README

Write clean, snake_case Laravel code against legacy UPPERCASE SQL Server schemas.

Legacy enterprise MSSQL databases often use strict uppercase naming (SITES, SITE_ID, USER_FIRST_NAME). Writing $user->USER_FIRST_NAME ruins the developer experience and fights every Eloquent convention — especially relationships and eager loading. This package translates identifiers transparently at the database driver and grammar layer: your models, relations, and queries stay 100% lowercase, and the package converts both directions automatically.

class Site extends Model            // table SITES (SITE_ID, SITE_NAME)
{
    public function user(): HasOne
    {
        return $this->hasOne(User::class, 'site_id');   // column SITE_ID on USERS
    }
}

Site::with('user')->where('site_name', 'HQ')->get();
// select * from [SITES] where [SITE_NAME] = ?
// select * from [USERS] where [USERS].[SITE_ID] in (...)
// → models hydrate with lowercase attributes: $site->site_name, $site->user->user_id

Live demo: see hackeru2/legacy-mssql-demo-app — a full Laravel 13 JSON API (relations, pivots, nested eager loading) running against an UPPERCASE SQL Server schema, CI-tested on both default and case-sensitive collations.

Installation

composer require basedon/laravel-mssql-case-adapter

Point your connection at the mssql-adapted driver — everything else is a standard sqlsrv config:

// config/database.php
'connections' => [
    'legacy' => [
        'driver'   => 'mssql-adapted',
        'host'     => env('DB_HOST', 'localhost'),
        'database' => env('DB_DATABASE'),
        'username' => env('DB_USERNAME'),
        'password' => env('DB_PASSWORD'),
        // 'trust_server_certificate' => true,
    ],
],

That's it. No traits, no per-model configuration.

How it works

Do I even need this? Under SQL Server's default case-insensitive collations, identifier matching already works; the pain is result hydration and Eloquent relationship key matching, which this package fixes. Under case-sensitive (binary) collations, the grammar translation is what makes lowercase queries work at all. CI runs the full suite against both.

Custom naming strategies

The default UppercaseResolver maps site_name ↔ SITE_NAME. For prefixed or irregular legacy schemas (e.g. orders → TBL_ORDERS), implement the contract and register it:

use Basedon\MssqlCaseAdapter\Resolvers\IdentifierResolver;

class TblPrefixResolver implements IdentifierResolver
{
    public function toDatabase(string $identifier): string
    {
        return 'TBL_'.strtoupper($identifier);
    }

    public function toApplication(string $identifier): string
    {
        return strtolower(preg_replace('/^TBL_/', '', $identifier));
    }
}

// Globally, in config/mssql-case-adapter.php (php artisan vendor:publish --tag=mssql-case-adapter-config)
'identifier_resolver' => TblPrefixResolver::class,

// …or per connection:
'legacy' => [
    'driver' => 'mssql-adapted',
    'identifier_resolver' => TblPrefixResolver::class,
    // ...
],

The resolver must be bijective for the identifiers you use: toApplication(toDatabase($x)) === $x.

Generating models from a legacy schema

php artisan mssql:inspect --connection=legacy --path=app/Models --namespace="App\Models"

Scans INFORMATION_SCHEMA and generates Eloquent model stubs with the right $connection, $table (only when not derivable), $primaryKey, $casts, and $timestamps — all in lowercase application naming.

Configuration

Limitations

• Raw SQL bypasses the grammar. DB::raw(), selectRaw(), orderByRaw(), DB::statement() are passed through untouched — write database-side (UPPERCASE) identifiers in raw fragments. Result keys of raw selects are still lowercased by the PDO case option.
• Mixed-case application identifiers (siteName) are not round-trippable with the default resolver; stick to snake_case (Laravel convention) or supply a custom resolver.

Testing

composer test        # unit + feature (no database needed)
composer analyse     # larastan, level 5
composer format      # pint

Integration tests run in GitHub Actions against a real mcr.microsoft.com/mssql/server:2022 container with uppercase tables, on both a default-collation database and a Latin1_General_BIN (case-sensitive) database.

License

MIT