Laravel Opcua

laravel-opcua

A thin, idiomatic Laravel layer over php-opcua/opcua-client. Three things to remember:

1. The Facade PhpOpcua\LaravelOpcua\Facades\Opcua proxies the full OpcUaClientInterface. Anything opcua-client can do, the Facade can do.
2. OpcuaManager::shouldUseSessionManager() decides per-call whether to instantiate a direct Client (TCP straight to the server) or a ManagedClient (IPC to the long-lived daemon). The decision is transparent to application code.
3. v4.4.0 picked up 21 new client methods (HistoryUpdate, File transfer, Aggregates). They are reachable through Opcua::* and Opcua::connection('plc-1')->* without any config or service-provider change.

What this package is for

Mental model

Application code
   └── Opcua::* (Facade)
       └── OpcuaManager::connection($name)
           ├── shouldUseSessionManager() == true?
           │   └── ManagedClient (IPC → daemon → TCP → server)
           │       └── TransportFactory picks UnixSocketTransport (Linux/macOS) or TcpLoopbackTransport (Windows)
           └── shouldUseSessionManager() == false?
               └── ClientBuilder::create()->...->connect()  (direct TCP, new connection per call)

The two branches expose the same OpcUaClientInterface. Your code does not know which it has.

Quick start

composer require php-opcua/laravel-opcua
php artisan vendor:publish --tag=opcua-config

# .env
OPCUA_ENDPOINT=opc.tcp://plc.example:4840
OPCUA_USERNAME=operator
OPCUA_PASSWORD=changeme
OPCUA_SECURITY_POLICY=Basic256Sha256
OPCUA_SECURITY_MODE=SignAndEncrypt

use PhpOpcua\LaravelOpcua\Facades\Opcua;

Opcua::read('i=2259')->getValue();         // 0 = Running
Opcua::write('ns=2;s=Setpoint', 42.5);     // auto-detects Double
Opcua::browseRecursive('i=85', maxDepth: 3);

The 3 patterns you will use 90% of the time

Pattern A — one-shot read/write (no daemon)

Best for HTTP requests, scheduled jobs, Artisan commands. The Facade opens a TCP connection per call, reads/writes, then closes.

public function showServerState(): array
{
    $state = Opcua::read('i=2259')->getValue();
    return ['state' => $state, 'running' => $state === 0];
}

Pattern B — daemon-backed, transparent session reuse

When you run php artisan opcua:session under Supervisor/systemd, every Facade call goes through the daemon. Sessions are reused; you no longer pay the connect + create-session + activate-session round-trip per request.

Run the daemon:

php artisan opcua:session --log-channel=stack --cache-store=redis

Application code does not change. Same Opcua::read(...), but now backed by ManagedClient automatically.

Pattern C — auto_publish + Laravel events

Subscribe declaratively in config; receive notifications as Laravel events.

// config/opcua.php
'session_manager' => ['auto_publish' => true],
'connections' => [
    'plc-1' => [
        'endpoint' => 'opc.tcp://plc.example:4840',
        'auto_connect' => true,
        'subscriptions' => [[
            'publishing_interval' => 500.0,
            'monitored_items' => [
                ['node_id' => 'ns=2;s=Temperature', 'client_handle' => 1],
            ],
        ]],
    ],
],

// app/Providers/EventServiceProvider.php
use PhpOpcua\Client\Event\DataChangeReceived;

Event::listen(DataChangeReceived::class, function (DataChangeReceived $e) {
    SensorReading::create([
        'client_handle' => $e->clientHandle,
        'value' => $e->dataValue->getValue(),
        'sampled_at' => $e->dataValue->sourceTimestamp,
    ]);
});

The daemon's auto-publish loop dispatches PSR-14 events through Laravel's event dispatcher. Listeners can be queued, broadcast, etc. — see references/INTEGRATIONS.md.

Facade method surface (one-line summary)

Connection management: connection(), connect(), connectTo(), disconnect(), disconnectAll(), isSessionManagerRunning(), getDefaultConnection().

