Strings Laravel Package

Getting Started

Minimal Setup

1. Installation:

   composer require yiisoft/strings
   

   No additional configuration is required—this is a lightweight, dependency-free package.

2. First Use Case:

   use Yiisoft\Strings\StringHelper;
   
   // Basic string manipulation
   $string = StringHelper::lower('Hello WORLD');
   echo $string; // "hello world"
   
   // Common operations
   $trimmed = StringHelper::trim('  extra spaces  ');
   $slug = StringHelper::slugify('Laravel Assessment');
   

3. Where to Look First:

   • Class Reference (core methods).
   • Tests for edge-case examples.
   • Focus on StringHelper—this is the sole class in the package.

Implementation Patterns

Core Workflows

1. String Sanitization:

   // Remove HTML tags
   $clean = StringHelper::stripTags('<p>Hello</p>');
   
   // Escape for HTML
   $escaped = StringHelper::htmlspecialchars('User <script>alert()</script>');
   

2. Text Transformation:

   // Convert to title case
   $title = StringHelper::titleCase('laravel is awesome');
   
   // Convert to kebab-case
   $kebab = StringHelper::kebabCase('LaravelAssessment');
   

3. Validation & Checks:

   // Check if string is alphanumeric
   if (StringHelper::isAlphanumeric('abc123')) {
       // ...
   }
   
   // Check if string is a valid email
   if (StringHelper::isEmail('test@example.com')) {
       // ...
   }
   

4. Localization & Encoding:

   // Convert to ASCII (transliterate)
   $ascii = StringHelper::ascii('Café');
   
   // Normalize Unicode (e.g., NFD form)
   $normalized = StringHelper::normalize('résumé');
   

Integration Tips

• Laravel Blade: Use in directives or helpers:

  // app/Helpers/StringHelper.php
  if (!class_exists('StringHelper')) {
      require app_path('Helpers/StringHelper.php');
  }
  
  // In Blade: @php echo StringHelper::slugify($title) @endphp
  

• Form Requests: Sanitize user input:

  public function rules()
  {
      return [
          'name' => ['string', 'filter' => [StringHelper::class, 'slugify']],
      ];
  }
  

• API Responses: Normalize strings before JSON serialization:

  return response()->json([
      'title' => StringHelper::titleCase($request->title),
  ]);
  

Gotchas and Tips

Pitfalls

1. Encoding Assumptions:

   • StringHelper::ascii() may not handle all Unicode characters perfectly. Test with non-Latin scripts (e.g., Cyrillic, CJK).
   • Fix: Use StringHelper::transliterate() for broader compatibility.

2. Case Sensitivity:

   • StringHelper::slugify() is case-sensitive by default. Override with:

     StringHelper::slugify('Laravel', ['lower' => true]);
     

3. Performance:

   • Heavy operations like normalize() or transliterate() on large datasets (e.g., database bulk updates) can be slow.
   • Fix: Cache results or batch process.

4. Edge Cases:

   • StringHelper::isEmail() uses a basic regex. For strict validation, combine with Laravel’s ValidatesEmail.
   • Empty strings may cause unexpected behavior in some methods (e.g., stripTags('') returns '', but slugify('') returns '-').

Debugging Tips

• Method Chaining:

  $result = StringHelper::lower($str)
                      ->slugify()
                      ->trim();
  

  Note: The package doesn’t support chaining natively—use intermediate variables or a helper method.

• Custom Rules: Extend functionality by creating a wrapper:

  class CustomStringHelper extends StringHelper {
      public static function customSlugify($string): string {
          return parent::slugify($string, ['replacement' => '-', 'lower' => true]);
      }
  }
  

Extension Points

1. Add Custom Replacements:

   $customReplacements = [
       'foo' => 'bar',
       'baz' => 'qux',
   ];
   StringHelper::slugify($str, ['replacements' => $customReplacements]);
   

2. Override Default Config: The package uses static methods, so "configuration" is passed via method arguments. For reusable settings, create a config class:

   class StringConfig {
       public static function slugifyOptions(): array {
           return ['replacement' => '_', 'lower' => true];
       }
   }
   // Usage: StringHelper::slugify($str, StringConfig::slugifyOptions())
   

3. Testing: Mock StringHelper in PHPUnit:

   $this->partialMock(StringHelper::class, ['slugify'])
        ->method('slugify')
        ->willReturn('mocked-slug');