Comments For Laravel Laravel Package

Product Decisions This Supports

• API contract ownership: The new comments.resources.author config key lets product/engineering teams define the exact author payload exposed to clients—id/type by default, plus name, avatar, or other fields via a custom JsonResource. This is a build-vs-configure decision: use the package’s extension point instead of forking comment serialization.
• Privacy and surface-area control: CommentResource now renders author.type as the author class basename (User) rather than the stored actor_type (e.g. App\Models\User). This reduces accidental leakage of internal namespace/class structure to API consumers and supports security-reviewed API contracts.
• Roadmap and versioning: The author.type change is contract-affecting for existing API clients even though it ships in a minor release. PMs should treat it as a client-communication and contract-testing item, and decide whether to adopt now, pin the prior version, or schedule a coordinated API change.
• Feature reuse vs custom build: For Laravel products needing polymorphic comments (activity feeds, support threads, audit notes, social interactions), the package now covers a common customization need—author presentation—without custom resource code. That strengthens a buy/adopt decision over building comment serialization in-house.
• Configuration safety: An invalid comments.resources.author value throws an InvalidConfigurationException naming the key. This supports operational readiness: misconfiguration fails clearly rather than silently producing inconsistent API output.

When to Consider This Package

Consider it when:

• You are building a Laravel application with Eloquent models and need comment data exposed through JSON API resources.
• Comments have polymorphic authors and you need a consistent {id, type} author envelope, with the option to add name, avatar, or other fields through a custom JsonResource.
• You want a configurable serialization boundary rather than hard-coding author shape in controllers or ad hoc API resources.
• You can tolerate a minor-version upgrade with a contract-affecting change to author.type, or you can pin versions and migrate clients deliberately.
• You value clear configuration validation over silent fallback behavior.

Look elsewhere when:

• You need a complete commenting product—UI, moderation, spam filtering, notifications, threading, or permissions—rather than an API serialization package.
• You are not on Laravel/PHP or do not use Laravel’s JsonResource conventions.
• You require a fully stable public API contract with no migration work across minor releases; in that case, pin the current version and plan the author.type change explicitly.
• Your API clients depend on receiving the full author class name or a morph alias in author.type and cannot be updated; the new default basename behavior will require a custom resource or a client migration.
• You need author payloads that cannot be expressed by a JsonResource receiving the author model.

How to Pitch It (Stakeholders)

For executives: This release makes comment author data configurable and safer to expose. Instead of leaking internal class names like App\Models\User to every API client, the package now returns a clean type (User) and lets us add customer-facing fields such as names or avatars through configuration. That reduces custom code, improves API hygiene, and keeps a common commenting capability in the package rather than in our backlog. The main caveat is a small API contract change that needs coordinated client communication.

For engineering: Version 1.2.0 adds CommentAuthorResource and the comments.resources.author config key, defaulting to CommentAuthorResource::class. Swap in your own JsonResource to control the author payload; invalid values throw InvalidConfigurationException with the offending key. The behavioral change is that CommentResource.author.type is now the author class basename, not the stored actor_type. Update contract tests and API consumer expectations accordingly, and use the config key rather than forking the resource.