middag-io/ui

Transport-agnostic PHP contract builders — describe a page once, render it anywhere.

Documentation · What it does · GitHub

Transport-agnostic PHP contract builder system for MIDDAG's contract-driven UI. Produces PageContract (JSON) consumed by @middag-io/react via Inertia or any transport layer.

Zero external dependencies. PHP 8.2+ only.

Open source — Apache-2.0. The foundation layer of the MIDDAG framework stack (ui → framework → moodle / wordpress adapters; @middag-io/react on the client). Host-agnostic and transport-agnostic by design: this package knows nothing about Moodle, WordPress, or any transport — it only describes pages.

[!NOTE] Documentation — the MIDDAG open-source project lives at middag.dev; full docs will be at docs.middag.dev (coming soon).

Until the docs site is live, this README plus the @api docblocks in src/ are the reference.

[!IMPORTANT] 0.6.0 — concern-first layout (BREAKING). Every Middag\Ui\* FQN moved from the old stereotype-first layout (Contract/ Data/ Builder/ Enum/ Schema/) to concern-first: each concern (Page, Form, Table, Block, Region, Action, …) owns its interfaces + value objects + builders, with cross-cutting types under Shared/{Data,Enum,Schema}. The wire JSON is unchanged — only PHP namespaces moved. Consumers on ^0.5 must update imports (e.g. Middag\Ui\Data\Fragment → Middag\Ui\Region\Fragment, Middag\Ui\Enum\FieldType → Middag\Ui\Shared\Enum\FieldType). Pre-1.0, no compatibility shims.

What It Does

Pages in the MIDDAG stack are described by a PageContract — a JSON document declaring shell, page metadata, layout template, regions, and blocks. This library provides the PHP side: builders that produce that document. The React side (@middag-io/react) consumes it to render the actual UI.

This means PHP never renders HTML for pages — it declares structure, and React renders.

Features

Three Levels of Composition

Level 1 — Convention (CrudBuilder)

Full CRUD pages from an entity class name:

// index page with default columns, actions, pagination
$contract = PageBuilder::crud(Invoice::class)->build('index', [
    'rows' => $invoices,
    'pagination' => ['page' => 1, 'perPage' => 25, 'total' => 100, 'lastPage' => 4],
]);

Level 2 — Convention + Overrides (CrudBuilder)

Customize columns, actions, layout without leaving the convention:

$contract = CrudBuilder::for(Invoice::class, slug: 'invoices')
    ->without('show')
    ->columns(['number', 'status', 'amount', 'due_date'])
    ->column('status', fn (array &$col) => $col['variant'] = 'badge')
    ->filters([new FilterDefinition(key: 'status', label: 'Status')])
    ->searchable()                        // or mark a column searchable in its configurator
    ->sort('due_date', 'asc')
    ->perPage(50)
    ->i18n(domain: 'local_app')          // titles as i18n intent; falls back to literal nouns
    ->label('Invoice', 'Invoices')        // or override the noun explicitly
    ->build('index', ['rows' => $invoices]);

The class basename is treated as a singular noun. The library never fabricates a plural: the slug defaults to the singular, and for(class, slug:) overrides it for a plural URL. Titles resolve via ->label() (explicit) → <key>_plural i18n convention → singular fallback; create/edit verbs are emitted as crud_create/crud_edit intents in a shared UI domain.

Level 3 — Free Composition (PageBuilder)

Full control over every block and region:

$contract = PageBuilder::page('invoices.show')
    ->title('Invoice #1234')
    ->subtitle('Due Jan 31')
    ->shell('product')
    ->layout('split')
    ->breadcrumbs(fn ($bc) => $bc->item('Invoices', '/invoices')->current('#1234'))
    ->actions([
        PageBuilder::action('pay', 'Mark Paid', ActionTarget::request('/invoices/1234/pay'), ActionIntent::PRIMARY),
    ])
    ->region('content', [
        BlockBuilder::detailPanel('invoice.detail', $sections),
    ])
    ->region('aside', [
        BlockBuilder::activityTimeline('invoice.activity', $groups),
    ])
    ->build();

Inertia Props

When you need overlay or help panel metadata alongside the contract:

return $this->inertia('Page', PageBuilder::page('orders.create')
    ->title('New Order')
    ->overlay()
    ->help('Creating an order', 'Fill in the details below.')
    ->inspector('/api/products/{id}')
    ->toProps());
// toProps() returns: ['contract' => ..., 'overlay' => true, 'help' => [...], 'inspector' => ...]

