Laravel Deprecation Middleware

A Laravel middleware to signal HTTP route deprecation using standardized HTTP headers (Deprecation RFC 8594, Sunset RFC 8594, Link RFC 8288).

Features

• Adds Deprecation header to deprecated routes
• Optionally adds Link header with documentation URL
• Optionally adds Sunset header for planned removal
• Follows HTTP standards for deprecation signaling

Requirements

• PHP 8.1 or higher
• Laravel 10 or 11

Installation

composer require heypongo/laravel-deprecation-middleware

The service provider is auto-discovered by Laravel. No manual registration is required.

Usage

Apply the middleware to your routes in routes/web.php or routes/api.php:

Route::get('/old-endpoint', function () {
    // ...
})->middleware('deprecated');

With Parameters

You can specify deprecation date, documentation URL, and sunset date:

// Only deprecation date
Route::get('/old', fn() => ...)->middleware('deprecated:2024-06-01T00:00:00Z');

// Deprecation date and documentation URL
Route::get('/old', fn() => ...)->middleware('deprecated:2024-06-01T00:00:00Z,https://docs.example.com/deprecation');

// Deprecation date, documentation URL, and sunset date
Route::get('/old', fn() => ...)->middleware('deprecated:2024-06-01T00:00:00Z,https://docs.example.com/deprecation,2024-12-01T00:00:00Z');

// Only documentation URL and sunset date
Route::get('/old', fn() => ...)->middleware('deprecated,,https://docs.example.com/deprecation,2024-12-01T00:00:00Z');

Parameter Order

1. Deprecation date (HTTP-date or timestamp, optional)
2. Documentation URL (optional)
3. Sunset date (HTTP-date, optional)

Example Response Headers

Deprecation: Wed, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 GMT
Link: <https://docs.example.com/deprecation>; rel="deprecation"; type="text/html"
Sunset: Sun, 01 Dec 2024 00:00:00 GMT

Logging

• If the sunset date is invalid or before the deprecation date, a warning is logged using Laravel's logger.

Testing

You are encouraged to add tests using PHPUnit and Laravel's testing tools.

Running Tests

Install dev dependencies:

composer install

Run the tests:

vendor/bin/phpunit

License

MIT License. See LICENCE.