Laravel Zap: The Ultimate Schedule Management Tool for Laravel Developers

Managing schedules in web applications—whether for appointments, availability, or recurring events—can be a complex task. If you’re building with Laravel, there’s a powerful solution that simplifies it all: Laravel Zap. This package brings elegant, fluent scheduling capabilities to your Laravel models, making it ideal for booking systems, shift planners, and availability calendars.

In this post, we’ll explore how to integrate Laravel Zap into your project, create schedules, enforce business rules, and query availability—all with clean, expressive code.

🔍 What Is Laravel Zap?

Laravel Zap is a modern scheduling engine designed for Laravel 11+. It allows you to attach schedules to any Eloquent model, define recurrence patterns, detect conflicts, and enforce business rules—all while staying true to Laravel’s expressive syntax.

✅ Key Features

Eloquent model integration
Recurring schedules (daily, weekly, monthly)
Conflict detection with buffer zones
Working hours enforcement
Fluent API for intuitive chaining
Availability slot generation
Metadata support for custom attributes

⚙️ Installation & Setup

Install Laravel Zap via Composer:

composer require laraveljutsu/zap

Publish and run migrations:

php artisan vendor:publish --tag=zap-migrations
php artisan migrate

Publish the config file:

php artisan vendor:publish --tag=zap-config

Add the HasSchedules trait to your model:

use Zap\Models\Concerns\HasSchedules;

class Doctor extends Model {
    use HasSchedules;
}

🗓️ Creating Schedules

Basic Schedule

use Zap\Facades\Zap;

$doctor = Doctor::find(1);

Zap::for($doctor)
    ->named('Consultation')
    ->description('General health checkup')
    ->from('2025-09-15')
    ->addPeriod('10:00', '11:00')
    ->save();

Recurring Weekly Schedule

Zap::for($doctor)
    ->named('Weekly Checkup')
    ->from('2025-09-01')
    ->to('2025-12-31')
    ->addPeriod('09:00', '10:00')
    ->weekly(['monday', 'wednesday', 'friday'])
    ->save();

🧠 Enforcing Business Rules

Laravel Zap allows you to define rules like working hours, max duration, and overlap prevention.

Zap::for($doctor)
    ->named('VIP Appointment')
    ->from('2025-09-20')
    ->addPeriod('14:00', '16:00')
    ->noOverlap()
    ->workingHoursOnly('09:00', '18:00')
    ->maxDuration(120)
    ->withMetadata([
        'room' => 'A1',
        'priority' => 'high'
    ])
    ->save();

🔍 Availability & Conflict Detection

Check Availability

$doctor->isAvailableAt('2025-09-20', '14:00', '15:00');

Generate Available Time Slots

$doctor->getAvailableSlots(
    date: '2025-09-20',
    dayStart: '09:00',
    dayEnd: '17:00',
    slotDuration: 60
);

Detect Conflicts

Zap::findConflicts($schedule);

💡 Use Cases

Laravel Zap is perfect for:

Doctor appointment systems
Employee shift planners
Meeting room reservations
Event scheduling platforms
Coaching or tutoring sessions

🧾 Final Thoughts

Laravel Zap brings clarity and control to schedule management in Laravel applications. With its fluent API, robust rule engine, and deep Eloquent integration, it’s a must-have for developers building time-sensitive platforms.

Whether you’re managing doctor appointments, employee shifts, or event bookings, Laravel Zap helps you build smarter, faster, and cleaner.

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