Partial Fragments (server push)

A page can be served two ways, and both share one envelope contract (ContractEnvelopeInterface, carrying the same version):

1. Full page in PHP — PageContract declares the whole page (shell, layout, regions, blocks). The default.
2. Page owned by the client, partial props from PHP — when React owns the layout, the server returns a Fragment: one ready, self-describing slice of the contract (a block, a table, a region update, notifications) plus its routing kind. A fragment is a node of the contract with its own header, not a smaller page.

use Middag\Ui\Region\Fragment;
use Middag\Ui\Region\RegionUpdate;

// after a filter/paginate, swap a region's content without reloading the page
$fragment = Fragment::region(RegionUpdate::replace('orders', $block1, $block2));
// {version: '1', kind: 'region', payload: {region: 'orders', mode: 'replace', blocks: [...]}}

RegionUpdate modes: replace / append / prepend / remove (by key) / update (match by key).

Mutations return an ActionResult, which carries both update strategies — push and pull:

use Middag\Ui\Action\ActionResult;

return new ActionResult(
    fragments: [Fragment::table($tableConfig)],   // push: server already built the fresh piece
    refreshBlocks: ['sidebar'],                    // pull: client re-fetches these keys itself
);

A ResourcePatch rides along on a Fragment or ActionResult to push a partial change to preferences / capabilities / feature flags without resending the whole PageResources.

Block Types

Static factories in BlockBuilder:::

Or via RegionBuilder fluent API inside a ->region() closure. Each method mirrors its BlockBuilder factory one-to-one, so the same block type produces an identical descriptor whichever entry point you use:

->region('content', function ($r) {
    $r->metricCard('revenue', 42000, 'Revenue', delta: '+8%')
      ->denseTable('orders', ['id', 'total'], $rows)
      ->emptyState('no-results', variant: 'filtered');
})

Navigation

NavigationNode is the @api value object for nav tree entries. Serializes to the shape consumed by SidebarNav in @middag-io/react:

$node = new NavigationNode(
    key: 'audience.segments.index',
    label: 'Segments',
    icon: 'users',
    href: '/segments',
    active: true,
    weight: 10,
);
// Registered in AbstractNavigationRegistry implementations (in framework)

Form System

This library provides contracts and value objects only — renderers live in middag-io/framework (Inertia) and the host adapters.

Contracts

Value Objects

Layout Primitives

$section = Section::of('personal')
    ->label(Translatable::of('personal_info_section', 'forms')) // or a literal string
    ->fields($nameField, $emailField, Group::of('phone')->fields($countryCode, $number));

Section::label() takes a string|Translatable like every other label in the contract; labelData() serializes it via Label (a {key, domain} payload for an intent, a raw string for a literal).

Field Types (FieldType enum)

A closed backed enum of field types (TEXT, TEXTAREA, SELECT, DATE, RICHTEXT, TIME, AUTOCOMPLETE, TAGS, …) — see src/Shared/Enum/FieldType.php for the full catalogue.

Adding a type requires a new field class, matching renderer-side mappers, and the client component — most of which live downstream.

Table Builder

Fluent API for producing TableConfig consumed by dense table blocks:

$config = TableBuilder::make()
    ->column('name', 'Name', ['sortable' => true, 'searchable' => true])
    ->column('amount', 'Amount', ['sortable' => true, 'format' => ValueFormat::CURRENCY, 'formatOptions' => ['currency' => 'BRL']])
    ->filter('status', 'Status', FilterType::SELECT, [
        ['value' => 'active', 'label' => 'Active'],
        ['value' => 'inactive', 'label' => 'Inactive'],
    ])
    ->rowAction(PageBuilder::action('edit', 'Edit', ActionTarget::link('/invoices/{id}/edit')))
    ->bulkAction(PageBuilder::action('delete', 'Delete', ActionTarget::request('/invoices/bulk/delete'), ActionIntent::DANGER))
    ->options(new TableOptions(perPage: 25, sortColumn: 'name', selectable: true))
    ->build();

Installation

Requires PHP ^8.2. Install via Composer:

composer require middag-io/ui

Development

composer install
composer test           # PHPUnit
composer check          # style + rector + stan
composer fix            # style + rector (apply)
composer lint:php82     # parse every file (incl. tooling configs) on real PHP 8.2 (Docker)

The dev toolchain may run a newer PHP than the supported floor (^8.2). Newer syntax such as new X()->method() parses on 8.4 but is a fatal error on 8.2, so composer check alone will not catch it. Two guards keep the floor honest: composer lint:php82 runs php -l under a real PHP 8.2 interpreter over the source, tests, and the .php-cs-fixer.dist.php / .php-rector.php configs; and the CI Static analysis & style job runs entirely on PHP 8.2. PHPStan is configured for the 8.2–8.4 range for version-sensitive type checks (it does not catch syntax-level issues — that is the lint's job).

Git hooks configured automatically via post-install-cmd. commit-msg enforces Conventional Commits.

type(scope): description

Types: feat, fix, chore, docs, style, refactor, perf, test, build, ci, revert

Releases managed by release-please.

License

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0. See LICENSE and NOTICE.

Copyright 2026 MIDDAG

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
You may obtain a copy of the License at

    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md.