Design Workflows Visually, Run Them in Laravel with symflow-laravel

Laravel Joins the Export Family

SymFlowBuilder has always been about bridging the gap between visual design and production config. Today we are adding a new export target: PHP for Laravel.

Click the export dropdown, choose PHP (Laravel), and you get a ready-to-use config file for symflow-laravel — a Symfony-compatible workflow engine for Laravel.

What is symflow-laravel?

symflow-laravel is a Laravel package that brings Symfony's Workflow component semantics to Laravel applications. It supports state machines, Petri nets, guards, events, validation, weighted arcs, and middleware.

Install it with Composer:

composer require vandetho/symflow-laravel

What the Export Looks Like

Here is a real export from SymFlowBuilder for a simple order workflow:

<?php

use Laraflow\Data\Place;
use Laraflow\Data\Transition;
use Laraflow\Data\WorkflowDefinition;
use Laraflow\Data\WorkflowMeta;
use Laraflow\Enums\MarkingStoreType;
use Laraflow\Enums\WorkflowType;

return [
    'definition' => new WorkflowDefinition(
        name: 'order',
        type: WorkflowType::StateMachine,
        places: [
            new Place(name: 'draft'),
            new Place(name: 'submitted'),
            new Place(name: 'approved'),
        ],
        transitions: [
            new Transition(
                name: 'submit',
                froms: ['draft'],
                tos: ['submitted'],
            ),
            new Transition(
                name: 'approve',
                froms: ['submitted'],
                tos: ['approved'],
                guard: 'is_granted("ROLE_ADMIN")',
            ),
        ],
        initialMarking: ['draft'],
    ),
    'meta' => new WorkflowMeta(
        name: 'order',
        type: WorkflowType::StateMachine,
        markingStore: MarkingStoreType::Method,
        initialMarking: ['draft'],
        supports: 'App\\Models\\Order',
        property: 'status',
    ),
];

No manual translation from YAML to PHP. No copy-pasting place names. The file is complete with imports, type-safe enums, and your guard expressions.

What is Included

The PHP export covers everything you configure in the editor:

• WorkflowDefinition with places, transitions, and initial marking
• Guard expressions on transitions
• WorkflowType enum (StateMachine or Workflow)
• MarkingStoreType enum (Method or Property)
• Supports (your model class)
• Weighted arcs (consume and produce weights)
• Metadata on places and transitions

Three Steps

1. Design your workflow in the editor
2. Click Export and choose PHP (Laravel)
3. Drop the file into your Laravel project's config directory

See the full Laravel integration guide for details.