- Is saumini/count a general-purpose Eloquent counting package for Laravel?
- No. Despite a blurb that suggests a general counting library for controllers, services, and views, the repository is nsaumini/nova-field-count: a Laravel Nova presentation field that renders an integer in a Nova index or detail view. If your requirement lives anywhere outside a Nova resource, use withCount directly in your application layer instead.
- How do I install saumini/count in a Laravel Nova application?
- Run composer require saumini/count only after confirming the exact Packagist name and publisher match the nsaumini/nova-field-count repository, since the package name and repo name differ. No migrations, config publishing, jobs, or queue setup are involved. Then reference the field class in your Nova Resource's fields method and confirm registration on a staging deploy.
- Which Laravel and Nova versions does this field support?
- The integration notes target Laravel 9 through 11, PHP 8.1+, and Nova 4.x, with Nova 5.x unconfirmed. The binding constraint is the installed Nova major, not Laravel or PHP, because Nova 4 moved to Vue 3 and the asset build story changed. Read composer.json for declared Nova constraints before requiring the package.
- Does saumini/count cause N+1 queries?
- It depends on how the field resolves its value. If it reads a {relation}_count attribute already loaded through withCount on the Resource's indexQuery, it is efficient. If it resolves per row, it is an N+1 dressed as a convenience. Read resolve and resolveUsing in src/ rather than trusting the README prose.
- How do I use the count field with withCount in a Nova Resource?
- Add the relationship to withCount inside your Resource's indexQuery method so the {relation}_count attribute exists on each model. Then add the field to the fields method, pointing it at that same attribute name. This keeps the count out of a per-row query and makes the field display-only over data you already fetched.
- Why is my Nova count field always showing zero?
- A missing or misnamed {relation}_count attribute renders 0 instead of throwing an error. Confirm the attribute exists on the model, that withCount covers the exact relationship name, and that the field is configured with the matching key. Silent wrongness is the real risk here, because users read a false zero as real data.
- Can the count column be sorted or filtered in Nova?
- Sorting depends on the field's implementation; if it is sortable, verify whether the sort compiles to a subselect or degrades into an in-PHP sort of the current page only. Filtering is normally handled by the surrounding resource query rather than the field. Test sorting on a paginated index with a few hundred rows before relying on it.
- Do I need npm or Vite to use this Nova field?
- Typically not. Nova field packages usually ship a pre-built dist/ directory served through Nova's asset route, so no front-end toolchain is introduced into the host application. Confirm on a staging deploy that the compiled assets are committed and load correctly rather than assuming it.
- Is saumini/count maintained and safe to depend on in production?
- Treat it as unmaintained by default: one maintainer, around 28 stars, zero dependents, and no issue-response history to lean on. That is a lifecycle and procurement risk rather than a code-quality one. The pragmatic posture is to vendor or fork the package so a Nova upgrade cannot break your admin panel without warning.
- What are the alternatives to saumini/count?
- The default alternative is withCount in your Resource's indexQuery plus a plain Nova Text or Number field pointed at the {relation}_count attribute, which removes the third-party dependency entirely. Other Nova count or badge fields exist, but each carries the same Nova-major coupling risk. If the number only needs to appear outside Nova, no field package is required at all.