Collections (Arrayable)

Every Moonlight action receives request fields as Arrayable — a typed wrapper around JSON or form data. If you have written $data['title'] in other PHP projects, this guide shows the DeskFlow way.

What you will learn#

• Read title, project_id, and status safely in TaskService
• Use typed getters (getString, getInt) instead of raw arrays
• Merge and subset payloads for validation

How it works#

POST body (JSON)  →  decode  →  Arrayable $data  →  task.createAction($data)

Moonlight actions receive request fields as Arrayable — not a plain PHP array. Use $data->get('key') or typed getters; never $data['key'].

In service actions#

The first parameter to every *Action method is Arrayable $data:

public function createTaskAction(Arrayable $data): ApiResponse
{
    $title = $data->getString('title');
    $projectId = $data->getInt('project_id');
    $status = $data->getString('status', 'open');

    // ...
}

$this->request->getData() on Service returns the same object.

Common getters#

See Actions for the full list used in validation examples.

Building and merging#

use Pionia\Collections\Arrayable;

$stack = new Arrayable(['request_id' => RequestIdMiddleware::class]);
$stack->merge(['cache' => CacheMiddleware::class]);

$payload = Arrayable::toArrayable(['service' => 'task', 'action' => 'list']);

Framework code uses Arrayable for middleware registration (middlewares() helper), provider lists, and INI-backed config merged at boot.

JSON vs form data#

Arrayable normalises both JSON bodies and multipart/form-data into the same accessor API. File uploads are not inside $data — use FileBag (second action parameter or $this->request->getFileByName()). See Actions — request files.

Common mistakes#

• Using array syntax $data['key'] — always use $data->get() or typed getters.
• Skipping defaults — getString('status', 'open') avoids null checks for optional fields.
• Assuming integers from JSON — JSON numbers may arrive as strings; use getInt() for coercion.
• Looking for uploaded files in $data — attachments live on FileBag, not in the JSON body.

What’s next#