Configuration

The package works with zero configuration. The published config/reviews.php in full:

<?php

use RoundlyConsulting\Reviews\Enums\ReviewStatus;
use RoundlyConsulting\Reviews\Models\Review;
use RoundlyConsulting\Reviews\Models\ReviewVote;
use RoundlyConsulting\Reviews\Moderation\NullModerator;

return [
    'model' => Review::class,
    'vote_model' => ReviewVote::class,

    'key_type' => env('REVIEWS_KEY_TYPE', 'bigint'),

    'min_rating' => env('REVIEWS_MIN_RATING', 1),
    'max_rating' => env('REVIEWS_MAX_RATING', 5),

    'default_status' => ReviewStatus::Pending->value,
    'auto_approve' => env('REVIEWS_AUTO_APPROVE', false),
    'reset_status_on_edit' => env('REVIEWS_RESET_STATUS_ON_EDIT', true),
    'one_per_author' => env('REVIEWS_ONE_PER_AUTHOR', false),

    'register_facade_alias' => env('REVIEWS_REGISTER_FACADE_ALIAS', true),

    'moderator' => NullModerator::class,
    'moderation' => [
        'banned_words' => array_values(array_filter(array_map(
            'trim',
            explode(',', (string) env('REVIEWS_BANNED_WORDS', '')),
        ))),
    ],

    'cache_aggregates' => env('REVIEWS_CACHE_AGGREGATES', false),

    'photos' => [
        'enabled' => env('REVIEWS_PHOTOS_ENABLED', true),
        'bucket' => env('REVIEWS_PHOTOS_BUCKET', 'photos'),
        'disk' => env('REVIEWS_PHOTOS_DISK'),
        'private_disk' => env('REVIEWS_PHOTOS_PRIVATE_DISK', 'local'),
        'max' => env('REVIEWS_PHOTOS_MAX', 5),
        'max_file_size' => env('REVIEWS_PHOTOS_MAX_FILE_SIZE', 5 * 1024 * 1024),
        'accepted_mime_types' => ['image/jpeg', 'image/png', 'image/webp', 'image/gif'],
        'responsive_widths' => [320, 640, 1024],
        'visibility' => env('REVIEWS_PHOTOS_VISIBILITY', 'public'),
        'warm_on_approval' => env('REVIEWS_PHOTOS_WARM_ON_APPROVAL', true),
    ],
];

