Laravel Custom Fields

The Professional, Sealed-Lifecycle EAV Solution for Modern Laravel Applications.

Tired of messy "extra_attributes" JSON columns that are impossible to validate? Treat user-defined fields as first-class citizens. This package provides high-performance, strictly validated, and extensible custom fields with native support for both Blade (Full-Stack) and Headless (API) architectures.

🔥 Why This Package?

• 🛡 Strict Lifecycle: We validate the rules themselves. You can't save a min > max or an invalid regex.
• 🚫 Intelligent Conflict Prevention: Automatically prevents assigning conflicting rules (e.g., you can't use Letters Only and Alpha-Numeric together).
• ⚡️ Built for Speed: Uses database upserts and batch operations. Reduces database overhead from N queries to just one per request.
• 🏗 Refactor-Safe Polymorphism: Uses a config map for models. High stability even if you change model namespaces.
• 🧩 Dual-Nature Architecture:
  • Blade: Ready-to-use Tailwind components with error handling and old-input support.
  • Headless: Rich metadata API (models-and-types) explaining rules, labels, and tags to your Frontend.

📦 Installation

composer require salah/laravel-custom-fields

Install the package (publishes config, migrations, and assets):

php artisan custom-fields:install

⚙️ Configuration

1. Map Your Models: In config/custom-fields.php, define simple aliases for your models. This decouples your database from your class names.

   'models' => [
       'user'    => \App\Models\User::class,
       'product' => \App\Models\Product::class,
   ],
   

2. Prepare Your Model: Add the HasCustomFields trait.

   use Salah\LaravelCustomFields\Traits\HasCustomFields;
   
   }
   

3. Advanced Configuration: Tune the package in config/custom-fields.php.

   • Cache Strategy: Control ttl and prefix to balance performance and freshness.
   • Security: Enable sanitize_html to automatically strip tags from text inputs.
   • Maintenance: Configure pruning retention periods for soft-deleted fields.

[!IMPORTANT] API Security: If you enable API or Web routes in config, the package will automatically check for authentication middleware. If missing, it will log a warning. Ensure your routes are protected by adding auth middleware in the config.

🧹 Maintenance & Pruning

To keep your database clean, you can permanently remove soft-deleted custom fields that are older than a configured threshold.

1. Configure: Set 'prune_deleted_after_days' => 30 in your config file.

2. Run Command:

   php artisan custom-fields:prune
   

   Tip: Schedule this command in your App\Console\Kernel to run weekly.

🧠 Architecture & Validation Concepts

This package separates the world into two distinct logical flows to prevent confusion:

1. The Admin Flow (Defining Fields)

• Goal: Define what a field is (e.g., "Age").
• Trait: ValidatesFieldDefinition
• Usage: Only used when creating/editing the field definitions themselves. It validates that your rules don't conflict (e.g., preventing alpha logic on a number field).

2. The User Flow (Entering Data)

• Goal: Fill in the field (e.g., "25").
• Trait: ValidatesFieldData
• Usage: Used in your Application's forms. It applies the rules defined in Step 1 to the user's input.

🏛 Usage: The Laravel Way

1. Rendering the UI (Blade)

Automatically render all custom fields for a specific model using a single tag. It handles errors, old(), and specific input types.

<form action="{{ route('users.store') }}" method="POST">
    @csrf

    <!-- Standard Fields -->
    <input type="text" name="name" />

    <!-- Dynamic Custom Fields Magic -->
    <x-custom-fields::render :model="$user ?? null" :customFields="\App\Models\User::customFields()" />

    <button type="submit">Save</button>
</form>

2. Validation (Option A: Form Request - Recommended)

The cleanest way to validate custom fields is by using the ValidatesFieldData trait in your Form Request.

CRITICAL: If strict_validation is enabled in config (default: true), you MUST use this trait. It not only merges rules but also "marks" the data as safely validated. Failure to use it will result in a ValidationIntegrityException.

use Salah\LaravelCustomFields\Traits\ValidatesFieldData;

class StoreUserRequest extends FormRequest
{
    use ValidatesFieldData;

    public function rules(): array
    {
        // MERGE custom fields rules into your existing rules
        return $this->withCustomFieldsRules(User::class, [
            'name' => 'required|string|max:255',
        ]);
    }
}

3. Validation (Option B: Controller)

If you prefer validating in the controller, use the helper method on the model:

$validated = $request->validate(array_merge([
    'name' => 'required',
], User::getCustomFieldRules()));

// Note: getCustomFieldRules() is a helper from the HasCustomFields trait
// getCustomFieldModelAlias() is also available for programmatic model resolution

3. Validation (Option C: Manual Service)

For complex scenarios where you need granular control or are validating data outside of a request:

// Validate only custom fields (Throws ValidationException on failure)
app(CustomFieldsService::class)->validate(User::class, $data);

4. Storage & Updates

Use optimized batch methods to save or update custom values.

Recommendation: It is highly recommended to wrap the creation/update of your main model and the custom fields in a Database Transaction. This ensures that if the custom field validation fails (or any other error occurs), the main model is not created/updated partially.

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\DB;

// Storing
DB::transaction(function () use ($request) {
    $user = User::create($request->validated());
    $user->saveCustomFields($request->validated());
});

// Updating (Uses high-performance UPSERT logic)
DB::transaction(function () use ($request, $user) {
    $user->update($request->validated());
    $user->updateCustomFields($request->validated());
});

🔍 Retrieval & Powerful Querying

Get Single Value

$bio = $user->custom('biography');

Get All Values (Flat Array)

Perfect for API responses or data exports.

return response()->json([
    'user' => $user,
    'custom_data' => $user->customFieldsResponse()
]);
// Response: {"biography": "...", "age": 30, "city": "Cairo"}

Querying like a Pro

The package provides a powerful scope to filter your models by custom fields values.

