Either Or Both Laravel Package

Product Decisions This Supports

• Feature Development: Enables modeling complex state machines, validation pipelines, or async workflows where operations may succeed/fail on one or both sides (e.g., dual API calls, database transactions, or distributed systems).
• Roadmap Alignment: Supports a "build vs. buy" decision for teams needing exhaustive pattern matching (e.g., match expressions in PHP 8.1+) without reinventing union types. Ideal for projects adopting domain-driven design (DDD) or event sourcing.
• Use Cases:
  • Validation Layers: Replace nested if-else chains for multi-step validation (e.g., "validate user input and permissions").
  • Async/Await Patterns: Model operations where two independent tasks may complete partially (e.g., "fetch user data or cache it or both").
  • Error Handling: Replace try-catch spaghetti for dual-error scenarios (e.g., "API call failed but fallback succeeded").
  • State Machines: Represent states like Left (pending), Right (success), or Both (partial success).

When to Consider This Package

Adopt if:

• Your team uses PHP 8.1+ (for match expressions) and needs type-safe disjoint unions without heavyweight libraries (e.g., spatie/array-to-object).
• You’re building systems where dual outcomes are common (e.g., microservices, batch processing, or hybrid sync/async workflows).
• You prioritize explicit state handling over implicit null checks or array hacks.
• Your architecture leans toward functional programming (e.g., immutability, pure functions).

Look elsewhere if:

• You need only binary outcomes (use stdClass or bool flags).
• Your stack is pre-PHP 8.1 (lacks match support).
• You’re constrained by dependency bloat (this is a tiny, focused package).
• You prefer existing solutions like:
  • League\Pipeline (for validation chains).
  • ReactPHP (for async workflows).
  • Custom enum classes (if Both isn’t critical).

How to Pitch It (Stakeholders)

For Executives: "This package lets us model complex, dual-outcome workflows—like validating both user input and permissions—with clean, type-safe code. It’s a lightweight alternative to custom solutions, reducing technical debt in systems where operations may succeed, fail, or partially succeed. Think of it as ‘either/or/both’ for PHP, enabling safer, more maintainable logic in validation, async tasks, and state machines."

For Engineers: *"EitherOrBoth gives us a three-state union type (Left, Right, Both) to replace verbose if-else or array hacks. Key benefits:

• Type Safety: Exhaustive match expressions catch edge cases.
• Readability: Self-documenting states (e.g., Both::new($user, $permissions)).
• Performance: Zero overhead; just a thin wrapper.
• Future-Proof: Aligns with PHP’s evolving type system.

Example use case: Replace this:

if ($user && $permissions) { ... }

with this:

match ($result) {
    Left::class => handleLeft(),
    Right::class => handleRight(),
    Both::class => handleBoth($result->left(), $result->right()),
};
```*
*Best for teams using PHP 8.1+ and needing to model non-binary outcomes."*