Every key

Key	Default	Env	Purpose
`model`	Review::class	—	Review model; point it at your subclass to extend it. Any other class throws InvalidConfigurationException.
`vote_model`	ReviewVote::class	—	Helpful-vote model; point it at your subclass to extend it. Any other class throws InvalidConfigurationException.
`key_type`	bigint	`REVIEWS_KEY_TYPE`	Key type of the reviewable, author and voter morph columns — bigint, uuid or ulid (anything else throws InvalidConfigurationException). Read when the migrations run.
`min_rating`	1	`REVIEWS_MIN_RATING`	Lowest allowed rating, 0–255 (the rating column is an unsigned tinyint).
`max_rating`	5	`REVIEWS_MAX_RATING`	Highest allowed rating, from min_rating (at least 1) to 255.
`default_status`	pending	—	Status a review lands in when the moderator leaves it undecided (and auto-approve is off). Any value that isn’t a ReviewStatus throws.
`auto_approve`	false	`REVIEWS_AUTO_APPROVE`	Approve new — and re-moderated, edited — reviews immediately, skipping the moderator.
`reset_status_on_edit`	true	`REVIEWS_RESET_STATUS_ON_EDIT`	On an edit to the rating, title or content, send an undecided review back to default_status (false: keep its status). The moderator re-runs either way.
`one_per_author`	false	`REVIEWS_ONE_PER_AUTHOR`	Block a second non-deleted review by the same author for the same subject; owner responses don’t count. Checked under the author’s row lock.
`register_facade_alias`	true	`REVIEWS_REGISTER_FACADE_ALIAS`	Register the global Reviews alias; any other string is used as the alias name. false/0/off/no (or an explicit null) skip it; a blank value is not set, so the alias is registered.
`moderator`	NullModerator::class	—	ReviewModerator consulted on create and on edits to the rating, title or content; swap in WordListModerator or your own. A class that doesn’t implement ReviewModerator throws.
`moderation.banned_words`	[]	`REVIEWS_BANNED_WORDS`	Comma-separated words the WordListModerator rejects on. Set in PHP, it must be a list of non-empty strings.
`cache_aggregates`	false	`REVIEWS_CACHE_AGGREGATES`	Keep cached reviews_count / reviews_avg in sync on opted-in reviewables.
`photos.enabled`	true	`REVIEWS_PHOTOS_ENABLED`	Master switch for review photos; when false the bucket is never declared and withPhoto() throws.
`photos.bucket`	photos	`REVIEWS_PHOTOS_BUCKET`	The media bucket photos are stored in (a string; blank = not set → photos).
`photos.disk`	null	`REVIEWS_PHOTOS_DISK`	Disk for every photo. Not set (null or blank) = by visibility: private → photos.private_disk, public → media-library’s default disk.
`photos.private_disk`	local	`REVIEWS_PHOTOS_PRIVATE_DISK`	Non-public disk for private photos and their variants when photos.disk is not set (a string; blank = not set → local).
`photos.max`	5	`REVIEWS_PHOTOS_MAX`	Per-review photo limit, at least 0 (0 = unlimited, only when set explicitly); overflow throws tooManyPhotos().
`photos.max_file_size`	5242880	`REVIEWS_PHOTOS_MAX_FILE_SIZE`	Largest accepted upload, in bytes (5 MB), at least 0 (0 = no per-photo cap, only when set explicitly).
`photos.accepted_mime_types`	jpeg, png, webp, gif	—	Allowed image mime types ([] accepts any type).
`photos.responsive_widths`	[320, 640, 1024]	—	Responsive width ladder of positive integers (null uses the media-library default).
`photos.visibility`	public	`REVIEWS_PHOTOS_VISIBILITY`	public or private (exact, lowercase); anything else throws rather than publishing the photos.
`photos.warm_on_approval`	true	`REVIEWS_PHOTOS_WARM_ON_APPROVAL`	Queue variant generation when a review is approved.

Every bool switch is read strictly: true/1/on/yes turn it on, false/0/off/no turn it off, a blank value (REVIEWS_PHOTOS_ENABLED=) is not set so the default applies, and anything else (say REVIEWS_PHOTOS_ENABLED=disabled) throws InvalidConfigurationException instead of quietly reading as the default.

Every other setting is read just as strictly. A setting that is not set — absent, null, or blank like a host’s REVIEWS_PHOTOS_DISK= — takes its default (photos.disk stays unset). Integers accept an int or a plain integer string (“10”, as every env value is a string); five, 5.5 or 1e3 throws rather than becoming 0 — which for photos.max would have meant unlimited photos. A photos.visibility typo such as privat throws rather than making the photos public, and a non-string bucket or disk name, a non-list mime-type or width setting, or a junk entry in one throws too.

Environment

Most switches are env-driven, so you rarely need to publish the file at all:

REVIEWS_MIN_RATING=1
REVIEWS_MAX_RATING=10
REVIEWS_AUTO_APPROVE=false
REVIEWS_ONE_PER_AUTHOR=true
REVIEWS_BANNED_WORDS=spam,scam
REVIEWS_CACHE_AGGREGATES=true
REVIEWS_PHOTOS_MAX=3
REVIEWS_PHOTOS_VISIBILITY=private

REVIEWS_BANNED_WORDS is split on commas and trimmed, so spaces around the words are harmless.

Inspecting the live configuration

The package adds a Reviews section to Laravel’s about command — models, rating scale, moderation switches, aggregates and photo settings:

php artisan about --only=reviews

It reports switches, bounds and presence only: the banned-word list appears as a count and the photo disk as SET or DEFAULT, so the output is safe to paste into a ticket. A broken rating scale, default status, banned-word list or photo setting renders as INVALID instead of failing the command.

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