Open source
Connections for Laravel
composer require roundly-consulting/connections-for-laravelOverview
Many-to-many connections between Eloquent models, with per-connection permissions and optional expirations. Connect any model to any other — a user to a team, an organization to a project — record what each connection is allowed to do, walk it through a pending → accepted / blocked invitation flow, and let expired connections prune themselves. A fluent Connections facade, trait verbs, standalone actions, events, an opt-in Gate hook and a test fake keep every operation to one readable line. MIT-licensed, with no third-party runtime dependencies beyond Laravel and two small Roundly helper packages.
What you get
Connect any model to any model
One polymorphic, directed connection per pair — a user to a team, an organization to a project. Re-connecting only changes what you pass.
Per-connection permissions
Grant, revoke, sync and clear permission sets; check one, any or all of them, with * and posts.* wildcards.
Invitations & status
Pending → accepted / blocked flows with enforced status transitions and events at every step. Only active connections grant access.
Expirations
expiresIn(), extend() and a default expiry window, plus a prune command and an expiring-soon event.
Bulk operations & sync
toMany()->connectAll() and friends, and from()->sync() reconciling an exact set into a typed SyncResult.
Facade, DI or actions
One Connections facade, an injectable ConnectionManager or single-purpose actions — plus nine lifecycle events and an opt-in Gate::before hook.
Test fake
Connections::fake() records facade, injected-manager and trait writes for assertions while still writing to your test database.
Documentation
Installation
Install via Composer, publish and run the migration, and optionally publish the config file.
Configuration
Every config key and its default — model, table, key type, cache, events, Gate, default permissions, status and expiry.
Database schema
One polymorphic connections table — morph keys, jsonb permissions and meta, status, expiry, soft deletes and a unique pair index.
Connectable models
Add the HasConnections trait and Connectable contract to any model, scaffold with make:connectable, and use the trait verbs.
The Connections facade
The whole public API in one facade — between() and from() builders, the permissions() sub-accessor, expiring(), prune(), flushCache() and fake().
DI and actions
Inject ConnectionManager instead of the facade, or run single-purpose actions — with the full facade-to-action map, DTOs and exceptions.
Permissions
Grant, revoke, sync and clear per-connection permissions; check one, any or all of them, with * and segment wildcards.
Invitations & status
Model approval flows: create pending connections, accept or block them from either side, and use the ConnectionStatus enum helpers.
Expirations
Give connections an expiry, move or clear it, set a default window, and see how expiry affects access checks.
Metadata
Attach free-form context to a connection in a JSON meta bag, read it with dot access, and merge or replace it on re-connect.
Bulk operations & sync
Connect, disconnect, grant and revoke across many connectables at once, or reconcile an exact set with from()->sync().
Toggle, reconnect & restore
Disconnect with soft deletes, flip a connection with toggle(), and bring a removed one back as it was with reconnect() or fresh with connect().
Querying connections
Check who is connected, walk both directions, filter with active, expired, expiring and permission scopes, and fetch typed models.
Events
Nine lifecycle events for creates, updates, removals, permission changes, invitations, status changes, restores and expiry warnings.
Gate integration
Opt in to a Gate::before hook so $user->can('publish', $team) and Laravel’s other authorization checks resolve through connections.
Caching
Permission checks are memoised per connector–connectable pair, invalidated on every package write, and bypassable with force: true.
Artisan commands
Prune expired connections, dispatch expiring-soon events, scaffold connectable models, and schedule the maintenance.
Custom connection model
Swap in your own Connection subclass via connections.model to add behaviour, and wire optional integrations such as reports-for-laravel.
Testing
Record every write with Connections::fake() — facade, injected manager and trait — assert each operation, and seed rows with the factory.
Requirements
PHP 8.4+, Laravel 12 or 13, and two Roundly helper packages that Composer installs automatically.
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