Laravel Nested Terms & Tags

A dynamic & extensible system for nested Terms and dynamic-cast Tags in Laravel. This package includes:

• Infinite nesting of Tags via a self-referencing parent_id.
• Hierarchical slugs (e.g. specifications.bedrooms.5).
• Dynamic casting of a Tag’s value based on a type field (integer, boolean, float, array, etc.).
• Polymorphic pivot for attaching Tags to any Eloquent model.
• Config-driven architecture for easy customization.
• Comprehensive tests and a production-ready codebase.

Table of Contents

• Requirements
• Installation
• Configuration
• Usage
  • Creating Terms
  • Creating Tags
  • Infinite Nesting
  • Tag Values & Casting
  • Attaching Tags to Models
  • Filtering by Term
• Customization
  • Custom Table Names
  • Custom Models
• Testing
• Contributing
• License

Requirements

• PHP ^8.1 or higher
• Laravel ^11.0 (or equivalent)
• Composer for dependency management

Installation

1. Install via Composer:

   composer require mrnewport/laravel-nestedterms
   

2. Publish the config (optional):

   php artisan vendor:publish --provider="MrNewport\LaravelNestedTerms\Providers\NestedTermsServiceProvider" --tag=nestedterms-config
   

3. Migrate:

   php artisan migrate
   

Configuration

config/nestedterms.php (published if desired):

return [
    'terms_table'     => 'terms',
    'tags_table'      => 'tags',
    'model_tag_table' => 'model_tag',

    'term_model' => \MrNewport\LaravelNestedTerms\Models\Term::class,
    'tag_model'  => \MrNewport\LaravelNestedTerms\Models\Tag::class,

    'allowed_cast_types' => [
        'integer','float','double','boolean','string','array','json','object',
    ],

    'custom_type_map' => [
        'number' => 'integer',
    ],
];

• Table Names: terms_table, tags_table, model_tag_table
• Model Classes: term_model & tag_model
• Casting: 'allowed_cast_types' & 'custom_type_map'

Usage

Creating Terms

use MrNewport\LaravelNestedTerms\Models\Term;

$term = Term::create([
    'name' => 'Specifications',
    'slug' => 'specifications', // or omit to auto-generate
]);

Creating Tags

use MrNewport\LaravelNestedTerms\Models\Tag;

$bedrooms = Tag::create([
    'term_id' => $term->id,
    'name'    => 'Bedrooms',
]);

Infinite Nesting

Tags can nest via parent_id:

$parent = Tag::create([
  'term_id' => $term->id,
  'name'    => 'SubItem',
]);

$child = Tag::create([
  'term_id'   => $term->id,
  'parent_id' => $parent->id,
  'name'      => 'Child Tag',
]);

// slug => "specifications.subitem.child-tag"
$descendants = $parent->allDescendants(); // includes "Child Tag"

Tag Values & Casting

$tag = Tag::create([
    'term_id' => $term->id,
    'name'    => 'NumberOfRooms',
    'type'    => 'integer',
    'value'   => '5',
]);

// Eloquent interprets $tag->value as integer
echo $tag->value;       // 5

Attaching Tags to Models

Any model can “have tags”:

use MrNewport\LaravelNestedTerms\Traits\HasTags;

class Article extends Model
{
    use HasTags;
}

$article->attachTags($tagIdOrSlug);
$article->detachTags($tagInstance);
$article->syncTags([...]);
$article->hasTag('bedrooms');

Filtering by Term

$article->tagsByTerm('specifications')->get();
// returns tags whose term->slug == "specifications"

Customization

Custom Table Names

In nestedterms.php:

'terms_table' => 'cms_terms',
'tags_table'  => 'cms_tags',

Then re-run php artisan migrate. The included migrations reference these config values.

Custom Models

Define your own Term or Tag classes:

namespace App\Models;

use MrNewport\LaravelNestedTerms\Models\Tag as BaseTag;

class CustomTag extends BaseTag
{
    protected $fillable = [
        'term_id','parent_id','slug','type','value','name','description','meta','is_active',
        'icon','color'
    ];

    public function generateHierarchySlug(): string
    {
        $slug = parent::generateHierarchySlug();
        return $slug.'-extended';
    }
}

Then update:

'tag_model' => \App\Models\CustomTag::class,

Testing

A Pest-based suite covers Terms, Tags, and the HasTags trait. Run:

composer test

• TermTest: verifying creation, slug generation, etc.
• TagTest: infinite nesting, dynamic casting, hierarchical slugs.
• HasTagsTraitTest: attaching/detaching tags on a test model.

Contributing

1. Fork this repo.
2. Create a feature/fix branch.
3. Add tests covering changes.
4. Submit a Pull Request.

License

Licensed under the MIT license.

Enjoy building infinite nesting, dynamic-cast tags, and configurable terms in your Laravel projects!