- How do I install mrshanebarron/notifications in a Laravel app?
- Install it with composer require mrshanebarron/notifications, then publish the package config using php artisan vendor:publish with the package's config tag. The technical assessment describes a conventional Laravel package with a service provider and a publishable, vendor-prefixed config file, so package auto-discovery should register it without manual provider edits. The README excerpt was not supplied, so confirm the exact publish tag in the repository before scripting it into a deployment pipeline.
- Which Laravel and PHP versions does this package support?
- Supported Laravel and PHP constraints are not stated in the material provided, so check composer.json for the illuminate/support requirement before committing. The technical assessment lists this as an open question and recommends verifying that illuminate/support is constrained appropriately. Pin the package version explicitly rather than relying on a loose constraint.
- How do I publish the config file, and what is the sb- prefix about?
- Publish with php artisan vendor:publish; the v1.0.1 release fixed the config filename to use an sb- prefix that matches the vendor and namespace, which is the correct convention and reduces collision risk in apps with many packages. Because the filename changed, projects that already published the v1.0.0 config may end up with two config files, since vendor:publish without --force will not overwrite the stale one. Delete the old published file, republish, and diff the result to catch renamed keys.
- Is the v1.0.1 config filename change a breaking change?
- Officially it shipped as a patch release, but Laravel derives config keys from the config filename, so renaming the file can change the public key namespace, for example config('old-name.key') becoming config('sb-name.key'). That means application code, .env mappings, deployment scripts, and config:cache artifacts referencing the old key can break or silently return null. Treat v1.0.1 as a breaking change until proven otherwise and verify it in a non-production environment with a full config:cache cycle.
- How do I send a notification to a user with this package?
- The package overview describes sending, storing, and retrieving user notifications across channels, so sending typically goes through the package API rather than raw Laravel notification calls. The exact method signatures were not included in the supplied material, so check the repository README for the documented entry points. Confirm channel support and queue behaviour in the source before relying on it in production.
- How do I mark a notification as read or unread?
- The package provides simple APIs for marking notifications read or unread, which is central to its UI component offering. The precise method names are not in the supplied material, so verify them in the repository before writing them into application code. It is also worth confirming whether read state is stored by the package itself or delegated to Laravel's built-in database notifications channel.
- How do I retrieve a user's stored notifications for display?
- Retrieving stored user notifications is one of the package's described capabilities, alongside sending and storing, and is intended for rendering a notification UI. Because the README excerpt was not provided, verify the retrieval API, per-user scoping, and any pagination behaviour directly in the source. Watch query performance on large notification tables and add indexes for the columns you filter on.
- Which notification channels does this package support?
- The overview says notifications can be sent across channels but does not enumerate them, so confirm the supported list in the repository. Channel handling may be inherited from Laravel's notification system or implemented separately by the package. Test every channel you intend to use in a non-production environment before rollout.
- Is this package safe to run in production, and how should I test it?
- Pin the version explicitly and validate in a single non-production environment first, including config:clear followed by config:cache and a container rebuild if config is baked into images at build time. The main risk is the v1.0.1 config filename rename: stale published configs, ambiguous precedence between two config files, and cached config still carrying the old key. Test coverage for publish-and-boot was not confirmed in the assessment, so add your own smoke test.
- What are the alternatives, and is the package actively maintained?
- No alternatives are listed in the supplied material; for comparison, evaluate against Laravel's built-in database notifications and other established notification packages. The project has reached at least v1.0.1 with a hygiene-focused patch, but release cadence, changelog quality, and issue activity are not documented here. Check the GitHub repository for maintenance signals and upgrade notes before adopting it.