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Version: 2.1.1

Approval Flows

warning

For most use cases, SimpleApprovalFlow is enough. But the interface gives you full extensibility when required.

The ApprovalFlow interface provides full control over how approvals behave in your system.

While SimpleApprovalFlow covers most common use cases, implementing the ApprovalFlow interface yourself allows you to build highly customized approval logic.

An approval flow is responsible for:

  • Managing its disabled state
  • Defining available approval cases (statuses)
  • Defining the available ApprovalBys
  • Determining when a record is considered approved
  • Assigning the flow to a category
  • Returning the aggregated ApprovalState

Responsibilities of an ApprovalFlow​

Disabled State​

A flow can be disabled statically or dynamically (via Closure).

If a flow is disabled:

  • It does not participate in approval evaluation
  • It does not affect aggregated approval results
public function disabled(bool|Closure $approvalDisabled): static;
public function isDisabled(): bool;

Category​

Flows can be grouped using categories. This is especially useful when filtering flows during approval checks.

public function getCategory(): string;

Approval Status Definitions (Cases)​

The flow defines which approval cases (statuses) exist.

/**
 * @return null|class-string<HasApprovalStatuses>
 */
public function getStatusEnumClass(): ?string;

/**
 * @return HasApprovalStatuses[]
 */
public function getApprovalStatus(): array;

ApprovalBys​

The flow defines who is allowed to approve.

/**
 * @return array<ApprovalBy>
 */
public function getApprovalBys(): array;

Approval Resolution Logic​

This is the most important part of a custom flow.

public function approved(Model|Approvable $approvable, string $key): ApprovalState;

This method determines:

What is the final ApprovalState of this flow for the given model?

You have complete control here.

For example:

  • You may define that all ApprovalBys must approve
  • Or that at least one approval is enough
  • Or that OPEN should already count as APPROVED
  • Or create completely custom state aggregation logic