Laravel SuperJSON

Type-preserving JSON serialization for Laravel APIs and JavaScript

⚠️ BETA VERSION: This package has known limitations with CSRF-protected POST requests. See CSRF_LIMITATION.md for details. Use API routes for POST requests.

Install

composer require sulimanbenhalim/laravel-superjson

Usage

Response Macros

// Type-preserving API responses
return response()->superjson([
    'user' => $user,
    'created_at' => now(),
    'big_id' => new BigInt('12345678901234567890'),
    'tags' => new SuperSet(['php', 'laravel']),
]);

// Short alias
return response()->sjson($data);

Request Helpers

// Parse SuperJSON from incoming requests
$data = request()->superjson();
$user = request()->superjson('user.name');

// Short alias  
$data = request()->sjson();

Blade Directives

<script>
    const data = @superjson($serverData);
    // JavaScript types preserved: Date, BigInt, Set, Map, etc.
</script>

Middleware

// routes/api.php
Route::middleware(['superjson'])->group(function () {
    Route::get('/users', UserController::class);
    Route::post('/users', UserController::class);
});

Type Support

POST Requests

Web routes with CSRF protection have limitations. See CSRF_LIMITATION.md for details.

Recommended approach for POST requests:

// Use API routes (no CSRF protection)
Route::post('/api/data', function() {
    $data = request()->superjson();
    return response()->superjson($result);
});

JavaScript Integration

Install the SuperJSON JavaScript library:

npm install superjson

import SuperJSON from 'superjson';

// Receiving data (always works)
const response = await fetch('/api/users');
const data = SuperJSON.parse(await response.text());
// data.created_at is a Date object

// Sending data (use API routes)
const payload = {
    timestamp: new Date(),
    bigNumber: BigInt('999999999999999999'),
    tags: new Set(['frontend', 'api'])
};

await fetch('/api/users', {
    method: 'POST',
    headers: {
        'Content-Type': 'application/superjson',
        'Accept': 'application/superjson'
    },
    body: SuperJSON.stringify(payload)
});

Data Types Usage

BigInt

use SulimanBenhalim\LaravelSuperJson\DataTypes\BigInt;

$bigNumber = new BigInt('12345678901234567890');
$bigNumber->toString(); // "12345678901234567890" 
$bigNumber->toInt();    // Converts to int if safe

Collections

use SulimanBenhalim\LaravelSuperJson\DataTypes\{SuperSet, SuperMap};

// Sets (unique values)
$tags = new SuperSet(['php', 'laravel', 'php']); // 'php' appears once
$tags->add('javascript');
$tags->has('php');     // true
$tags->remove('php');

// Maps (key-value pairs with any key type)
$config = new SuperMap([
    ['theme', 'dark'],
    ['timeout', 300],
    [123, 'numeric key']
]);
$config->set('theme', 'light');
$theme = $config->get('theme'); // 'light'

URLs and RegExp

use SulimanBenhalim\LaravelSuperJson\DataTypes\{SerializableUrl, SerializableRegex};

$url = new SerializableUrl('https://example.com/path?q=search');
$url->getUrl();    // Returns parsed URL components

$pattern = new SerializableRegex('/user-(\d+)/', 'gi');
$pattern->getPattern(); // '/user-(\d+)/'
$pattern->getFlags();   // 'gi'

Custom Transformers

use SulimanBenhalim\LaravelSuperJson\Transformers\TypeTransformer;

class MoneyTransformer implements TypeTransformer
{
    public function canTransform($value): bool
    {
        return $value instanceof Money;
    }
    
    public function transform($value): array
    {
        return [
            'amount' => $value->getAmount(),
            'currency' => $value->getCurrency(),
        ];
    }
    
    public function restore($value): Money
    {
        return new Money($value['amount'], $value['currency']);
    }
    
    public function getType(): string
    {
        return 'Money';
    }
}

// Register in service provider
app('superjson')->registerTransformer(new MoneyTransformer());

Configuration

php artisan vendor:publish --tag=superjson-config

// config/superjson.php
return [
    'transformers' => [
        // Custom transformer classes
    ],
    
    'options' => [
        'preserve_zero_fraction' => true,
        'unescaped_unicode' => true,
        'throw_on_error' => true,
        'max_depth' => 512,
    ],
    
    'auto_routes' => [
        'api/*',        // Auto-apply to API routes
        'superjson/*',  // Custom route patterns
    ],
    
    'type_mappings' => [
        DateTime::class => 'Date',
        DateTimeImmutable::class => 'Date',
        'Carbon\Carbon' => 'Date',
    ],
    
    'security' => [
        'allow_class_restoration' => false,
        'allowed_classes' => [],
        'max_array_size' => 10000,
    ],
];

Testing

composer test

Laravel Version Compatibility

Note: Version 1.0 will be released once CSRF limitations are resolved.

Security

If you discover any security issues, please email soliman.benhalim@gmail.com instead of using the issue tracker.

License

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