// Find users where custom field 'city' is 'Cairo'
$users = User::whereCustomField('city', 'Cairo')->get();

⚡️ Performance & Eager Loading

To avoid the N+1 query problem when displaying multiple models, always use the withCustomFields scope. This eager loads all values and their field configurations in just two queries.

// Optimized for lists/tables
$users = User::withCustomFields()->paginate(20);

foreach ($users as $user) {
    echo $user->custom('biography'); // No extra queries!
}

Optimize Show/Edit Pages

When displaying a single model (e.g., in show or edit methods), use the loadCustomFields() helper to ensure all data is loaded efficiently before rendering the view.

public function edit(User $user)
{
    // Eager loads values relationship
    return view('users.edit')->with('user', $user->loadCustomFields());
}

🧩 Built-in Field Types

🛡 Validation Rule Conflicts

The system is smart enough to prevent logical errors in your field configurations. If you try to apply conflicting rules, the system will throw a validation error during the field creation/update.

Common Conflicts Prevented:

• alpha vs alpha_num vs alpha_dash
• after vs after_or_equal
• before vs before_or_equal

🛠 Advanced Customization

Registering New Types

Create a class extending FieldType and register it in your AppServiceProvider.

public function boot() {
    $this->app->make(FieldTypeRegistry::class)->register(new MyCustomType());
}

Extending Validation Rules

You can add your own validation rules. If your rule conflicts with another, simply override the conflictsWith() method:

class MyPremiumRule extends ValidationRule {
    public function conflictsWith(): array {
        return ['basic_rule_name'];
    }
}

🏛 Headless & API Reference

This package is a first-class citizen for Headless architectures. It provides a built-in API to manage custom fields and provides the necessary metadata for frontends to render them.

1. The Blueprint (Metadata)

Before rendering any UI, your frontend (React/Vue/Mobile) should fetch the types and rules.

Endpoint: GET /api/custom-fields/models-and-types

Response:

{
  "success": true,
  "data": {
    "models": ["user", "product"],
    "types": [
      {
        "name": "text",
        "label": "Text Field",
        "tag": "input",
        "type": "text",
        "has_options": false,
        "allowed_rules": [
          { "name": "min", "label": "Min Length", "tag": "input", "type": "number" }
        ]
      }
    ]
  }
}

2. Managing Fields (CRUD API)

If you are building your own Admin Dashboard in a JS framework, use these endpoints:

Example: Creating a Field

Payload (POST /api/custom-fields):

{
  "name": "Technical Bio",
  "model": "user",
  "type": "text",
  "required": true,
  "validation_rules": {
    "min": 10,
    "max": 500
  }
}

3. Storing Values (Entity Integration)

When your frontend sends data to update a model (like a User profile), send the custom fields as a flat object where the key is the slug.

Payload (PUT /api/users/12):

{
  "name": "Salah Eldeen",
  "email": "salah@example.com",
  "technical-bio": "Full-stack developer with 10 years of experience."
}

Controller Implementation:

public function update(Request $request, User $user) {
    $user->update($request->all());
    $user->updateCustomFields($request->all()); // Scans for slugs and updates values automatically
    
    return response()->json(['success' => true]);
}

🎨 Management UI

The package comes with a built-in, secure management interface to create and manage fields.

• Route: /custom-fields (Configurable in custom-fields.php)
• Features: List, Search, Create, Edit, and Trash management.

👨‍🍳 Cookbook: Advanced Scenarios

Creating a Dependent Dropdown Field Type

Scenario: You want a City field that updates its options based on a Country field.

1. Create the Field Type Class

Create app/CustomFields/Types/DependentSelectField.php. We will use the options array to store the "parent field" slug.

namespace App\CustomFields\Types;

use Salah\LaravelCustomFields\FieldTypes\FieldType;

class DependentSelectField extends FieldType
{
    public function name(): string { return 'dependent_select'; }
    public function label(): string { return 'Dependent Select'; }
    public function htmlTag(): string { return 'select'; }
    
    // We expect 'options' to contain the slug of the parent field
    // e.g., options: ["country"]
    public function hasOptions(): bool { return true; } 

    public function description(): string {
        return 'A select menu that depends on another field.';
    }

    public function baseRule(): array {
        return ['string']; // Basic validation
    }
    
    public function view(): string {
        return 'components.custom-fields.dependent-select';
    }
}

2. Register the Type

In AppServiceProvider::boot():

use Salah\LaravelCustomFields\FieldTypeRegistry;
use App\CustomFields\Types\DependentSelectField;

public function boot() {
    app(FieldTypeRegistry::class)->register(new DependentSelectField());
}

3. Frontend Implementation

Since the dependency logic is frontend-heavy, your component (resources/views/components/custom-fields/dependent-select.blade.php) should listen to the parent field.

@props(['field', 'value', 'allFields'])

@php
    $parentSlug = $field->options[0] ?? null;
@endphp

<div x-data="{ 
    parentVal: '', 
    options: [],
    init() {
        // Pseudo-code: Listen to the parent field change
        document.addEventListener('custom-field-changed:{{ $parentSlug }}', (e) => {
            this.fetchOptions(e.detail.value);
        });
    }
}">
    <select name="{{ $field->slug }}" x-model="value">
        <option value="">Select Option</option>
        <template x-for="opt in options">
            <option :value="opt" x-text="opt"></option>
        </template>
    </select>
</div>

📄 License

The MIT License (MIT). Please see License File for more information.