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Microplate Laravel Package
mll-lab/microplate
mll-lab/microplate is a PHP package for modeling microplates, wells, and well coordinates. It supports defining plate formats, validating positions, and organizing assay layouts for lab automation and sample-tracking workflows.
This library is deprecated in favor of https://github.com/mll-lab/php-utils.
Frequently asked questions about Microplate
- How do I install mll-lab/microplate in a Laravel application?
- Install it with Composer using composer require mll-lab/microplate and pin the release line you have validated, such as ^6.3. The package is PSR-4 autoloaded and the technical assessment does not expect migrations or schema coupling for this release. After updating, run your normal config:clear and optimize:clear deployment steps and validate through your CI matrix.
- Which PHP and Laravel versions does mll-lab/microplate support?
- The technical assessment assumes a modern baseline of PHP 8.1+ and Laravel 10 or 11+, but you should confirm the exact matrix in the package composer.json and README before upgrading. Constrain the package to a tested version range such as ^6.3 and check that no first-party or transitive dependency pins older 6.0.x through 6.2.x releases exclusively. Run the upgrade in a branch with your full test suite to confirm compatibility with your application.
- What does mll-lab/microplate actually model?
- It is a PHP package for modeling microplates, wells, and well coordinates, including plate formats, position validation, and assay layout organization. The package exposes typed labware variants and class-level constants such as CoordinateSystemWell::POSITIONS_COUNT and MicroplateSet::PLATE_COUNT. It is intended to keep plate geometry out of application code instead of hardcoding counts like 96, 384, or 1536.
- Is mll-lab/microplate a Laravel microservice boilerplate or a labware package?
- The repository overview describes a lightweight Laravel-style bootstrap for focused PHP services, while the package blurb and technical assessment focus on microplate, well, and coordinate modeling. The practical interpretation is a framework-agnostic labware domain core with a thin Laravel-style service-provider and configuration wrapper. Confirm the current README for the authoritative feature set before adopting it.
- How do I define plate formats such as 96-well, 384-well, or 1536-well plates?
- Use the package's typed labware variants and count constants rather than hardcoding well counts in your application code. The assessment specifically recommends replacing literals such as 96, 384, and 1536 with the corresponding constants from the package. Do this one labware family per pull request and add a test asserting that the constant matches your labware catalog.
- How can I validate well positions and coordinates with mll-lab/microplate?
- The package is designed around coordinate systems, wells, and position validation for microplate layouts. Use its coordinate classes to validate positions instead of duplicating row, column, and well-index rules in your own validation code. Be careful with partial plates, non-standard carriers, and custom 6-, 12-, or 24-well formats, because cardinality constants may not represent every real-world labware case.
- Are POSITIONS_COUNT and PLATE_COUNT public API or implementation details?
- They appear to be exposed as public class constants, but the technical assessment flags that the vendor may not treat them as backward-compatibility-guaranteed API. Ask the vendor directly whether these constants are part of the public contract. If you adopt them, add tests that assert each constant against your labware catalog so a future minor release does not silently change behavior.
- Can I use mll-lab/microplate outside HTTP requests, such as in CLI commands or queue jobs?
- The package is described as a framework-agnostic core with a thin Laravel wrapper, and the assessed constants do not imply queue, cache, or storage dependencies. That makes it reasonable to load in CLI, HTTP, and job contexts. Confirm that it does not register global helpers or facades that would conflict with your application before rolling it out broadly.
- How should I test microplate layouts and count constants in my Laravel app?
- Add tests that assert each package constant matches the corresponding entry in your labware catalog. Also test your validation rules for well positions, partial plates, and any non-standard formats your application supports. Run these tests in your existing CI matrix after pinning ^6.3, and repeat the check whenever the package version changes.
- Is upgrading to mll-lab/microplate 6.3 safe, and what are the maintenance risks?
- Version 6.3 is described as a purely additive semver-minor release with no removals, deprecations, or signature changes, so it should be a low-risk upgrade for 6.x consumers. The structural risks are that public constants create an implicit compatibility contract and that a class-per-variant design may grow combinatorially as new plate formats are added. Pin the version, include it in dependency review, and consider value-object or enum alternatives if the constant surface becomes unwieldy.
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