Proxied to the active connection (auto-routed via __call):

• Reading: read, readMulti
• Writing: write, writeMulti
• Browsing: browse, browseAll, browseRecursive, browseWithContinuation, browseNext, resolveNodeId, translateBrowsePaths
• Method calls: call
• Subscriptions: createSubscription, createMonitoredItems, createEventMonitoredItem, modifyMonitoredItems, setTriggering, deleteMonitoredItems, deleteSubscription, publish, transferSubscriptions, republish
• History read: historyReadRaw, historyReadProcessed, historyReadAtTime
• History update (v4.4): historyInsertData, historyReplaceData, historyUpdateData, historyDeleteRawModified, historyDeleteAtTime, historyInsertEvent, historyReplaceEvent, historyUpdateEvent, historyDeleteEvent
• File transfer (v4.4): openFile, closeFile, readFile, writeFile, getFilePosition, setFilePosition, createDirectory, createFileInDirectory, deleteFileSystemObject, moveOrCopyFileSystemObject
• Aggregates (v4.4): aggregate, historyAggregate
• Trust store: trustCertificate, untrustCertificate, getTrustStore, getTrustPolicy
• Discovery: getEndpoints, discoverDataTypes, getExtensionObjectRepository
• Cache / logging: getLogger, getCache, invalidateCache, flushCache
• Connection state: connect, disconnect, reconnect, isConnected, getConnectionState, getTimeout, getAutoRetry, getBatchSize, getDefaultBrowseMaxDepth, getServerMaxNodesPerRead, getServerMaxNodesPerWrite

Full PHPDoc with all signatures: src/Facades/Opcua.php.

When to follow the references

Progressive disclosure — only load what the task needs:

• references/CONFIG.md — every config/opcua.php key, env vars, named connections, defaults, version-specific keys
• references/SESSION_MANAGER.md — daemon command, Supervisor/systemd setup, IPC endpoints, auto-publish vs manual publish, monitoring
• references/EVENTS.md — full list of 56 PSR-14 events, payload shapes, queued listener pattern, common listener recipes
• references/INTEGRATIONS.md — Octane/FrankenPHP, Horizon/queues, Livewire, Filament, Broadcasting, Notifications, Telescope/Pulse
• references/SECURITY.md — policies, modes, trust store, certificate auto-generation, X.509 user auth, env-driven config
• references/TESTING.md — Pest setup, MockClient + Facade swap, integration tests with Docker test-suite
• references/PITFALLS.md — common gotchas: facade in config files, Octane state, mixed daemon versions, etc.
• assets/recipes.md — copy-pasteable code snippets for the 15 most common end-to-end tasks

Idiomatic patterns

1. Inject OpcuaManager, not the Facade, in long-lived classes. The Facade resolves the manager every call; injection caches it.

   public function __construct(private OpcuaManager $opcua) {}
   public function handle(): void { $this->opcua->read(...); }
   

2. Use named connections per server. Don't string-build endpoints in code. Define plc-1, plc-2, historian in config, then Opcua::connection('historian')->historyReadRaw(...).

3. Don't disconnect in HTTP requests when the daemon is enabled. ManagedClient::disconnect() closes the daemon-side session, undoing the connection pooling. Let the session manager handle lifecycle.

4. For auto-published subscriptions, never call publish() yourself. It returns auto_publish_active error. Subscribe to events instead.

5. Use useCache: false for fresh reads of high-churn nodes. The read metadata cache is the default — pass refresh: true to bypass.

6. Queue listeners for heavy event handling. A DataChangeReceived listener that hits a database should be ShouldQueue. Otherwise the daemon publish loop blocks on it.

7. Opcua::connectTo() is for ad-hoc; cache by name with the as: parameter when reused across the request.

8. Trust store goes on disk, not in DB. storage/app/opcua-trust-store/ by default; check it into a deploy volume, not git.

9. Run the daemon under a dedicated UID with socket_mode: 0600. The Facade-side process must be in the same group/UID.

10. In Octane, configure OpcuaManager as request-scoped via flushed singletons — see references/INTEGRATIONS.md for the OctaneServiceProvider::tick hook.

Exit codes (Artisan opcua:session)

Non-zero exits should be caught by Supervisor autorestart=true or systemd Restart=on-failure.

Versioning

The Laravel package versions lock-step with php-opcua/opcua-client and php-opcua/opcua-session-manager. Always upgrade in this order:

1. Daemon first. Stop opcua:session, composer update, restart.
2. Application second. composer update php-opcua/laravel-opcua.

If you upgrade application before daemon and call a v4.4 method (e.g. historyInsertData), ManagedClient::__call() will fail with BadMethodCallException because the daemon has no handler for it.

What this skill does NOT cover

• The raw OPC UA protocol — see the opcua-client skill.
• The session-manager daemon's IPC protocol — see the opcua-session-manager skill.
• CLI usage — see the opcua-cli skill.
• Companion-spec types (DI, IA, AutoID, etc.) — see the opcua-client-nodeset skill.

Cross-skill workflow example (docs/recipes/persistent-tag-history.md):

• opcua-cli generate:nodeset Vendor.NodeSet2.xml ... (nodeset skill)
• App reads typed nodes via Opcua::read() (this skill)
• Persists into a historian via Opcua::historyInsertData() (this skill + opcua-client)
• A Filament panel browses results (this skill + Filament integration)