Clean up routes that reference enum values

I was reviewing a project recently, and I saw a few routes defined like this:

Route::get('show/{type}', Controllers\ReportController::class)
    ->whereIn('type', array_column(Enums\ReportType::cases(), 'value'))
    ->name('show');

This code works, but it isn't fully leveraging Laravel's features.

Shortly after PHP 8.1 introduced enums, Laravel continually added first-class support for them in various parts of the framework.

One of those areas was route model binding.

For example, you can now simplify the route to this:

Route::get('show/{type}', Controllers\ReportController::class)
    ->name('show');

And if you add the enum type hint to the controller method, Laravel will automatically handle the enum validation for you.

public function __invoke(Enums\ReportType $type, ReportRequest $request)
{
    // logic omitted
}

This still enforces the same whereIn logic as the original route, but it does it implicitly following the conventions.

If type is not a valid value for the ReportType enum, Laravel will automatically return a 404 response.

It's a small thing, but it all adds up to cleaner code and better maintainability.

Here to help,

Joel

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