README

An implementation of RFC 7807 - Problem Details for HTTP APIs.

This package provides a simple way to return standardized error responses that are both machine-readable and human-friendly.

Installation

composer require debuss-a/problem-details

Usage

Creating a Problem Details object

use ProblemDetails\ProblemDetails;

$problem = new ProblemDetails(
    type: 'https://example.com/probs/out-of-credit',
    title: 'You do not have enough credit.',
    status: 403,
    detail: 'Your current balance is 30, but that costs 50.',
    instance: '/account/12345/msgs/abc',
    extensions: [
        'balance' => 30,
        'accounts' => ['/account/12345', '/account/67890']
    ]
);

// JSON serialization
$json = json_encode($problem);

Using the ProblemDetailsException

use ProblemDetails\ProblemDetailsException;

try {
    // Your application logic
    if ($user->balance < $item->price) {
        $problem = new ProblemDetails(
            type: 'https://example.com/probs/out-of-credit',
            title: 'You do not have enough credit.',
            status: 403,
            detail: "Your current balance is {$user->balance}, but that costs {$item->price}."
        );
        
        throw new ProblemDetailsException($problem);
    }
} catch (ProblemDetailsException $e) {
    // Deal with the exception, or...
    // ...if set, the middleware will handle this automatically
    throw $e;
}

Using the Middleware

Add the middleware to your middleware pipeline:

use Laminas\Diactoros\ResponseFactory;
use ProblemDetails\ProblemDetailsMiddleware;

// For PSR-15 compatible frameworks
$response_factory = new ResponseFactory();
$app->add(new ProblemDetailsMiddleware($response_factory));

The middleware will:

1. Catch any ProblemDetailsException
2. Convert it to a proper Problem Details response
3. Set appropriate Content-Type header (application/problem+json)

About RFC 7807

RFC 7807 defines a standard format for returning error details from HTTP APIs.
It improves error handling by providing structured data that can be easily parsed by both machines and humans.

A Problem Details object includes:

• type - A URI reference that identifies the problem type
• title - A short, human-readable summary of the problem type
• status - The HTTP status code
• detail - A human-readable explanation specific to this occurrence of the problem
• instance - A URI reference that identifies the specific occurrence of the problem

License

This package is released under the MIT License. See the LICENSE file for details.