split unintentionally.
• If you worked around the old behavior by pre-escaping or manually reconstructing arrays, re-test those paths after upgrading; the workaround may now double-process keys.
• Debug by comparing before/after: Arr::dot($nested) should reproduce your original flat array when the data is purely dot-keyed.
• Literal keys containing dots (e.g. a key that is genuinely foo.bar, not a nested path) are the main edge case to verify. Add a regression test if your application relies on them.
• Extension points such as macros or custom normalizers should be checked after upgrading, since they may have depended on the previous overzealous conversion.
• When in doubt, isolate fromDot calls and assert exact array shapes in tests rather than relying on assertArraySubset-style checks, which can hide key-splitting regressions.