Zhylon API-Resources

Small, opinionated helpers for building consistent, JSON:API-inspired API resource responses in Laravel:

• BuildsApiResource — a trait for JsonResource classes that produces a { id, type, attributes, links } payload, and makes YourResource::collection(...) return an enveloped, paginated collection automatically.
• ApiResourceCollection — the AnonymousResourceCollection subclass behind that: wraps items in data and adds links/meta pagination info for both length-aware and cursor paginators.

Requirements

• PHP 8.2+
• Laravel 12.x or 13.x

Installation

composer require zhylon/api-resources

There is nothing to publish or configure — both classes are used directly.

Usage

Single resources — BuildsApiResource

Add the trait to a JsonResource and call toApiResource() from toArray():

use Illuminate\Http\Resources\Json\JsonResource;
use Zhylon\ApiResources\Http\Resources\BuildsApiResource;

class OrderResource extends JsonResource
{
    use BuildsApiResource;

    public function toArray($request): array
    {
        return $this->toApiResource(
            type: 'order',
            attributes: [
                'status' => $this->status,
                'total'  => $this->total,
            ],
            selfHref: route('orders.show', $this->resource),
            timestamps: true,
        );
    }
}

produces:

{
    "id": "abc123",
    "type": "order",
    "attributes": {
        "status": "paid",
        "total": 42.0,
        "created_at": "2026-01-01T00:00:00+00:00",
        "updated_at": "2026-01-01T00:00:00+00:00"
    },
    "links": {
        "self": { "href": "https://example.test/orders/abc123" }
    }
}

toApiResource() accepts:

Parameter	Type	Description
type	string	The JSON:API-style resource type, e.g. 'order'
attributes	array	The resource's own attributes
selfHref	?string	Value for links.self.href
timestamps	bool	Appends created_at/updated_at (as ISO-8601 strings) to attributes
id	string|int|null	Overrides automatic id resolution (see below)

Resolving the id

When id isn't passed explicitly, resolveResourceId() resolves it in this order:

1. safeHashID() on the underlying resource, if it defines one.
2. hashID(), if the underlying resource implements TobyMaxham\HashId\Interfaces\Hashing.
3. The resource's primary key (getKey()), or its id property as a last resort.

None of this requires tobymaxham/laravel-hashid (or any other hashid package) to be installed — the checks use method_exists()/interface_exists(), so they simply no-op down the chain when unavailable.

For full custom control, override resolveResourceId() in your resource class:

use Illuminate\Http\Resources\Json\JsonResource;
use Zhylon\ApiResources\Http\Resources\BuildsApiResource;

class OrderResource extends JsonResource
{
    use BuildsApiResource;

    protected function resolveResourceId(): string|int|null
    {
        return $this->resource->uuid;
    }

    // ...
}

Collections — ApiResourceCollection

Because BuildsApiResource overrides the static collection() method Laravel already gives every JsonResource, you don't need a dedicated collection class — just call it on your resource:

return OrderResource::collection(Order::paginate());

This returns an ApiResourceCollection (an AnonymousResourceCollection under the hood) that wraps the items in a data key and — exactly like Laravel's own paginated resource responses — adds links/meta automatically for both Illuminate\Pagination\LengthAwarePaginator and cursor paginators (Illuminate\Contracts\Pagination\CursorPaginator). Passing a plain collection instead of a paginator just returns { "data": [...] }, no extra setup required.

If you need a dedicated collection class (e.g. to add extra top-level meta), extend ApiResourceCollection directly and pass both the resource and the item class it collects into:

use Zhylon\ApiResources\Http\Resources\ApiResourceCollection;

class OrderCollection extends ApiResourceCollection
{
    public function __construct($resource)
    {
        parent::__construct($resource, OrderResource::class);
    }
}

return new OrderCollection(Order::paginate());

Testing

composer test

License

The MIT License (MIT). See LICENSE for more information.